General Counsel

You are an experienced legal leader, able to adapt quickly to new domains and to balance a wide range of priorities in a fast-paced environment. You make it your mission to allow businesses to move quickly to achieve their goals, while simultaneously ensuring the most rigorous standards are being met. You’re excited to build a strategy across regulatory, risk, and compliance functions to help Spruce achieve its mission, thinking innovatively about rules and regulations facing an industry that hasn’t seen change for a century. You are able to lead a high-quality team to the next level and quickly synthesize domain-specific information for decisions. You value ambition, collaboration, and self-awareness, and are excited to join a diverse team that takes a huge amount of pride in what they do.

As General Counsel at Spruce you’ll get to:

Work as part of the management team to achieve key business objectives and assist in developing compelling product and service offerings that meet all relevant legal and regulatory requirements

Manage and build out our in-house legal team and outside counsel to meet our business needs in terms of transaction processes, compliance, privacy, cybersecurity, agreements, patent, corporate & HR matters.

Troubleshoot unexpected legal issues that will inevitably arise as Spruce experiences the massive growth we expect in 2020

Create scalable processes for triaging a high volume of disparate legal issues from all areas of the business and help provide training, create templates and manage workflows to allow business teams to move quickly while addressing key risks

Lead engagement with federal and state regulators where helpful to us achieving our product and business development goals

Draft, negotiate, and examine agreements, such as strategic partnership opportunities, vendor contracts, and supplier agreements

Oversee a compliance function that handles all statutory filings, licensing forms, state audits, and ensures underwriter and regulatory inquiries are properly handled either internally or by outside counsel

Run the company’s Risk Committee, which oversees and assesses all types of risk to the business

Be a thought leader in the company and in the industry, including representing Spruce at industry groups and conferences

You will be successful if you have:

A JD from a top accredited law school and in good standing of the New York bar or eligible to register as in-house counsel in New York

Equivalent of 8+ years experience at a top law firm or in-house, or a combination of both (start-up experience, especially in fintech, insuretech, and/or real estate a plus)

Exceptional judgment and ability to act decisively and with discretion in situations requiring quick but thorough analysis and decision-making

An entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to roll up your sleeves

Strong communication skills and the ability to work across functions

Experience leading, mentoring, and managing a team of bright legal minds