Legal Counsel

About the role

The will own the full spectrum of legal operations necessary to support a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain network. This role requires direct partnership with the Legal Director to manage day-to-day legal activities and ensure compliance across all business functions. The position holder will act as the primary legal resource for internal stakeholders, providing pragmatic advice grounded in commercial reality. You will be responsible for drafting, reviewing, and negotiating a wide array of commercial agreements, including vendor contracts and non-disclosure agreements. The role demands active monitoring of global regulatory landscapes, particularly in cryptocurrency and digital assets, to translate legislative changes into actionable guidance. Given the agent-driven, on-chain nature of the platform, the counsel must understand how decentralized applications function technically to mitigate risk effectively. You will maintain and evolve internal legal templates and contract management procedures to support rapid business scaling. Collaboration with external legal counsel is essential to obtain specialized expertise on specific matters. This position is critical to protecting the company and enabling the deployment of next-generation Web3 protocols on the Somnia network. The successful candidate will operate with autonomy while remaining a key escalation point for complex legal issues.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Execute the drafting, review, and negotiation of vendor agreements, SaaS contracts, and non-disclosure agreements to protect the company.
• Serve as the initial contact for all legal inquiries, analyzing requests and providing practical responses aligned with business objectives.
• Provide comprehensive support for product and corporate legal matters across all Somnia jurisdictions and associated entities.
• Monitor legislative and regulatory developments, including the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation and the Clarity Act, to identify potential impacts.
• Translate complex regulatory updates into clear, actionable guidance for internal teams to ensure proactive compliance.
• Maintain an up-to-date repository of internal legal templates and operational playbooks to ensure consistency and efficiency.
• Coordinate closely with external legal counsel to secure specialized input and manage specialized legal proceedings when required.
• Assess the legal implications of new product features or blockchain functionalities before launch to minimize exposure.
• Develop and implement contract management procedures to streamline the execution and tracking of legal documents.
• Act as a strategic partner to business units, enabling innovation while ensuring all activities remain within legal boundaries.
• Provide guidance on decentralized finance and artificial intelligence integration risks specific to a Layer 1 blockchain environment.
• Ensure all documentation reflects the unique technical characteristics of agent-driven, on-chain applications.
• Support the creation of policies that address the intersection of blockchain technology and real-time autonomous operations.
• Contribute to the establishment of best practices for legal governance in a hyper-performance decentralized network.

Requirements

• Hold a valid law degree recognized in your jurisdiction of residence.
• Possess the ability to work during core business hours in the Central European Time zone.
• Demonstrate a preference for European residency due to the nature of the regulatory environment.
• Have a minimum of one to three years of relevant legal experience, ideally gained in a law firm or in-house corporate legal department.
• Show a demonstrated interest in both cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, which is essential for the role.
• Prior Web3 experience is considered advantageous but is not a strict prerequisite for eligibility.
• Be capable of operating independently while maintaining judgment on when to escalate complex legal issues.
• Exhibit strong capabilities in drafting legal documents and negotiating commercial terms with precision.
• Possess proficient written communication skills in English to articulate complex legal concepts clearly.
• Adaptability to a fast-paced, high-volume operational environment is critical for success.
• Commitment to understanding the technical fundamentals of blockchain infrastructure that underpins the Somnia network.
• Willingness to engage with a distributed team structure that operates across multiple international entities.
• Understanding of the regulatory frameworks surrounding decentralized applications and digital asset custody is necessary.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with the specific technical architecture of Layer 1 blockchains and hyper-performance networks.
• Experience advising technology startups operating in the decentralized finance and artificial intelligence sectors.
• Knowledge of virtual world creation and the legal implications of digital asset ownership.
• Understanding of how venture capital structures, such as those involving a16z crypto and MSquared, interact with blockchain projects.

About the company

If you're an tech enabled, data astute problem solver who wants to enhance our marketing team's performance at the cutting edge of Web3 through your analytical capabilities, this is the role you've been waiting for. SOMNIA is the Agentic L1 - a hyper-performance Blockchain operating at an order of magnitude faster than existing networks.