Associate General Counsel, Americas

Department environment

The Copper legal team is a collaborative and high energy group of smart, driven and intellectually curious lawyers and paralegals. We take our work but not ourselves incredibly seriously, tackling novel issues and supporting the business with focus, precision, and relentless good humour. We know and support each other deeply as professionals and humans. We proudly hold a range of passports and qualifications and speak as many languages as we have team members - diversity on all levels is deeply valued.

Our business is growing rapidly, both in terms of new people and new or enhanced products, and as a key support function the legal team has and continues to expand in a complimentary way. We need expert lawyers advising within their specialist areas, and for this reason we broadly break the team down into Product and Enterprise (including Commercial), Corporate and Regulatory. As we expand globally as a company, we are adding regional experts to help advise on the nuances of local legal and compliance regimes.

Key Responsibilities of the role

Working from our New York office with the option to partially work remotely, you will be advising Copper’s executive teams, stakeholders in the business and the international Legal and Compliance teams in the US, Switzerland, Europe and the Middle East on a broad range of legal and regulatory matters.

You will primarily support license application processes, engage with regulators and advise the management of our regulated businesses on governance and regulatory requirements in the US. Your work will be focused on the intersection of banking/financial services regulation, institutional crypto asset markets and tokenisation. In this capacity, you will help the Product and Product Legal Team to design and roll out market leading and regulatory compliant products and services.

• Obtaining and maintaining the US licensing package required to offer Copper’s products to US customers (including MTLs and custody licences).
• Advising the business and the Compliance Team on all legal matters with a particular focus on US regulatory law.
• Supporting our regulated entities in establishing, maintaining and further developing their operating models and policy frameworks in compliance with rapidly changing regulatory requirements.
• Drafting and managing new and ongoing license applications to support our growth strategy.
• Working closely with the Product Team to advise on new products and services, with a particular focus on a US institutional client base, and their compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Working with external counsel or consultants as and when required, including managing legal spend and invoices.
• Helping with the development of trainee solicitors and paralegals across the Legal Team.
• Dealing with adhoc queries of a legal nature that arise in the course of operating a business in the US and maintaining offices in New York and New Jersey.

Your experience, skills and knowledge

• US qualified lawyer.
• Post-qualification experience either in-house or at a law firm advising on regulatory matters, including specific experience in obtaining and maintaining MTLs and custody licences within the traditional financial services and/or digital assets industries.
• Experience engaging with regulators at State and Federal level.
• Broader knowledge of banking and financial services regulation in the US.
• Ability to manage transactions and projects and awareness as to when to escalate issues to the Chief Legal Officer or other members of the Executive Team.
• Keeping up-to-speed with developments in the law and regulation relevant to the role and sharing knowhow as appropriate within the Legal team.
• Exceptional drafting skills and attention to detail alongside effective written and oral communication.
• A real interest in technology, tokenisation and crypto.
• Experience in managing budgets and other more junior members of staff.

The benefits offered

In return for everything you can bring to Copper, we can offer you an exciting, challenging role in a fast-growing and dynamic business, with career opportunities and welcoming working environment.

If you think you have everything we're looking for and more, then we'd love you to apply for the opportunity.