Counsel

Location: Chicago

Type: Full-time

About Coinflow

Coinflow is a hypergrowth fintech startup headquartered in Chicago, dedicated to revolutionizing payments. We enable merchants and marketplaces to accept global payment methods with instant settlement, chargeback protection, and the fastest payouts infrastructure.

Over the past year and a half, we've become a trusted partner for high-growth digital businesses—powering the next generation of commerce through speed, reliability, and transparency.

Join us to help shape the future of payments in a dynamic, collaborative, and fast-paced environment where your work directly impacts our customers' success.

About the Role

We're seeking an experienced Counsel to serve as our first in-house legal hire and strategic legal partner as we scale. This is a high-impact role where you'll build our legal function from the ground up, advise on critical business decisions, and ensure we navigate the complex regulatory landscape of payments and digital assets with confidence.

You'll work directly with our leadership team on strategic matters while managing day-to-day legal needs—from commercial contracts to regulatory compliance. This role offers significant autonomy, variety, and the opportunity to shape legal strategy at a critical inflection point in our company's growth.

What You'll Do

Commercial & Contracts

• Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of commercial agreements including merchant agreements, partnership agreements, vendor contracts, and licensing deals
• Own the contract review process and build scalable templates and playbooks as we grow
• Partner with Sales, Product, and Operations teams to structure deals that balance risk and commercial objectives

Strategic & Corporate Matters

• Serve as a trusted advisor to leadership on strategic initiatives, corporate governance, and risk management
• Support fundraising activities, M&A opportunities, and corporate transactions as they arise
• Advise on employment matters, equity compensation, and HR policies

Regulatory & Compliance

• Navigate the evolving regulatory landscape for payments, fintech, and digital assets/crypto
• Develop and maintain compliance programs for money transmission, AML/KYC, and consumer protection requirements
• Monitor regulatory developments and translate them into actionable guidance for the business
• Support licensing efforts and regulatory filings as needed

Outside Counsel Management

• Serve as the primary liaison with our outside counsel, ensuring efficient and cost-effective engagement
• Determine when to handle matters in-house vs. escalate to specialists
• Build relationships with external legal partners and manage their work to control costs

Who You Are

Required:

• JD from an accredited law school and active bar membership
• 5+ years of legal experience, with significant exposure to fintech, payments, or financial services
• Strong understanding of payment systems, money transmission regulations, and fintech regulatory frameworks
• Experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial contracts
• Proven ability to work autonomously and make sound judgment calls in ambiguous situations
• Excellent communication skills and ability to translate complex legal concepts for non-legal stakeholders
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment with competing priorities

Strongly Preferred:

• Experience with cryptocurrency, blockchain, or digital assets regulatory issues
• Prior in-house experience at a high-growth startup or fintech company
• Familiarity with state money transmitter licensing and federal regulatory frameworks (FinCEN, CFPB, etc.)
• Experience managing outside counsel relationships and legal budgets
• Background in both transactional and regulatory work

Bonus Points:

• CIPP certification or privacy law experience
• International payments or cross-border regulatory experience
• Prior experience building a legal function from scratch

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and equity package appropriate for a Series A startup
• Opportunity to build and shape the legal function as we scale
• Direct exposure to leadership and meaningful input on company strategy
• Work on cutting-edge issues at the intersection of payments, fintech, and crypto
• Collaborative, transparent culture where your expertise will be valued and your impact visible

Why Join Now?

• This is a rare opportunity to join as the first legal hire at a hypergrowth fintech company. You'll have significant autonomy, broad scope, and the chance to define how we approach legal and compliance as we scale. If you thrive in environments where you can be both strategic advisor and hands-on practitioner, this role is for you.