Senior Counsel, Legal Operations & Compliance
About The Position
At Minnesota Cannabis Services, we’re not just building businesses — we’re building the people who make them great. Our team partners with leading operators across cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and retail to deliver world-class expertise in legal, finance, analytics, marketing, HR, and technology. We’re looking for professionals who take pride in their work, move with purpose, and thrive in fast-changing environments. The kind of people who hold themselves to high standards, think creatively, and find satisfaction in solving hard problems. When you join our team, you’ll work alongside some of the most experienced leaders in the industry — professionals who share their knowledge freely and lead by example. You’ll be challenged, supported, and trusted to take ownership of meaningful work that shapes the future of one of the fastest-growing industries in America. The Opportunity We're hiring a Minnesota-barred attorney to be the senior hands-on lawyer inside our legal operations and compliance function. If you love the craft of legal work — getting it exactly right, at volume, on time — this seat delivers more real ownership and more interesting variety than most attorneys see in a decade: cannabis regulatory work, commercial leases, entity and license management, compliance infrastructure, and daily collaboration with an executive team that moves fast. You'll join an established team — an in-house attorney, two paralegals you'll manage and mentor, and a Director of Legal Operations you'll partner with daily with meaningful room to grow as the function scales.
Requirements
- JD and active Minnesota bar membership (or imminent admission).
- 5+ years of legal experience
- Meticulous, organized, autonomous, and genuinely enthusiastic about AI in legal practice.
Nice To Haves
- regulated-industry exposure (cannabis, alcohol, or tobacco) strongly preferred.
- Commercial contracts and/or real estate experience preferred
- multi unit retail or franchise agreements experience a plus.
Responsibilities
- Own the master renewal calendar: entity renewals, state and local license renewals, and applications — inventoried, deadlined, executed, never late.
- Review and abstract commercial leases, maintain the lease database, and support subleasing and landlord communications.
- Build and maintain audit-ready compliance records; support regulatory filings, disclosures, and exam response.
- Draft, review, and manage contracts, corporate documents, and entity records; help elevate paralegal work with a mentoring mindset.
- Support the insurance program: certificate tracking, renewals, COI requirements.
- Practice at the frontier: we use AI legal tools daily for drafting, review, and research — with privilege rigorously protected — and we'll invest in keeping you at the cutting edge.
Benefits
- Modern tools, direct executive access, no bureaucracy, and a growth path as the legal function scales with the company.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
