Forward-Deployed Attorney

General Legal

3h • $180,000 - $240,000 • Remote

About The Position

This is a role for an attorney who enjoys law firm practice, but also wants the experience of being embedded in a business. General Legal is an AI-native law firm built to deliver high-quality commercial contract work faster and more predictably than traditional firms. We combine experienced, U.S.-barred attorneys with AI-native workflows to handle drafting, review, and negotiation end to end—without billable hours, bloated process, or junior handoffs. We operate like a startup because we are one. That means modern tooling, outcome-based pricing, remote-friendly work, and meaningful ownership for the people doing the work. By using AI to make the routine parts of contracting effortless, we give our attorneys the space to focus on judgment, negotiation, and advising clients on what actually matters. We’re starting with commercial contracts for growing companies and building a modern law firm where great lawyers can do their best work—and help reshape how legal services are delivered.

As a Forward-Deployed Attorney, you'll dedicate a meaningful portion of your time—variable by client, anywhere from two hours per day to a full day—to a single client. You'll sit alongside their team, get to know their business and their people, and serve as the face of the relationship between that client and General Legal. You'll work as closely with business and product as you do with legal, and you'll be the person the client thinks of first when something comes up.

This is not a customer-success or account-management role dressed up in a J.D. You'll be practicing. As the client's first line of defense across the full range of practice areas our firm covers, you'll handle a wide variety of matters—and when something falls outside your wheelhouse, or simply exceeds what one person can carry, you'll pull in the right General Legal colleagues rather than muddling through alone.

That's the whole idea. Traditional practice forces a choice: go to a firm and get deep expert bench strength but little proximity to the business, or go in-house and get proximity but lose the specialists. Fractional and fractional-adjacent models give you the embedded opportunity but don’t help when the matter calls for an expert in a different vertical. We think attorneys—and clients—should get both. You get to be the in-the-room generalist for your client, with a full firm of specialists standing behind you. And if you're the kind of person who spots an opportunity to improve a product, build out a new practice area, or lead something that doesn't exist yet—we're always listening.

Requirements

• J.D. from an accredited law school; active bar membership in good standing
• 5-8 years of experience with a strong commercial contracts practice, or fewer years if you can make a compelling case
• Ideal background is transactional—technology transactions, commercial contracts, or product counsel—but we're open to attorneys from different backgrounds who can make the case
• Experience in or advising high-growth technology or emerging companies is preferred
• You are fast and good
• You're comfortable being the generalist in the room and confident about when to hand off to a specialist
• You build relationships and earn trust with non-lawyers—business and product people included
• You use AI tools in your practice today, not theoretically
• You produce clean, sophisticated work product
• You communicate directly: clear recommendations, appropriate caveats, no filler
• You're self-directed and don't need hand-holding, but you collaborate well and know when to loop people in

Nice To Haves

• You've been embedded in or closely advised a business as fractional, in-house, or secondment counsel
• You've built or improved a legal intake, playbook, or contracting process from scratch
• You have a vertical or subject matter you'd love to grow or lead
• You've mentored junior attorneys and/or contributed to team development in a meaningful way

Responsibilities

• Embed with a client. Dedicate a defined share of your week to one client, learning their business deeply and becoming the legal partner their team relies on. You'll work closely with business, product, and legal stakeholders.
• Be the face of the relationship. Own the client's experience of General Legal—responsive, clear, and commercially minded. When the client thinks "I need to talk to legal," they think of you.
• Practice broadly and well. Serve as first line of defense across the range of matters your client brings you: commercial contracts, technology transactions, product and go-to-market questions, vendor and partner agreements, and whatever else the business needs.
• Know when to loop in the bench. Recognize the edges of your expertise and your capacity, and pull in the right specialist for matters that are out of your wheelhouse or exceed your workload. Coordinating the firm's expertise on your client's behalf is part of the job, not a failure of it.
• Advise with clarity and appropriate speed. Give internal stakeholders clear recommendations on risk, strategy, and structure. You know your audience and calibrate accordingly.
• Leverage AI tools as a force multiplier. You're already a power-user of legal tech, using it to raise the quality of your work and compress timelines.
• Contribute beyond your lane. Whether it's flagging a product gap, proposing a better process, or raising your hand to lead a new workstream, we value attorneys who bring a "yes, and" orientation to the work.

Benefits

• remote-friendly work
• meaningful ownership
• annual in-person on-sites for team collaboration, planning, and the occasional celebration
• We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree