Litigation & Employment Counsel

Instawork is on a mission to create meaningful economic opportunities for skilled hourly professionals in communities around the globe. Our AI-powered labor marketplace helps local businesses scale, and enables global technology companies to push the frontiers of robotics and AI. Backed by world-class investors like Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, Greylock, Y Combinator, and others, we're looking for exceptional talent to reimagine the way the world works.

We're looking for a self-motivated, intellectually curious, and pragmatic Litigation & Employment Counsel to join our lean, high-impact Legal team. You should be comfortable using AI tools to drive efficiency in your legal work and eager to help build scalable processes as the company grows.

The Opportunity:
This role starts with hands-on ownership of Instawork's individual employment and worker-classification claims — and it's designed to grow. As you build streamlined, scalable processes for that caseload, your scope expands into platform-level litigation, product counseling, and broader advice-and-counsel work across the business.

What You'll Do:

• Assess individual claims, directly engage with opposing counsel to negotiate resolutions, and identify trends across matters that should be addressed proactively
• Handle a wide variety of litigation and pre-litigation matters in state and federal courts and administrative forums, especially matters involving worker classification and employment-related claims, and help shape the team's overall litigation strategy as the caseload evolves
• Advise Instawork's Trust and Safety on investigations of employment-related claims, on-platform incidents, or policy violations
• Create and implement scalable processes for the legal team, including identifying opportunities for automation and process innovation
• Leverage AI and other technology tools to increase efficiency, improve work product, and support the team's continuous improvement goals
• Manage the relationship with relevant outside counsel as needed, including strategy, discovery, and work product
• Partner with senior members of the Legal team, the People team, and business leaders throughout the company to evaluate legal risks and provide subject matter expertise on a broad range of issues — including developing and delivering related training for HR and business teams
• Help prepare for and mitigate exposure that may create litigation risk in the future

Who You Are:

• JD and California bar admission in good standing (or barred in another state and qualified for and willing to maintain Registered In-House Counsel status with California State Bar)
• 5+ years of legal experience in a law firm and/or in-house
• Experience in the technology, gig economy, or marketplace industry strongly preferred
• Mature judgment, with the ability to distill complex, competing legal risks into clear, actionable guidance
• Tolerance for ambiguity and reprioritizing quickly in a fast-paced environment
• Team mentality and recognition that no task is too small
• Proven ability to manage a high volume of matters while maintaining quality and composure
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with a sense of perspective and humor

Nice to Have:

• Prior in-house counsel experience
• Experience with workers' compensation and insurance coverage matters
• Proficiency with AI-assisted legal research, drafting, or workflow tools
• Continuous learning mindset: you bring strong skills and experience to the table and are open to new approaches, tools, and ways of working

For CA-based applicants:

• The base salary for this position is $175,000 - $225,000
• This position is eligible for equity in the form of stock options
• This position is eligible for Instawork benefits, including:
• A variety of medical, dental, and vision plans with coverage beginning on the date of hire
• Flexible paid time off
• At least 8 paid company holidays annually
• Phone stipend
• Commuter stipend
• Supplemental pay on qualified leaves
• Employee health savings accounts (HSA) contribution
• Flexible spending plans
• 401K plan
• Perkspot - discount program through Lumity

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