Forward-Deployed Attorney

This is a role for an attorney who enjoys law firm practice, but also wants the experience of being embedded in a business.

About General Legal

General Legal is an AI-native law firm built to deliver high-quality legal work faster and more predictably than traditional firms. We combine experienced, U.S.-barred attorneys with AI-native workflows to handle drafting, review, and negotiation end to end—without billable hours, bloated process, or junior handoffs. We operate like a startup because we are one. That means modern tooling, outcome-based pricing, remote-friendly work, and meaningful ownership for the people doing the work. By using AI to make the routine parts of contracting effortless, we give our attorneys the space to focus on judgment, negotiation, and advising clients on what actually matters. We’re building a modern law firm where great lawyers can do their best work—and help reshape how legal services are delivered.

About the Role

 

As a Forward-Deployed Attorney, you'll dedicate a meaningful portion of your time—variable by client, anywhere from two hours per day to a full day—to a single client. You'll sit alongside their team, get to know their business and their people, and serve as the face of the relationship between that client and General Legal. You'll work as closely with business and product as you do with legal, and you'll be the person the client thinks of first when something comes up. 

This is not a customer-success or account-management role dressed up in a J.D. You'll be practicing. As the client's first line of defense across the full range of practice areas our firm covers, you'll handle a wide variety of matters—and when something falls outside your wheelhouse, or simply exceeds what one person can carry, you'll pull in the right General Legal colleagues rather than muddling through alone.

That's the whole idea. Traditional practice forces a choice: go to a firm and get deep expert bench strength but little proximity to the business, or go in-house and get proximity but lose the specialists. Fractional and fractional-adjacent models give you the embedded opportunity but don’t help when the matter calls for an expert in a different vertical. We think attorneys—and clients—should get both. You get to be the in-the-room generalist for your client, with a full firm of specialists standing behind you. And if you're the kind of person who spots an opportunity to improve a product, build out a new practice area, or lead something that doesn't exist yet—we're always listening.

What You'll Do

Embed with a client. Dedicate a defined share of your week to one client, learning their business deeply and becoming the legal partner their team relies on. You'll work closely with business, product, and legal stakeholders.

Be the face of the relationship. Own the client's experience of General Legal—responsive, clear, and commercially minded. When the client thinks "I need to talk to legal," they think of you.

Practice broadly and well. Serve as first line of defense across the range of matters your client brings you: commercial contracts, technology transactions, product and go-to-market questions, vendor and partner agreements, and whatever else the business needs.

Know when to loop in the bench. Recognize the edges of your expertise and your capacity, and pull in the right specialist for matters that are out of your wheelhouse or exceed your workload. Coordinating the firm's expertise on your client's behalf is part of the job, not a failure of it.

Advise with clarity and appropriate speed. Give internal stakeholders clear recommendations on risk, strategy, and structure. You know your audience and calibrate accordingly.

Leverage AI tools as a force multiplier. You're already a power-user of legal tech, using it to raise the quality of your work and compress timelines.

Contribute beyond your lane. Whether it's flagging a product gap, proposing a better process, or raising your hand to lead a new workstream, we value attorneys who bring a "yes, and" orientation to the work.

What We're Looking For

Background & Experience

J.D. from an accredited law school; active bar membership in good standing

5-8 years of experience with a strong commercial contracts practice, or fewer years if you can make a compelling case

Ideal background is transactional—technology transactions, commercial contracts, or product counsel—but we're open to attorneys from different backgrounds who can make the case

Experience in or advising high-growth technology or emerging companies is preferred

How You Work

You are fast  and  good

You're comfortable being the generalist in the room and confident about when to hand off to a specialist

You build relationships and earn trust with non-lawyers—business and product people included

You use AI tools in your practice today, not theoretically

You produce clean, sophisticated work product

You communicate directly: clear recommendations, appropriate caveats, no filler

You're self-directed and don't need hand-holding, but you collaborate well and know when to loop people in

Bonus Points

You've been embedded in or closely advised a business as fractional, in-house, or secondment counsel

You've built or improved a legal intake, playbook, or contracting process from scratch

You have a vertical or subject matter you'd love to grow or lead

You've mentored junior attorneys and/or contributed to team development in a meaningful way

The Structure

This is a  remote-first role with annual in-person on-sites for team collaboration, planning, and the occasional celebration. We trust you to do your best work from wherever you do your best work!

Why This Role

We've built a legal team that operates like a high-functioning business unit: principled about quality, unsentimental about inefficiency, and excited about where the tools are going. This role is our answer to a choice attorneys shouldn't have to make. You get the proximity and ownership of being embedded in a real business, and the security of a full firm of specialists behind you. Your client gets a trusted partner who knows them well, and a deep bench for everything that partner can't cover alone.

If you've been waiting for a role that lets you produce at a high level, build something real with a client, and still have a team to lean on, we want you to apply.

We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.

Base Salary Range

$180,000 - $240,000 per year