Legal Counsel
Ready to be pushed beyond what you think you’re capable of?
At Coinbase, our mission is to increase economic freedom in the world. It’s a massive, ambitious opportunity that demands the best of us, every day, as we build the emerging onchain platform — and with it, the future global financial system.
To achieve our mission, we’re seeking a very specific candidate. We want someone who is passionate about our mission and who believes in the power of crypto and blockchain technology to update the financial system. We want someone who is eager to leave their mark on the world, who relishes the pressure and privilege of working with high caliber colleagues, and who actively seeks feedback to keep leveling up. We want someone who will run towards, not away from, solving the company’s hardest problems.
Our work culture is intense and isn’t for everyone. But if you want to build the future alongside others who excel in their disciplines and expect the same from you, there’s no better place to be.
While many roles at Coinbase are remote-first, we are not remote-only. In-person participation is required throughout the year. Team and company-wide offsites are held multiple times annually to foster collaboration, connection, and alignment. Attendance is expected and fully supported.
The Legal Counsel (Institutional Legal) role will be based in the US or UK working as part of the Institutional Legal team covering derivatives, international markets and professional trading clients including banks, brokers, hedge funds, market makers corporates and other professional traders. The team consists of a small but highly experienced group of lawyers from a combination of traditional finance and fintech backgrounds. The role reports into a director who leads the markets and financing legal team, and covers institutional products including prime brokerage, exchange, trading and custody, derivatives and financing products. We’re looking for a lawyer with solid product development, regulatory and negotiation skills preferably developed within the traditional derivatives, structured finance and/or prime brokerage sectors. A sense of curiosity, flexibility and adventure combined with the desire to make an impact at the intersection of crypto and traditional global markets is essential.
What you’ll be doing:
- Provide full product life-cycle counseling for a variety of global derivatives, prime brokerage, custody and financing related products, and practical advice on associated legal issues and risks, complex agreement structures and company policies in a risk-tolerant, but compliance-oriented environment.
- Negotiate novel, highly-tailored agreements with strategic partners and sophisticated counterparties in the finance, payments and digital currency space.
- Stay abreast of and advise on digital currency and blockchain technology legal and regulatory issues, particularly in the US, UK, EU and elsewhere.
- Lead and assist with complex and global cross-functional efforts, driving and ensuring cross-functional alignment with other stakeholders (Institutional Sales, Business Development, Product/Engineering, Finance/Tax, Compliance).
- Effectively collaborate with those same cross-functional teams and legal colleagues to solve problems, build partnerships, and ship products.
- Proactively solve problems for the business as they plan and execute on an aggressive global growth plan, develop scaled strategies for addressing risk in business-centric ways and build commercial processes that allow the business flexibility and freedom to move quickly.
- Look around corners and creatively solve problems for the business as they plan, build, and execute their transactional and product roadmap.
- Be a business partner, not just a lawyer.
What we look for in you:
- Qualified solicitor in England and Wales or in a major US jurisdiction with at least 3 years experience working in a financial services institution (e.g. e-money issuer, payment service firm, broker dealer / asset manager, trading firm, bank or brokerage) or in a law firm supporting such clients (ideally with some in-house experience).
- Interest in digital currency and blockchain technology.
- Experience working with product teams launching fintech, financial services, investment or similar products.
- Experience working and leading with cross-functional, globally located teams.
- Familiarity with UK/EU regulatory regimes applicable to financial instruments (including MiFID, EMIR, AIFMD) and crypto assets (e.g. MiCA, AMLD).
- Comfortable challenging the status quo and preconceived notions of what is possible; confidence giving advice on novel products in areas of regulatory ambiguity.
- Excellent judgement, analytical rigour, clear and direct written and oral communication skills, and business pragmatism.
- Top-notch analytical skills with experience owning projects from concept to finish.
- Creativity, comfort and experience with solutions that help scale financial services businesses and technology solutions.
- Sound and practical business judgement.
- Intellectual curiosity and flexibility.
- Team-oriented and collaborative.
Nice to haves:
- Experience supporting critical authorisation and license applications for spot and derivatives expansion in major jurisdictions.
- Experience analyzing the regulatory status of crypto assets and whether they may qualify as regulated financial instruments (e.g. under MiFID).
- Experience of advising on cross-border licensing requirements, safe-harbors and creating client classification procedures.
- Strong negotiation skills and ability to review and negotiate financial agreements (e.g. prime brokerage, lending and derivatives documentation).
- Experience registering and perfecting collateral arrangements.
Position ID: P71115
Please be advised that each candidate may submit a maximum of four applications within any 30-day period. We encourage you to carefully evaluate how your skills and interests align with Coinbase's roles before applying.
Commitment to Equal Opportunity
Coinbase is committed to diversity in its workforce and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sex, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or any other basis protected by applicable law. Coinbase will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. For US applicants, you may view the Know Your Rights notice here. Additionally, Coinbase participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations, as required by law.
Coinbase is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please contact us at accommodations[at]coinbase.com to let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. For quick access to screen reading technology compatible with this site click here to download a free compatible screen reader (free step by step tutorial can be found here).
Global Data Privacy Notice for Job Candidates and Applicants
Depending on your location, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) may regulate the way we manage the data of job applicants. Our full notice outlining how data will be processed as part of the application procedure for applicable locations is available here. By submitting your application, you are agreeing to our use and processing of your data as required. For US applicants only, by submitting your application you are agreeing to arbitration of disputes as outlined here.
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Coinbase is an American publicly traded company operating a cryptocurrency exchange platform. They are a distributed company and all employees operate via remote work.
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