General Counsel (Los Angeles)

Company Description

Enduring Ventures is a permanent capital holding company inspired by Berkshire Hathaway. We acquire and grow wonderful businesses in distressed, carve-out or divestiture situations. We are very hands-on investors and our preferred holding period is forever – we’re not in the business of flipping companies, we’re in the business of compounding value for the long term.

Today, we own 25 companies across 10 countries, that include software, home services, education, wellness, and more. We operate with a bias toward action, extreme ownership, and long-term alignment. We prioritize hunger, humility, and horsepower.

Role Description

Enduring Ventures is seeking a General Counsel to be the firm’s first in‑house legal leader and the single legal owner across everything we do. This is a hands‑on, high‑judgment role at the center of our deals and our portfolio. You will draft and negotiate our acquisitions and financings, own the firm’s commercial and legal negotiations, and quarterback everything specialized through a tight bench of outside counsel you scope, price, and direct.

This is a broad mandate, and the job is not to personally do every kind of law. It is to own the core deal work with your own hands and to orchestrate the rest. We want someone who reads credit agreements for fun and thinks like a principal: someone who can sit alone with a messy, distressed situation and give the principals a clear answer fast.

We are at an inflection point, moving into into larger, cross-border distressed control acquisitions. Deal size, counterparty sophistication, and complexity are all rising, and we are building the legal function to match. You will manage our existing small legal operations and paralegal team from day one. This is a full-time role in our Los Angeles office.

Why this role is exciting

You’ll be joining a lean, high-performance team of operators and investors. We move fast, challenge each other, and prioritize transparency and ownership at every level. We know what a strong lawyer earns at a blue-chip firm, and what that life costs you. Here is the trade we are offering:

• Ownership and alignment. Base and bonus plus carry or equity participation. You share in the value you help create. You are an owner, not a service provider billing hours.
• A principal seat. You will advise the principals directly and lead negotiations across the table from sellers, lenders, and their advisors. No partner filtering your judgment.
• Better balance and more agency. Real control over your own time and meaningfully better work-life balance than blue-chip firm life. We care about output and judgment, not face time and the billable hour.
• More range and more fun. You’ll touch every part of the organization, from deals to operations to finance and strategy, across a global footprint. The variety is the point, and you will learn more here in two years than in five at a firm.
• Build your own function. You’ll run the legal function your way, with our full backing. It is the closest thing to running your own shop.

Key Responsibilities

What you’ll own directly

• Draft, negotiate, and execute M&A documents (SPAs, APAs, and related deal documents) on our acquisitions and dispositions.
• Own the financing documents on our deals: credit agreements, security and intercreditor documents, and the debt-side mechanics, working alongside our lenders.
• Lead commercial and legal negotiations on behalf of the firm, often as lead negotiator across the table from sellers, lenders, and advisors.
• Run deal execution and portfolio legal: closing checklists, conditions, ancillaries, post-close integration, and ongoing portfolio company legal needs.
• Own the company contracts that run our businesses, from vendor and customer agreements to leases and services agreements.
• Own firm governance and entity management: corporate structure, board and shareholder matters, and keeping our entity house in order across jurisdictions.

What you’ll direct (scope, price, and manage outside counsel)

• Litigation and disputes: control strategy, budget, and counsel, and keep the principals informed.
• Wind-downs, restructurings, and bankruptcies of portfolio companies: drive the strategy and decisions
• Securities, regulatory, and compliance matters: spot the issues, own the firm’s posture, and bring in specialists where the matter warrants.
• Employment matters across the portfolio and the firm: handle the routine and elevate the genuinely thorny to specialist counsel.
• Tax and international structuring: partner with our tax, finance, and operations leads and the relevant specialists.

Qualifications

• Roughly 5 to 7 years of post-qualification legal experience, trained at a top-tier firm (Latham, Kirkland, Weil, Davis Polk, Skadden, or similar).
• A background that blends M&A or finance with restructuring or special situations. An in-house step at a private equity or special-situations firm, or meaningful cross-border and distressed exposure, is strongly preferred.
• Real reps on purchase agreements, credit agreements, and live negotiations. You have sat through closings and you know where deals actually break.
• The ability to operate alone: set your own priorities, give a clear recommendation, and be the most senior lawyer in the room without a partner above you.
• A builder’s mindset. Hungry, humble, and high-horsepower. You want to build on your foundation, not coast on it, and you use the latest AI tools to learn and draft faster.
• Commercial judgment. You think like a principal, not a cost centre. You know which battles matter, you protect the downside, and you help us move fast.
• Strong verbal and written communication, with the ability to articulate a clear, concise analysis of legal risk and what to do about it.
• A JD/MBA is a plus. International or additional-language capability is valued given our footprint.

Compensation Package

The anticipated base salary range for this position is listed below. Note that total compensation also includes a performance and discretionary-based bonus, plus carry or equity participation in the holding company. We are a performance-driven organization, which means your compensation can scale considerably with outsized performance and results, and the equity component is where the real long-term upside sits.

• Total on target earnings: $300,000 to $500,000
• Base: $200,000 to $275,000
• Bonus: $75,000 to $125,000
• Plus: Carry / equity participation in the holding company

The firm also offers robust Benefits offerings. US Core Benefits include Comprehensive Medical/Rx, Dental, and Vision plans; 401(k) program with company match; Commuter Benefits plan for parking and transit.