Business Transactional Attorney (Highly-Regulated Industries))

Description

KK Legal & Advisory Services is a boutique business transactional law firm advising companies in highly regulated industries. We advise founders and leadership teams in the nicotine and tobacco, cannabis, and emerging regulated substance sectors, including nutraceuticals and peptides, where compliance, licensing, and regulatory strategy shape the business decisions our clients make. The firm's founding attorney was former in-house counsel and that vantage point defines what we deliver: responsiveness, guidance clients can act on, and ownership of every matter from start to finish.

The firm is growing, and we are expanding the attorney team. As a Business Transactional Attorney at KK Legal, you will own transactional matters end to end. This is a self-sufficient role for an attorney who can carry corporate, regulatory, and commercial work independently, advise clients directly, and keep transactions and filings moving on the timelines our clients depend on. You will work closely with the founder across an active and growing book in a fast-moving regulatory environment, with real ownership from the start. Preference will be given to candidates joining with a book of business.

The work

• Corporate formation and equity: entity formation, governance and structuring, fundraising, equity and option plans, and the agreements a company needs to launch and scale.
• Mergers and acquisitions: negotiating, drafting, and managing diligence and closing across mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and financings.
• Regulatory compliance and licensing: matters before agencies including the Department of Cannabis Control, Alcoholic Beverage Control, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, and the Food and Drug Administration.
• Intellectual property: trademark portfolios end to end, including prosecution before the USPTO and TTAB proceedings, brand protection strategy in sectors where federal registration is constrained, IP agreements and diligence, trade secrets, and enforcement.
• Corporate governance and commercial agreements: day-to-day governance counsel, board support, and the leases, manufacturing and supply contracts, licensing and distribution agreements, and financing agreements that keep client businesses running.

What we’re looking for

• J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school with strong academic credentials.
• Active bar membership in at least one U.S. jurisdiction (CA, NY, FL, TX, or DC preferred ).
• Five or more years of regulatory compliance experience, with preference for the tobacco/nicotine or cannabis industries.
• Direct experience advising companies in one or more of the firm’s sectors, strongly preferred.
• A self-starter who can carry matters independently with minimal day-to-day oversight.
• Highly tech-savvy, comfortable becoming fluent quickly in multiple platforms. Lawmatics and Clio experience strongly preferred.

Standards

This is a production role with clear expectations: a minimum of 120 billable hours per month, client communications answered within 24 business hours, time recorded the day the work is done, and matters tracked in the firm’s systems (Lawmatics, Clio, ClickUp, Google Workspace, Docket Track). Full-time availability during west coast business hours.

Compensation and benefits

• Base salary $150,000 to $170,000, commensurate with experience, with performance and origination bonuses. Compensation for candidates with meaningful portable business is structured individually.
• Employer-sponsored medical coverage, with dental, vision, and life insurance.
• Paid time off and firm holidays.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Remote for U.S.-based candidates, working West Coast hours. Los Angeles based candidates preferred, with occasional in-person team and client meetings.

About the Firm

KK Legal & Advisory Services is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We extend opportunities to qualified applicants and employees on an equal basis regardless of any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. KK Legal is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities; if you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, contact View email address on click.appcast.io. Information you submit in connection with this posting will be used solely to evaluate your candidacy and handled in accordance with our applicant privacy notice, available on request at View email address on click.appcast.io. This posting describes the general nature of the position and is not an exhaustive list of duties, nor a contract of employment. Employment with KK Legal is at will.