Lead Counsel

Job description

**About Us** Dorsia is at the forefront of hospitality-tech innovation, redefining how the world gains access to the most in-demand restaurants, events, and experiences. By fusing cutting-edge technology with the art of luxury hospitality, we empower our members to secure impossible-to-get reservations while providing operators with unprecedented levels of control, visibility, and revenue optimization. In 2025, we grew revenue 480% and scaled to 400+ venues across 25 destinations, with the launch of our Culture Calendar extending Dorsia beyond restaurants into the world's most sought-after cultural moments. Backed by $54M in funding from investors including Index Ventures, Invus, and Red Sea Ventures, and strategic partners including MoonPay, Major Food Group, and The Dinex Group - Daniel Boulud, we are entering our most consequential phase of growth and reshaping the global hospitality landscape. We're adding exceptional talent to drive what comes next, and that's where you come in. **About the Role** Dorsia is seeking a **Lead Counsel** to own the legal function as our sole in-house lawyer. This is a corporate-focused role centered on commercial contracting and corporate governance: you will negotiate the commercial agreements that drive our venue and partner ecosystem, manage corporate governance, investor relations, and equity administration while leading legal strategy for financings and acquisitions. Your remit extends to providing expert product and regulatory counseling, privacy, and employment. As a key strategic partner to our founders and leadership, you will be the primary legal architect for teams across People, Finance, Product, and Membership. We are committed to building an AI-native legal function that uses automation to transform manual workflows into scalable systems, not simply to speed up traditional tasks. **What You’ll Do** ***Corporate, Governance & Financings*** - Own corporate governance and board operations, including board consents and resolutions. - Administer the company’s equity program, including grant issuance, vesting administration, and related board approvals. - Support financings and fundraising activity, partnering with founders and outside counsel on diligence, documentation, and closing. - Advise on strategic transactions such as acquisitions and asset purchases, including deal structuring and IP transfer. ***Commercial Contracts & Partnerships*** - Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements including venue and hospitality partnerships, event and table sales agreements, private members club onboarding contracts, and influencer and talent agreements. - Draft and maintain platform terms and related consumer-facing policies. - Engage and manage outside counsel for the most complex partnership structures and specialized matters, balancing quality with spend. ***Product, Regulatory & Privacy*** - Provide product and regulatory counseling on new products and features, including payments, credit, and other emerging questions as the platform expands. - Own privacy and data protection workstreams. - Support international expansion, including market entry, local compliance, and cross-border data considerations. - Perform final legal review of marketing, product, and campaign copy. ***People & Employment*** - Own and maintain employment document templates, including offer terms and CIIAAs. - Support the People team on compensation, equity, employment agreements, and employee relations matters. - Develop and maintain internal policies in partnership with People and Finance. ***AI & Legal Operations*** - Build and deploy AI agents to automate first-pass contract drafting, redlining, and clause-level review across the commercial pipeline. - Design self-serve legal workflows that let teams generate NDAs and standard agreements without waiting on legal. - Use AI tooling to monitor contract obligations, renewal dates, and compliance deadlines, flagging exposure before it becomes risk. - Treat the legal function as a product, continuously identifying manual workflows and replacing them with scalable systems. **The Winning Recipe** - JD and active bar membership required. - 5+ years of experience in corporate or commercial law, including time as a sole or lean in-house counsel at a startup or high-growth company. - Experience deploying AI agents and automation across contract review, redlining, and compliance workflows is a plus, as is a demonstrated interest in building an AI-native legal practice. - Strong corporate generalist skill set spanning commercial contracts, governance, financings, and strategic transactions, with comfort covering all of it as a department of one. - Experience administering equity programs, including grant issuance, vesting, and board consent processes. - Working knowledge of data privacy frameworks, or experience in employment law, is a plus - we equally welcome strong startup corporate lawyers with a genuine interest in expanding their practice into privacy, employment and AI. - Business affairs sensibility for the non-standard commercial structures common in our space. - Experience advising on payments, credit, or other regulated consumer products is a plus. - Experience with hospitality, membership, or two-sided marketplace businesses, particularly partnerships-heavy models is a plus. Compensation: New York Pay Range $225,000—$265,000 USD ### **Workplace Philosophy at Dorsia** At Dorsia, we believe that culture eats strategy. The best ideas in the world mean nothing without the right people around the table and the right chemistry between them. We are, unapologetically, a people-first organization. **In-Person Matters** We’re creating once-in-a-lifetime experiences for the most discerning audience in the world. That doesn’t happen over Zoom. It happens through collisions: a spark across a desk, a kitchen-side conversation that unlocks a partnership, the energy of ideas felt, not typed. That’s why in-office culture is non-negotiable at Dorsia. **Who We Hire** We don’t subscribe to check-the-box hiring. We hire for merit and mindset, which naturally creates a team with varied backgrounds. What unites us isn’t demographics, it’s a shared vision: to build the social operating system for the cultural vanguard. **Lifestyle Hours** We’re not a 9-to-5 company. Our lifestyle mirrors our members. Early flights, after-work events, and late-night sprints when the work demands it. But we love what we do, and we definitely love a good party. **High Performance Culture** Working at Dorsia isn’t for everyone—and that’s the point. Our culture is designed for builders, not passengers. We move fast, set ambitious standards, and expect people to rise to them. If you have the talent and the drive, this will be a ride to remember. **A Final Word** We’re building something special. It will take long hours and relentless effort. It’s not for everyone. For those with the metabolism, you’ll create something that changes how culture is lived. And that’s the kind of work worth your life’s energy.