Legal Counsel

Chowbus•Chicago, IL

16h•$130,000 - $200,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Chowbus is a leading Asian restaurant technology SaaS platform with a strong presence in the North American market. We are seeking a Legal Counsel, the first point of contact for legal matters at Chowbus. This role will own the commercial contract pipeline, including vendor, partnership, integration, SaaS, hardware, NDAs, and merchant-facing terms. The Legal Counsel will also serve as the in-house point of contact for merchant and commercial disputes, franchise and termination matters, and payment-routing and data-governance issues. This position requires knowing when to handle matters internally using established playbooks and when to escalate to outside counsel, whose relationships and spending will be managed by this role. The Legal Counsel will collaborate closely with Operations, Sales, Partnerships, Finance, and Engineering, with regular interaction with the executive team. This is a high-ownership, high-exposure role for an early-career attorney looking to build a legal function.

Requirements

Juris Doctor (JD) degree and active bar membership in good standing (any U.S. state; Illinois is a plus).
Approximately 2-4 years of commercial contracts experience at a law firm or in-house, focusing on drafting and negotiation.
Bilingual proficiency in Mandarin and English is preferred for merchant-facing matters and cross-border/affiliated-entity questions.

Nice To Haves

Experience in technology/SaaS, payments, or marketplace businesses.
Exposure to commercial disputes, franchise/distribution matters, or litigation support.

Responsibilities

Draft, review, redline, and negotiate commercial agreements, including vendor, partnership, integration, SaaS, hardware supply, NDAs, and merchant-facing terms.
Run negotiations against Chowbus’s standard positions and non-negotiables framework, flagging deviations and risks.
Serve as the in-house point of contact on merchant and commercial disputes, such as franchise-control matters, termination and notice mechanics, gift-card and payment-routing issues, and data-export and governance questions.
Interpret and enforce contract terms, gather facts, draft affidavits and correspondence, and support and escalate to litigation counsel.
Act as the first stop for legal questions across the company, resolving routine matters against established playbooks.
Identify, frame, and escalate novel or higher-risk issues, including ad hoc employment, IP, and corporate questions.
Own the outside-counsel relationship end-to-end, including scoping engagements, controlling spend, and translating external advice into clear, business-usable guidance.
Support the compliance posture across payments (PCI, card-scheme rules), data privacy (U.S. state laws and cross-border exposure), and multi-jurisdiction contracting.
Build the legal function through templates, intake processes, and playbooks to enable business self-service on low-risk matters.