About the right team member

You are an experienced and curious legal leader, able to adapt quickly to new domains and to balance a wide range of priorities in a fast-paced environment. You are business-minded, and make it your mission to allow businesses to move quickly to achieve their goals, while appropriately managing risk. You’re excited to build a strategy across regulatory, risk, and compliance functions to help Spruce achieve its mission, thinking innovatively about rules and regulations facing an industry that hasn’t seen change for a century. You are able to lead a high-quality team to the next level and quickly synthesize domain-specific information for decisions. You value ambition, collaboration, and self-awareness, and are excited to join a diverse team that takes a huge amount of pride in what they do.
As General Counsel at Spruce you’ll get to:

● Work as part of the leadership team to achieve key business objectives and assist in developing compelling product and service offerings that meet all relevant legal and regulatory requirements

● Manage and build out our in-house legal team and outside counsel to meet our business needs in terms of transaction processes, compliance, privacy, cybersecurity, agreements, patent, corporate & HR matters.

● Troubleshoot unexpected legal issues that will inevitably arise as Spruce experiences the massive growth we expect in 2020

● Create scalable processes for triaging a high volume of disparate legal issues from all areas of the business and help provide training, create templates and manage workflows to allow business teams to move quickly while addressing key risks

● Lead engagement with federal and state regulators where helpful to us achieving our product and business development goals

● Draft, negotiate, and examine agreements, such as strategic partnership opportunities, vendor contracts, and supplier agreements

● Oversee a compliance function that handles all statutory filings, licensing forms, state audits, and ensures underwriter and regulatory inquiries are properly handled either internally or by outside counsel

● Run the company’s Risk Committee, which oversees and assesses all types of risk to the business

● Be a thought leader in the company and in the industry, including representing Spruce at industry groups and conferences

You will be successful if you have:

● A JD from a top law school with the ability to practice law in NY

● Equivalent of 10+ years experience at a top law firm or in-house, or a combination of both (start-up experience, especially in fintech, insuretech, and/or real estate a plus)

● Exceptional judgment and ability to act decisively and with discretion in situations requiring quick but thorough analysis and decision-making

● An entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to roll up your sleeves

● Strong communication skills and the ability to work across functions

● Experience leading, mentoring, and managing a team of bright legal minds