Assistant General Counsel at Gauntlet in New York, NY

Job description

The role Gauntlet is hiring its first Assistant General Counsel. Today, legal work runs through the General Counsel and a small group of outside firms. This role adds a second experienced lawyer to the team, someone who can take meaningful work off the GC's desk, own it end to end, and help shape how the legal function develops as the company grows. Reporting to the General Counsel, you will own a large part of the commercial legal work. Client agreements, vendor and partner contracts, product terms — you will draft and negotiate them, and build the templates, playbooks, and processes that make the routine work easier to handle. You will also be the GC's second-in-command. That means covering when they are out, stepping into whatever is most important that week, and being another senior legal voice the business can rely on. You will not have a large team beneath you. You will have outside counsel where it makes sense, and plenty of scope to improve how the function works. This is a hands-on senior role with meaningful ownership, direct access to company leadership, and the chance to help build a legal function that fits an onchain financial business. About Gauntlet Gauntlet builds the financial systems of the future. While much of onchain finance is focused on point solutions, we operate across the entire stack to offer best-in-class vault products. Today, we serve over $1.6B in client TVL across some of the largest fintechs/neobanks, protocols, exchanges, and capital allocators in crypto, and, increasingly, traditional asset management. Our team brings together traditional finance and crypto-native expertise to deliver durable, sophisticated products for institutional clients moving onchain. What you'll do; Own commercial contracting end to end: client and institutional agreements, partner and protocol arrangements, and other agreements across the business. Negotiate directly with counterparties and their counsel, including sophisticated institutional clients working from their own paper. Advise Product and Engineering as they design and ship onchain products, turning legal and regulatory constraints into practical guidance. Cover the wider legal docket alongside the GC, including corporate and governance matters, equity and financing support, employment questions, IP, privacy, marketing review, disputes, and regulatory work. Partner with the Head of Compliance to make sure contractual commitments, policies, and controls stay aligned. Help decide what should be handled in-house and where outside counsel adds value. Improve legal intake, contract management, templates, playbooks, and other processes that help a small legal team stay effective as the company grows. Use AI and automation across drafting, review, intake, and contract management where it makes the work faster or better. What you bring; Strong commercial contracting experience. Including drafting, negotiating, and closing a high volume of varied agreements. Time in-house, ideally at a company with a small legal team where you were expected to work independently Breadth across several legal areas rather than a single specialty, and the ability to get up to speed quickly on unfamiliar issues. Experience building templates, playbooks, processes, or tooling that make routine legal work easier to handle. Experience working directly with Product, Engineering, Finance, People, Compliance, or other business teams. The ability to give clear, practical guidance without overcomplicating it, and to manage risk without defaulting to the most conservative answer. Good judgement and the confidence to raise concerns directly when something does not look right. Comfort working in a growing company where priorities and legal questions will keep changing. A willingness to stay close to the detail and do the work yourself. JD and active membership in good standing of at least one US state bar. Bonus points Experience in crypto, digital assets, fintech, financial services, or onchain f