Paralegal

Job Description

Who are we?

Sidewalk Labs is an urban innovation company that tackles cities' greatest challenges. We create products and solutions, invest in new companies, and help developers build more sustainable, innovative, and equitable places around the world. Our ambitious vision requires us to push ourselves beyond conventional thinking, and we work hard in pursuit of our mission. Our cross-disciplinary team consists of experts from real estate, urban planning, government, finance, technology, and engineering, among other backgrounds.

Our urban innovations include Delve (a generative design product that empowers real estate teams to design better, faster, with less risk), Mesa (an easy-install kit for commercial buildings that cuts energy costs, improves tenant comfort, and simplifies building operations), Pebble (a low-cost vehicle sensor to help manage parking and curb space), and Affordable Electrification (a new way to manage home energy use to meet a customer’s monthly budget). We're also developing an offsite construction company that can deliver high-quality mass timber buildings for more sustainable living and working.

With the potential to radically improve quality of life in cities for all, our work is both exciting and complex. We are working to achieve something unprecedented — help us build it!

What is the role?

To facilitate our growth strategy, we're looking to add a self-motivated, proactive Paralegal who will work both independently and also support our broader legal team. This person will report to our Director of Commercial Transactions. We see this role as an empowered and critical operational member of our team.

Our legal team, and this Paralegal, will provide broad support to Sidewalk’s existing product businesses as well as future incubations. This role will also help manage the company’s intellectual property portfolio, corporate governance matters, and special projects and transactions. We believe you will thrive in this role if you are a natural problem-solver, well organized, familiar with negotiating and drafting legal agreements, and want to act as the operational partner to our team (e.g. are not shy to escalate issues).

We are confident this opportunity will be interesting to you if you have a curiosity for urban development, thrive on cross-disciplinary work, and enjoy tackling novel questions and problems.

What You Will Achieve

After 3 months you will have:

• Built strong professional and personal relationships with your manager and colleagues in and outside the legal team;
• Learned the work flows, operational pain points, and have a view on how to prioritize tasks, plans, and projects for your manager;
• Acquired an understanding of Sidewalk’s corporate structure and its suite of products and services;
• Started contributing to the legal workflow by supporting the team on the preparation and execution of documents.

After 6 months you will have:

• Proposed specific improvements to work flows to reduce operational pain points;
• Assumed responsibility for providing support on standard corporate contracts (e.g., Non-Disclosure Agreements, Inbound Services Agreements, Statements of Work) while escalating issues to the relevant attorney as appropriate.

After 12 months you will have:

• Taken the lead on routine corporate governance actions for Sidewalk’s subsidiaries (preparing drafts of Board Consents & incumbency certificates, ordering good standing certificates, overseeing annual filings with state secretary’s offices, maintaining minute books, etc.);
• Developed a familiarity with Sidewalk’s intellectual property portfolio sufficient to coordinate requisite filings with outside counsel;
• Lent significant support on strategic projects and transactions (e.g., implementing and operationalizing new systems/tools or supporting due diligence efforts on potential corporate transactions).

What We Expect

Proven Expertise

• You have a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) and 4+ years’ experience working as a paralegal or legal assistant at a law firm or in-house (experience with tech or real estate development is a plus);
• You have demonstrated the ability to develop, manage, and modify procedures, policies and processes to effectively intake and track legal workflows from start to finish;
• You have experience project-managing complex legal and organizational projects and are comfortable challenging the status quo;
• You are comfortable and have experience with a variety of technology solutions.

Proactive, Solutions-Oriented Approach

• You are pragmatic, have excellent judgement, exercise analytical rigor, communicate clearly and concisely, and have business acumen;
• You can prioritize effectively, and are sufficiently flexible to ensure critical issues are addressed in a timely manner;
• You identify inefficiencies in the legal work flow and proactively recommend improvements & solutions.

Effective Partner for Legal & Business Teams

• You are willing to take the initiative on matters while always keeping your manager and team members informed and escalating issues appropriately;
• You never stop asking how you can help the legal team become more efficient and more effective;
• You recognize the importance of understanding the perspectives and priorities of our business partners;
• You are a collaborative team player, committed to Sidewalk’s “All For One” value.

Commitment to Excellence

• You take pride in your work and recognize that timely, accurate legal support is critical to the company’s overall success;
• You are committed to Sidewalk’s “No Shortcuts” value and consistently high-quality work product;
• You are aligned to Sidewalk’s mission to radically improve the quality of life in cities for all.

We are very excited to hear from you.

Sidewalk Labs is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek applicants from underrepresented communities. Even if you are not 100% sure you are right for the role, please apply and we will be happy to consider your application. All employment is based on merit and business need, and we respond to each application we receive.