Legal Counsel - US

Mistral•Palo Alto, CA

About The Position

As an early member of Mistral’s U.S. legal team, which is part of the global legal team, the Legal Counsel will support North American business growth by drafting and negotiating commercial agreements and help develop AI tools to scale legal operations. The role also involves ramping up quickly on additional areas of law, including product matters, privacy, marketing, regulatory compliance, and intellectual property. The successful candidate will be comfortable charting new paths and helping design the legal department of the future. The Legal Counsel will work with technical, business, and legal teams across the company, provide practical legal and strategic guidance from project development through launch, manage outside counsel, and help build scalable legal workflows, templates, policies, and training materials. The role requires staying current with U.S. and international laws and regulations applicable to AI technologies. Occasional travel to the Paris headquarters is encouraged.

Requirements

Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.
Membership in good standing of a U.S. state bar.
At least 5 years of law firm and/or in-house experience, including project management experience.
Experience managing technology implementation or solutions projects to meet corporate operational standards.
Experience drafting and negotiating commercial agreements, including creating and refining form agreements.
Fluency with common AI tools and a track record of responsibly using AI technologies to improve efficiency and processes.
Generalist skill set and willingness to tackle problems outside core expertise.
Ability to balance attention to detail with the needs of a fast-paced company.
Demonstrated business and pragmatic judgment, including ability to analyze costs and benefits of proposed resolutions to complex legal and technical problems.
Ability to build solid, trusting, and credible relationships and work closely with science, engineering, business, and marketing teams.
Excellent writing, communication, and people skills.
Understanding of AI technologies and applications, their intersections with relevant areas of law such as privacy and data protection, competition, and intellectual property, and related ethical considerations such as fairness, transparency, accountability, and bias mitigation.
Adaptability and willingness to continuously learn and update skills and knowledge as AI technologies and related law evolve.

Nice To Haves

In-house experience at a technology company and/or in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
International mindset and experience.

Responsibilities

Draft, review, and negotiate commercial contracts, including customer MSAs, order forms, and partnership agreements.
Collaborate with technical teams, including engineering, applied AI, and science, as well as business and legal teams.
Improve and develop tools that facilitate and automate legal workflows and approval processes.
Support compliance with and creation of company policies, internal training materials, and guides.
Refine and create templates that can scale as the company grows.
Provide solution-oriented legal, regulatory, and strategic advice to teams from initial project development through launch and beyond.
Manage and work efficiently with outside counsel on assigned projects.
Stay up to date on, and ensure compliance with, U.S. and international laws and regulations applicable to AI technologies, including AI regulation, privacy and data protection, competition, consumer protection, payments, and intellectual property.
Build positive relationships across the company and with external partners.
Travel occasionally to the Paris headquarters is encouraged.