Sole Counsel

Skills

About the Role

You will draft, negotiate and manage the full spectrum of commercial agreements including SaaS licenses, MSAs, partnership and reseller arrangements, NDAs, DPAs and DORA addendums. You will represent the organization in discussions with the independent Foundation which governs the Protocol, being collaborative and ensuring interests are protected. You will be the trusted legal partner to sales, business development and marketing, moving at commercial pace, structuring deals creatively, and giving commercial advice that moves things forward. You will review product, marketing and GTM collateral for legal and regulatory risk. You will support strategic projects in tokenisation, DeFi and Web3, bringing in external counsel where needed. You will build infrastructure such as templates, playbooks and internal guidance to enable the business to move faster within risk tolerance. You will manage external counsel when instructed, keeping it focused and cost-effective.

Requirements

• You are a qualified solicitor in England & Wales (or equivalent common law jurisdiction with the right to practice in the UK), with 5+ years PQE.
• Prior in-house experience at a tech, fintech or financial services business.
• Solid general commercial law experience, with a proven track record of drafting technology contracts, ideally in a financial environment.
• Working knowledge of digital assets, DeFi and Web3, including familiarity with on-chain product structures such as yield vaults, token frameworks, and SPV/fund-wrapper arrangements used in real-world asset tokenisation.
• Sharp commercial instincts; you find solutions, not blockers.
• Proven ability to support fast-moving sales and marketing teams: prioritising hard, pushing back when needed, delivering under pressure.
• Confident operating as the only lawyer in the room, while knowing when to escalate.
• Clear communicator who can translate legal complexity into plain guidance.
• Desirable: Background in traditional financial services or financial market infrastructure (TradFi) in either private practice or in-house.
• Experience advising on token generation events (TGEs) or utility token structures, and familiarity with relevant UK, EU or US regulatory frameworks (e.g. UK financial promotions regime, MiCA, MAS, MAR, AML/CTF).
• Experience with UK GDPR, IP licensing or open-source software issues.

Responsibilities

• Draft, negotiate and manage the full spectrum of commercial agreements: SaaS licences, MSAs, partnership and reseller arrangements, NDAs, DPAs and DORA addendums.
• Represent the organization in discussions and negotiations with the independent Foundation which governs the Protocol, being highly collaborative day-to-day whilst ensuring the organization's interests are protected.
• Be the trusted legal partner to sales, business development and marketing, moving at commercial pace, structuring deals creatively, and giving commercial advice that moves things forward.
• Review product, marketing and GTM collateral for legal and regulatory risk.
• Support strategic projects in tokenisation, DeFi and Web3, bringing in external counsel where needed.
• Build the infrastructure templates, playbooks and internal guidance that enables the business to move faster within sensible risk tolerance.
• Manage external counsel where instructed, keeping it focused and cost-effective.