Y Combinator Counsel - Financial Services
Summary
A UK-based commercial lawyer at Coinbase negotiates and drafts complex agreements for institutional crypto products like prime brokerage and derivatives, advising on legal risks while collaborating with global teams.
Ready to do the most impactful work of your career? At Coinbase, we are uncompromising on our mission to increase economic freedom. The bar is high, the environment is intense, and we like it that way. This isn't a place for complacency, it’s a place to be pushed past your perceived limits. If you're ready to build the future of finance alongside people who refuse to settle for "good enough," you belong here. Coinbase is a remote-first, but not remote-only company. Expect to get together quarterly for intense in-person working sessions called “surges.” learn more about working at Coinbase.
As Counsel, Commercial on the Institutional Legal team, you'll provide hands-on legal support for Coinbase's institutional products across UK and international markets, covering prime brokerage, exchange, trading, custody, derivatives, and financing. The team is a small, highly experienced group of lawyers from traditional finance and fintech backgrounds, working with banks, brokers, hedge funds, market makers, and other professional trading clients. You'll own the commercial legal work that enables Coinbase to build and scale first-of-a-kind institutional products at the intersection of crypto and traditional global markets.
What you'll do:
- Negotiate highly tailored agreements with strategic partners and sophisticated counterparties in the finance, payments, and digital asset space, including prime brokerage, lending, and derivatives documentation.
- Own full product life-cycle negotiation for institutional products, advising on legal issues, risks, complex agreement structures, and company policies in a compliance-oriented environment.
- Lead cross-functional efforts across Institutional Sales, Business Development, Product/Engineering, Finance/Tax, and Compliance to drive alignment and close deals.
- Build scalable commercial processes and risk frameworks that give the business flexibility to execute on an aggressive global growth plan.
Required Skills and Experience:
- Qualified solicitor or barrister (England & Wales) or licensed attorney with 5+ years of experience at a financial services institution (e.g., bank, e-money issuer, broker-dealer, asset manager) or at a law firm advising such clients.
- Proven track record negotiating and drafting institutional financial agreements, including prime brokerage, securities financing, and/or derivatives documentation (e.g., ISDA, GMSLA, futures agreements).
- Experience providing full life-cycle negotiating for trading, custody, or financing products, including advising on legal risk and commercial structuring.
- Familiarity with UK and/or EU regulatory regimes applicable to financial instruments, with the ability to navigate cross-border legal and regulatory considerations.
- Experience leading legal workstreams across globally distributed, cross-functional teams involving Sales, Product, Engineering, and Compliance stakeholders.
- Utilizes generative AI responsibly, maintaining human oversight to deliver business-ready outputs and drive measurable improvements in workflow efficiency, cost, and quality.
Position ID: P76023
Pay Transparency Notice: The target annual base salary for this position can range as detailed below. Total compensation may also include equity and bonus eligibility and benefits (including medical, dental, and vision).
- Application Limit: Candidates may submit a maximum of 3 applications within a 6-month period.
- Equal Opportunity Employer: Coinbase is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information. Applicants with criminal histories will be considered consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
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- Accommodations: If you are an individual with a disability who needs a reasonable accommodation, email us your request and contact info at accommodations[at]coinbase.com. Need screen reading technology? Click here to download a free compatible screen reader and view the tutorial.
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