Legal Counsel

River AI Inc.•Palo Alto, CA

2d•$330,000 - $380,000•Onsite

About The Position

River AI is hiring its second attorney to serve as Legal Counsel at an AI lab building personal AI products and the technology stack behind them. This entrepreneurial, hands-on role provides legal support across commercial, product, corporate, employment, financing, and novel legal matters arising from frontier technologies. The Legal Counsel will advise founders and business leaders, handle a high volume of legal work, and help build the company’s legal function, processes, and AI-enabled tools. The position is full-time and on-site in Palo Alto, California, Monday through Friday.

Requirements

J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in the California bar, or eligibility to register as in-house counsel in California.
At least 6 years of combined experience at a top law firm and in-house at a high-growth technology company, with significant ownership of product, commercial, corporate, or other legal subject matter.
Ability to handle unfamiliar legal questions as a first point of contact, quickly form an informed view, and recognize when to call in a specialist.
Strong drafting and negotiation skills, with judgment to provide concise, risk-calibrated, business-forward advice.
Discretion and sound judgment in handling sensitive matters and information, and ability to build trust across the company.
Genuine enthusiasm for technology and AI, fluency with modern software and AI tooling, and a habit of using it to work faster and better.
Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to make complex legal issues understandable to non-lawyers.
Ability to work full-time on-site in Palo Alto and support the needs of a fast-growing startup.
Ability to work in a fast-paced startup environment.

Nice To Haves

Privacy or regulatory expertise, including CIPP/US and EU certifications or experience negotiating directly with regulators around the world.
Engineering or science background.
Experience with healthcare and financial verticals.
Familiarity with equity management platforms such as Carta.
Experience with financing rounds.

Responsibilities

Serve as a primary legal advisor to the business, partnering with founders and leaders across engineering, research, product, people, and go-to-market, and support financing rounds.
Draft, negotiate, and close commercial agreements end-to-end, including compute/infrastructure, SaaS, licensing, vendor, partnership, and customer agreements; develop templates and playbooks.
Provide product counseling on AI/ML offerings from design through launch, including terms of service, data licensing and provenance, open-weight model releases, privacy, and IP strategy.
Advise on employment matters across the employee lifecycle, including offers, equity, contractor/EOR arrangements, workplace policies, and sensitive investigations, in coordination with the People team.
Track and interpret AI regulation at the federal, state, and international levels and translate it into practical guidance and compliance programs.
Manage outside counsel efficiently, determining what to handle directly and when and how to escalate.
Build the legal function by improving processes, implementing AI tooling, and driving issues to resolution.