Associate Regulatory Product Counsel - Payments

Lead Bank is a chartered banking-as-a-service platform for builders and innovators. Despite broader economic headwinds, the continued proliferation of fintech companies and a 20x increase in fintech investment ($20.5 billion in 2020) signals that the market’s interest in embedding financial services products into their offerings is resilient and sustainable. Whether it’s a travel company that wants to offer credit for an expensive trip, a social network that wants to enable in-feed shopping solutions, or an ecommerce platform that wants to provide client rewards cards, the broader tech ecosystem has enjoyed a step-change in the sophistication, variety and complexity of client-facing products they can offer. This means that the underlying infrastructure powering those fintechs needs to evolve to meet these modern demands.

While fintech companies continue pushing boundaries, they have largely accepted that directly integrating with banks is costly, time-consuming and operationally burdensome. This frustration comes in many forms: gaps in technical acumen, product scalability, client risk appetite, and company culture. These gaps clearly illustrate the need for a new paradigm in banking technology. 

Lead Bank is bridging those gaps. We see a massive opportunity for a tech-savvy developer-focused bank to augment a sophisticated financial services platform with the compliance, regulatory, capital markets, and legal expertise required to help our clients succeed. Come join us on our journey.

Role Description: We are looking to hire an Associate Regulatory Counsel to join our nimble in-house legal team to support our Payments and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) initiatives. This attorney will support internal as well as external stakeholders through the increased regulatory and technology demands on bank products and services, with a primary focus on providing practical legal advice and recommendations on day-to-day legal issues to enable our teams to meet their business objectives within the company’s risk tolerance.  

This role will be a key member of our risk team, reporting to Senior Regulatory Counsel. This attorney will be a strategic partner in building processes and practices that will drive efficiencies and enable our legal team to scale. 

In this role you will:

• Provide legal and regulatory guidance to clients and internal teams for the Bank’s Payments initiatives, including federal and state consumer payments laws and regulations (EFTA, NACHA, GLBA, UDAAP, crypto, money transmission licensing, card network rules, etc.)
• Draft and negotiate complex contracts with clients, partners, and vendors, ensuring compliance with applicable law
• Stay abreast of relevant banking and payments regulation, legislation and other developments and trends that may impact the company and its Payments vertical. 
• Perform all other duties as assigned. 

Qualifications:

• 3+ years of experience specializing in payments
• Active member in good standing of at least one state bar
• Experience reviewing commercial and consumer disclosures and documents for payments services
• Experience understanding, interpreting, and applying payments laws, regulations, and rules to innovative environments such as fintech and crypto
• Critical-thinker with the ability to be practical and balance competing risks (legal and non-legal)
• Eager to collaborate/compromise to get to the best, most efficient outcome
• Strong judgment, good instincts and sharp analytical skills
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work cross-functionally to align stakeholders on the goals and behaviors required for success
• Welcomes divergent opinions and perspectives
• Client focused mentality
• Intellectually curious self-starter that likes to roll up your sleeves
• Experience in a law firm advising clients regarding payments services preferred
• Experience with fintech or Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) environment preferred
• Experience drafting and negotiating commercial contracts preferred
• Experience with stablecoin and crypto based payment flows preferred
• Interested in expanding experience into other banking products like lending and deposits

What we offer:

• At Lead, we design our benefits to support company culture and principles, to foster an efficient and inspiring work environment, and to create the conditions for our team to give their best in both work and life
• Competitive compensation, based on experience, geographic location, and role
• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, 401k Matching, and other wellness benefits, including FSA, HSA and HRA
• Paid parental leave
• Flexible vacation policy, including PTO and paid holidays
• A fun and challenging team environment in a dynamic industry with ample opportunities for career growth 

*Lead Bank is proud to have an inclusive culture committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity in all employment decisions regardless of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military status, veteran status or any other legally protected status.

*Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

*Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

*Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

**Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. Pay is based on a number of factors and may vary depending on geographical market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Zone 1: $161,000 - $185,000 (SF/Bay Area, NYC, Seattle)

Zone 2: $140,000 - $165,000 (Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Denver, Boston, Washington DC, San Diego, Philadelphia, Portland, Sacramento)

Zone 3: $125,000 - $144,000 (Other US Metros)

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