Who are we?

Sidewalk Labs is an Alphabet company with a mission to radically improve urban life. We aim to create inclusive, large-scale communities by bringing together an innovative planning approach, products and services designed to address urban challenges, and capital for real estate and advanced infrastructure. 

Since our founding in 2015, we've grown into an organization of over 100 employees based primarily in New York and Toronto. Our cross-disciplinary team consists of experts from real estate, urban planning, government, finance, technology, and engineering, among other backgrounds.

To date, we've incubated and invested in multiple companies focused on solving city problems, and we've launched the Sidewalk Toronto project, which aims to create a community along Toronto's waterfront that achieves new standards of sustainability, affordability, and economic opportunity for all.

With the potential to catalyze and scale new models for inclusive growth, our work is both highly exciting and complex. We are working to achieve something unprecedented — help us build it!

What is the role? 

We're looking for a strong Senior Counsel who will work independently but in sync with our legal and data governance team, reporting to our Associate General Counsel. 

This role will negotiate and execute business partnerships, provide broad commercial support to Sidewalk’s operations, product and other technology teams, and support Sidewalk’s corporate transactions and investments.

We are confident this opportunity will be interesting to you if you have a curiosity for urban development, thrive on cross-disciplinary work, and enjoy tackling novel questions and problems.

What will make you successful in this role…

Strong Legal Foundation: You have a strong JD, are admitted to the NY Bar, and have 6+ years of experience in a combination of firm and in-house roles. You’ve worked as a corporate associate at a top-tier firm to build a dynamic legal foundation for your career, and have additional experience working in-house as a legal partner across many teams.

You have excelled at being a corporate generalist with in-house experience advising on commercial contracting, complex partnerships, compliance and regulatory matters, intellectual property and privacy. You are comfortable counseling senior business leaders.

You have had some experience with real estate development projects, including negotiating contracts with developers with some exposure to municipal regulations and processes. 

You also might have structured highly complex transactions in corporate M&A, private equity, real estate and fund formation in a real estate context. 

Stellar Partner: This work requires a legal expert and adept business partner. Our team relies on exceptional collaboration to get our work done; you are no exception to this workstyle. 

Bias to action: You will have autonomy in this role. We’ll trust you to self-direct, but it’s crucial you have an inherent bias to action. Our team at large relies on you to be a proactive partner; you keep the process moving and you get things done quickly, every time. You’re known to chase down the answers when you don’t have them to take your work across the finish line. 

Flexibility: In this role you will own and execute on both exciting and not-so-exciting work. All of it is crucial to deliver on our vision and mission. We expect you to have a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-dive-in attitude all the time.This is a startup — your scope will change and stretch and you’re happy to roll with the punches.

Bonus Points if you have:

• Prior Public Sector Experience: You understand the dynamics of working in a Public Facing Role and facilitating complex Public/Private Partnerships.
• Exposure to Data Privacy: You have demonstrated interest in and experience with the legal aspect of privacy and data.