The Company
Perch is transforming the way people buy and sell their homes. Simplifying it all, to the way it should have always been; fair and true to market, straightforward, easy. Every year in the U.S., $1.5 trillion of single family residences transact, generating over $120 billion of fees in a process that has changed little in decades. For the average American, the home purchase and sale process takes months, creates anxiety and is filled with uncertainty and hassle. Perch offers a modern alternative, making one of life's biggest decisions -- the sale and purchase of a home –so stress free, fair and simple that people cannot imagine any other way.

Perch is headquartered in New York City and has 85 employees in New York and Texas. We have raised $250 million in financing from top tier investors including: Firstmark, Accomplice and Juxtapose. 

The Role & Responsibilities

The General Counsel (GC) at Perch will be a critical member of the leadership team, helping Perch deliver a new vertically integrated and automated home purchase experience while ensuring we stay compliant with the myriad regulations governing our business. The GC will work in our New York City office and will report to the CEO, Court Cunningham.

As the GC, you will:

• Gain a deep understanding of the laws applicable to our business, including with respect to real estate and consumer interaction, and translate that understanding into actionable guidance for business teams to create a differentiated/new to world consumer experience in a legally compliant way. We expect the challenges here to be similar to those faced by Uber and Airbnb faced as they disrupted their respective industries. We are seeking a commercially savvy partner that can balance risk management with customer satisfaction and growth to help us build a customer-centric, industry-changing company. We expect you will get up to speed quickly on these laws while also leveraging outside counsel for expert advice periodically.
• Be the central point of contact that is responsible for managing all of Perch's outside counsel nationally in a low-cost, efficient manner
• Independently draft, revise and negotiate all commercial contracts and support the completion of any future equity and debt financing rounds
• Collaborate with the CEO and other leadership team members as we evolve our consumer offering. 
• Support our HR team
• Provide business-minded legal advice to senior leadership and teams throughout Perch.
• Handle a wide variety of other demands and projects, big and small, that arise in a growing in-house legal department. 

 Required Experience

• 10+ years of work experience in corporate transactional work, with at least 4 years of experience in an operating business as AGC or GC (ideally with experience navigating the application of regulations and issues in a commercial context).
• Preference for experience working in a consumer focused fintech and/or real estate related business. 
• Experience managing outside legal firms to balance cost and effectiveness.
• Proven track record of success in goal achievement.
• Experience with M&A transactions and/ or large-scale commercial partnerships & JVs is preferred
• Bachelor’s Degree and JD required.
• Admission and member in good standing of the bar of New York or the necessary qualifications to register as in-house counsel.

 Personal Characteristics

• Highly effective at working autonomously and building collaborative relationships across our entire organization. 
• Strong negotiation skills; exceptional at drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements with a solution-oriented approach.
• Track record of good business judgment with maturity, diplomacy, and communication skills (both written and verbal). 
• Business acumen is a critical success factor for this role. You will need to be able to balance risk mitigation with business goals.
• Results orientation with a strong work ethic. Must be driven, with the emotional intelligence to know when to push harder and when to look for alternative approaches. Solutions-focused mindset.
• Intellectual curiosity and comfort making decisions when faced with uncertainty
• People describe you as: Passionate, a leader, a strong communicator, and someone that “gets things done.”
• Highly motivated, with the drive to work independently, plan and accomplish goals, manage and prioritize projects with deadlines, and ability to thrive in a fast paced, changing environment.