Senior Legal Counsel

About the role

This role focuses on the legal aspects of Lido's commercial operations. The Senior Legal Counsel will be responsible for reviewing, drafting, and negotiating various commercial contracts, including those for strategic partnerships, client services, and vendor agreements. A key part of the work involves ensuring these contracts align with the protocol's overall objectives and supporting robust contract management processes.

The position requires providing practical legal advice on new initiatives, product integrations, and commercial partnerships. This includes identifying and mitigating legal risks while balancing commercial opportunities with sound risk management. The counsel will also contribute to developing legal frameworks that enhance the resilience and scalability of the Lido ecosystem.

Success in this role means proactively identifying issues, proposing solutions, and driving legal matters forward in a fast-paced environment. The counsel will collaborate with decentralized teams and contribute to thought leadership on legal innovation within decentralized protocols and open-source ecosystems. Strong commercial judgment and the ability to translate complex legal topics into clear advice are essential.

The annual salary for this position is between $148,000 and $158,000 USD.

Skills that matter here

• commercial contracts: This role involves extensive work with commercial contracts, including drafting, negotiating, and advising on various types of agreements.
• risk assessment: The counsel will proactively identify, analyze, and mitigate legal risks associated with commercial opportunities and ecosystem initiatives.
• legal frameworks: A responsibility includes supporting the development of legal frameworks to strengthen the Lido ecosystem's resilience and scalability.
• decentralised teams: The role requires comfort working with decentralized teams, reflecting the nature of the Lido ecosystem.
• crypto, DeFi, decentralised governance, or open-source ecosystems: A demonstrated interest in these areas is preferred, indicating the relevance of this knowledge to the role's context.
• Russian: Fluency in Russian is strongly preferred due to potential involvement with Russian-language documentation and collaboration with Russian-speaking counterparts.

Who this role suits

• Someone with at least five years of experience in a law firm or in-house, particularly with complex commercial transactions.
• A professional who can work autonomously, identify issues, and drive solutions in a dynamic environment.
• An individual with strong commercial judgment, capable of making practical, risk-based decisions.
• A clear communicator who can simplify complex legal topics for various stakeholders.

From the employer

Key Scope

• Review, draft, negotiate, and advise on a broad range of commercial contracts, including strategic partnerships, integrations, client services, and vendor arrangements.
• Collaborate closely with contributors across the ecosystem to ensure contractual alignment with the protocol’s broader goals and initiatives.
• Support contract management, negotiation workflows, and risk assessment processes.
• Provide practical legal advice on new opportunities, ecosystem initiatives, product integrations, and commercial partnerships.
• Proactively identify, analyse, and mitigate legal risks, balancing commercial opportunity with sound risk management.
• Support the development of legal frameworks that strengthen the resilience and scalability of the Lido ecosystem.
• Contribute to thought leadership initiatives around decentralised protocols, open-source ecosystems, and legal innovation.

Requirements

• 5+ years of relevant experience at a law firm and/or in-house, with significant exposure to complex commercial transactions.
• Deep experience drafting and negotiating a wide range of commercial contracts.
• Strong commercial judgment, with the ability to make practical, risk-based decisions in a fast-moving environment.
• Ability to work autonomously and proactively identify issues, propose solutions, and drive matters forward.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate complex legal topics into clear, actionable advice.
• Comfortable working with decentralised teams, open-source initiatives, or protocol-based ecosystems.
• Demonstrated interest in crypto, DeFi, decentralised governance, or open-source ecosystems preferred.
• Fluency in Russian is strongly preferred, as the role will involve Russian-language documentation and collaboration with Russian-speaking counterparties/contributors.