General Counsel

About Pursuit

Our mission is to create economic transformation. By training low-income adults to launch and advance careers as software engineers, we help our Fellows go from earning $18,000 to over $90,000 starting salary on average, adding an estimated $2M in lifetime earnings. Pursuit partners with leading companies like Blackstone, USV, Citi, Peloton, and Uber to employ Fellows in career-defining engineering roles and supports them with on-the-job training to ensure potential translates to performance. Since 2013, Pursuit has created ~$1B in total lifetime wage gains, creating lasting economic mobility that spans generations. 

Pursuit’s proven solution is built on two interconnected components: training (which includes community development, Core pre-job training, and Commit on-the-job training) and a financial product (known as Bond). However, growing training alone will not meet the magnitude of need nor solve new societal challenges ahead. The typical expectation is to expand our training to other cities, but this will not come anywhere close to creating good jobs for millions of low-income Americans. Instead, our strategy for scaled impact is to evolve our financial product and create tools for other organizations, jobs, and places. We believe that this will not only create good jobs for millions of low-income Americans but will also generate a new trillion-dollar market directly tied to results in the long term.

We are One Big Team

The passionate and collaborative team at Pursuit gives its all to achieve our mission. And it’s not just staff. We work with employer partners that love hiring our Fellows because they are so well prepared, ranging from big financial firms to scrappy startups, and everything in between. We also activate and engage hundreds of volunteers that come from all areas of the tech industry. These experts and professionals help keep our curriculum fresh and our standards for achievement high by participating in our admissions process, as well as program-specific activities such as interview training, DemoDays, Hackathons, and Capstone projects. 

As part of the Pursuit Senior Leadership team, reporting to the CFO, the General Counsel will be responsible for building a world-class legal function. As the first General Counsel, your expertise and creativity will shape all facets of our innovative, mission-driven business including product offerings, commercialization, financing, corporate governance, regulatory matters, government affairs and compliance as Pursuit scales our business with an aim toward national expansion. The successful candidate will be innovative and comfortable counseling business leaders on the full spectrum of legal and regulatory issues associated with hybrid social enterprises to include 501c3 charitable corporations, Public Benefit Corporations, and other legal structures that can accommodate our long-term objectives.

About You: 

• You have substantive, extensive professional legal experience with a track record of innovation that has had a direct impact on a company’s growth. 
• You have strong experience building and implementing legal and compliance processes from scratch.
• You are excited to work in a fast-paced, rapidly changing startup environment.
• You are able to wear many hats and roll up your sleeves with the ability to switch gears from high-level organizational strategy to day-to-day execution as the first legal counsel on the team.
• You are solutions-oriented with the ability to innovate and mitigate risk.
• You are a passionate individual who embraces Pursuit’s mission of increasing economic opportunity and is a champion of Pursuit’s stated organizational values
• You are excited to take on a critical leadership role, including partnering with senior leadership on our most important cross-functional organizational priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build, refine, and oversee Pursuit’s legal strategy in partnership with all relevant stakeholders, including senior leadership, the board of directors and outside counsel.
• Develop our internal legal function and strengthen key capabilities required to support our organization as we continue to scale.
• Drive execution across a full range of legal responsibilities, including governance, regulatory compliance, financial transactions, contracts and policy.
• Manage the interactions of 501c3, benefit corporation, and other legal entities.    
• Manage and execute on Pursuit’s financial transactions to include Pursuit Bond, charitable donations, recoverable grants, fee-for-service contracts, and other impact investment financing. 
• Play a key role in developing our commercial structures and translating business requirements into sound partnership contracts with external parties, including vendors, sponsors, employment partners, funders and donors.
• Create and manage agreements, contracts, and policy matters with staff, Pursuit Fellows, volunteers, and other community stakeholders.
• Manage litigation and arbitration matters. 
• Select and manage outside legal counsel as appropriate.
• Oversee regulatory matters and ensure Pursuit is in compliance with all federal, state, and local regulatory requirements.
• Provide strategic legal advice across the company including to the CEO, executive team, Board of Directors, balancing legal needs with company values and objectives.

Requirements: 

• Minimum 8+ years corporate legal experience, with in-house counsel and startup experience a benefit.
• Deep expertise as a Transactional Lawyer. Contract Law is your sweet spot. 
• In-house experience with a small or midsize business going through growth, leading legal efforts with a commercial mindset.
• Must be equal parts strategic and tactical, willing to build and execute simultaneously.
• Successful experience in defining, shaping, scaling revenue partnerships. 
• Proven experience building and implementing legal and compliance processes from scratch.
• You have a proven track record of providing proactive, pragmatic legal counsel to business partners, and that advice leading to innovation and scale. 
• You are in good standing with the New York Bar (or have the ability to immediately qualify for RIHC status.)

Nice to have: 

• Knowledge of 501c3 and benefit corporations.
• Experience in the tech industry.
• Experience with regulatory agencies and matters on the federal and state level.

Where you’ll work: 

• On site, 3-4 days per week in our Long Island City Office 

Salary & Benefits:

The salary range for this role is $250,000-$315,000 base + incentive compensation.

The compensation range above is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however, we are often open to a wide variety of profiles and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted.  If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated to you as a candidate.

Pursuit offers: 

• Great culture where transparency, respect, teamwork, and kindness are valued
• Competitive compensation in base, plus bonus and a full benefits package
• 401k Match
• Unlimited PTO and an all-Pursuit summer break the last week of August and a week-long holiday the last week of December
• Flexible, hybrid work schedule with catered lunches once a week and delicious snacks
• An opportunity to work at the intersection of tech and social impact, and make a direct impact on the communities of those we serve.

Pursuit values diversity: 

Our team has a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and we value the richness that diversity brings to our organization. We welcome new perspectives and affirm that all employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin, age, familial or marital status, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuit is an equal opportunity employer.