Legal Counsel

Legal Counsel

At Liberis, our mission is to empower small and medium-sized businesses by removing finance as a friction to growth, delivering contextual, embedded financial solutions to support merchants at every stage of their business lifecycle.

Legal at Liberis exists to help the business go faster - safely. Our mission is to navigate legal and regulatory challenges, reduce risk, and unlock opportunities, all while making sure we don't become a bottleneck. We're focused on empowering our colleagues to self-serve where they can, so the business can move quickly and confidently.

We are seeking an experienced and highly skilled Legal Counsel to join our legal team. This role will be responsible for leading all legal matters in the US, providing strategic legal advice, and ensuring compliance with US laws and regulations.

The Legal Counsel, reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, will also play a pivotal role in shaping the company's legal strategy and ensuring compliance across various functions.

This includes drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, advising on regulatory matters, and providing legal guidance on product development. The Legal Counsel streamline legal operations, and handle day-to-day legal queries, while ensuring the company meets its corporate governance and compliance obligations. Additionally, they will collaborate closely with other teams to manage fast-paced projects and meet deadlines in a dynamic and evolving environment.

Working directly with the Chief Legal Officer to shape the ongoing strategy of the legal function, specifically in the US.

• Drafting and negotiating large commercial partnership contracts. Reviewing vendor contracts and drafting playbooks and templates.
• Advising the business on state and federal regulatory issues, particularly regarding sales based financing and privacy.
• Responding to regulatory complaints including complaints escalated by state Attorneys General, and overseeing the company's response process end to end.
• Advise on product development and marketing.
• Providing business training on key legal topics.
• Answering general legal queries across the business.
• Budget management and value analysis.
• Advising on new country launches and product launches.
• Working with and managing US counsel and local counsel in other jurisdictions.
• Helping to manage the group corporate filings and supporting company secretarial duties.
• Assisting with privacy compliance across the group, collaborating closely with the DPO and wider business on data queries and due diligence.
• Proactively raising the profile of the Legal team through team initiatives, objectives, and business-friendly operational processes.
• Focusing on legal operations, suggesting enhancements to processes and technology to optimize the team's work.
• Enhancing knowledge management within the team.
• Managing fast-paced projects and working with the business and legal team to meet tight deadlines.

We're seeking a commercially minded Legal Counsel who thrives in a fast-paced, high-growth environment. You'll be a strategic thinker, strong communicator, and hands-on operator - comfortable working across a broad legal scope and building scalable, business-friendly processes.

You'll thrive if you are:

• A solutions-focused legal professional who sees legal as a business enabler, not a blocker.
• Comfortable collaborating with cross-functional teams to understand challenges and provide pragmatic advice.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and passionate about process improvement and legal operations.
• Proactive and curious, confident stepping into new areas and learning quickly.
• Tenacious and delivery-focused, with the ability to manage competing priorities and complete projects end-to-end.
• A collaborative team player who values culture and isn't afraid to roll up their sleeves when needed.

What you'll need:

• Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school and admission to the bar in at least one U.S. state.
• 5+ years of legal experience, ideally in-house.
• Strong background in contract negotiation, regulatory advisory, and risk mitigation.
• Familiarity with data privacy, corporate governance, and legal operations.
• Proven track record in dealing with varied legal issues and providing commercially sound advice and support to businesses in some of the following areas: managing vendor / supplier contracts and related issues, data protection/privacy, technology, and regulatory/compliance.
• Commercially minded with strong communication skills and the ability to simplify complex legal issues.
• Highly organised and experience of managing workstreams requiring deadlines being met.
• Interest in legal tech and innovation with a focus on scalable solutions.
• Experience in fintech, financial services, or SME lending is a plus, but not required.

Think this sounds like the right next move for you? Or if you're not completely confident that you fit our exact criteria, apply anyway and we can arrange a call to see if the role is fit for you. Humility is a wonderful thing, and we are interested in hearing about what you can add to Liberis!