Legal Intern (3L) - Fall 2026

Cartesia•San Francisco, CA

9d•$50 - $65•Onsite

About The Position

We're looking for a rising 3L Legal Intern to join our in-house legal team onsite in San Francisco during a high-growth phase. This is a great hands-on opportunity for a law school student to work directly on the cutting-edge legal questions shaping frontier AI, contracts and commercial transactions, privacy, intellectual property, and much more. You will support the General Counsel and cross-functional teams across Operations, Product, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, and Research, to do important legal work that meaningfully impacts the business, including researching emerging AI regulatory frameworks, and building reusable legal resources that help scale the business. This is a paid, onsite internship based in San Francisco, CA, and is open to rising third-year law students currently enrolled at an ABA-accredited law school.

Requirements

Currently enrolled as a rising third-year student (3L) at an ABA-accredited law school; graduating in 2027.
Experience producing legal writing, including memos, contract summaries, issue briefs, or policy analyses that turns complex legal questions into concise, actionable recommendations a supervising attorney or business stakeholder can act on.
Demonstrated ability to take a defined research, review, or legal operations project from intake to a usable work product, with clear assumptions, organized analysis, and appropriate escalation.
Comfort using AI tools (including Claude for Legal), Google Workspace (Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, Calendar, Meet), Slack, legal research platforms, document trackers, spreadsheets, and knowledge-management systems to work efficiently while maintaining accuracy and confidentiality.
A proactive, flexible, positive, and low ego attitude. You take ownership and thrive in a fast-moving and changing environment, and effectively handle ambiguity.
Ability to work onsite at our San Francisco office for 15 hours a week during the Fall 2026 semester.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting a technology company or startup, or in-house legal team on matters involving contracts, operations, product, marketing, sales, data privacy, cybersecurity, or AI governance.
Experience working with or supporting non-legal stakeholders such as Operations, Product, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, or Engineering, and translating legal questions into practical business advice and next steps.

Responsibilities

Conduct first-pass reviews and triage business legal requests, including customer agreements, non-disclosure agreements (NDA), business associate agreements (BAA), and data processing agreements (DPA) to provide concise summaries with recommended next steps for attorney review.
Research and analyze emerging global AI regulations, including the EU AI Act, and US state and federal frameworks to help draft internal governance policies.
Help ensure compliance with major privacy regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, BIPA, CUBI.
Assist with intellectual property workflow, including copyright issues related to AI training, open-source software compliance, and filings for trademarks and patents.
Work alongside non-legal stakeholders across Operations, Product, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, and Research to evaluate legal risks and translate legal analysis into practical, decision-ready recommendations.