Litigation & Employment Counsel

Instawork•San Francisco, CA

20h•$160,000 - $200,000•Onsite

About The Position

Instawork is on a mission to create meaningful economic opportunities for skilled hourly professionals in communities around the globe. Our AI-powered labor marketplace helps local businesses scale, and enables global technology companies to push the frontiers of robotics and AI. Backed by world-class investors like Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, Greylock, Y Combinator, and others, we’re looking for exceptional talent to reimagine the way the world works. Instawork is a leading tech company building the most trusted labor marketplace for businesses and professionals. We're looking for a self-motivated, intellectually curious, and pragmatic Litigation & Employment Counsel to join our lean, high-impact Legal team. You should be comfortable using AI tools to drive efficiency in your legal work and eager to help build scalable processes as the company grows.

Requirements

JD and California bar admission in good standing (or barred in NY or IL and qualified for and willing to maintain Registered In-House Counsel status with California State Bar)
5+ years of legal experience in a law firm and/or in-house
Experience in the technology, gig economy, or marketplace industry strongly preferred
Mature judgment and decision-making skills
Ability to distill complex legal risks and competing priorities into clear, actionable guidance for business partners
Comfort navigating ambiguity and reprioritizing quickly in a fast-paced environment
Team mentality and recognition that no task is too small
Proven ability to manage a high volume of matters with overlapping deadlines while maintaining quality and composure
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Sense of perspective…..and humor

Nice To Haves

Prior in-house counsel experience
Experience with workers' compensation and insurance coverage matters
Proficiency with AI-assisted legal research, drafting, or workflow tools
Continuous learning mindset: you bring strong skills and experience to the table and are open to new approaches, tools, and ways of working

Responsibilities

Handle a wide variety of litigation and pre-litigation matters in state and federal courts and administrative forums, especially matters involving worker classification and employment-related claims
Work closely with Instawork's Trust and Safety team, insurance brokers, and insurance carriers; conduct and supervise investigations related to employment matters, on-platform incidents, or policy violations
Create and implement scalable processes for the legal team, including identifying opportunities for automation and process innovation
Leverage AI and other technology tools to increase efficiency, improve work product, and support the team's continuous improvement goals
Manage all aspects of the relationship with relevant outside counsel, including staffing, strategy, budgets, discovery, and work product
Partner with Human Resources and business partners to evaluate legal risks and provide subject matter expertise on a broad range of employment issues, including wage and hour, recruiting and hiring, training, employee performance management, leaves of absence, disability accommodations, and HR best practices
Develop and deliver training for HR and business teams on employment law topics, company policies, and risk mitigation.
Help prepare for and mitigate exposure that may create litigation risk in the future
Other projects based on the needs of a quickly growing company

Benefits

A variety of medical, dental, and vision plans with coverage beginning on the date of hire
Flexible paid time off
At least 8 paid company holidays annually
Home office stipend
Phone stipend
Commuter stipend
Supplemental pay on qualified leaves
Employee health savings accounts (HSA) contribution
Flexible spending plans
401K plan
Perkspot - discount program through Lumity