We are a small firm doing serious work for AI-native and SaaS companies. When we hire, we hire lawyers whose name can go on the answer.
Senior Associate
Commercial, AI Product Counsel & Privacy
About AMBART LAW
AMBART LAW is a boutique New York law firm with a client base mainly consisting of AI-native and B2B SaaS companies. Our practice areas include AI product counseling, AI governance, data privacy, commercial contracts, intellectual property, and litigation. We typically serve as fractional GC to late-stage startups.
In our firm’s culture, we particularly care about:
Judgment
Clients pay for a decision they can act on. We size the question, take a position, and stand behind it.
Curiosity
We learn the product, the technology, and the tools. As the tech evolves, so does our understanding, so that we can counsel our clients appropriately. This requires continuous learning from each of us.
Excellence without ego
Rigor and kindness are not a tradeoff. We compete with ourselves to be better lawyers, not with each other.
The role
As a Senior Associate, you will be the lead lawyer for a portfolio of AI-native and SaaS clients—the person they call first, and the person whose name is on the answer. You will own several fractional GC clients end to end, advising clients on a broad range of matters involving their products and features and the way they market and sell those features to their customers, with a primary focus on AI product counseling and commercial contracts.
Your work product goes out the door. You will take the client call, scope the question yourself, provide advice on how to de-risk a feature, redline the agreement, and send it under your own name. A partner will read behind you as a second set of eyes but not as a first editor.
The firm is small and based in NoMad, Manhattan. We work from the office several days a week, and new lawyers should expect to be in with us regularly during their first few months. After that, if you are responsive to our clients and producing excellent work product, we will implement a hybrid schedule that fits your life while meeting the firm’s needs.
The work divides into three primary buckets:
Commercial agreements
MSAs, SaaS subscription agreements, DPAs, order forms, SOWs, reseller and channel agreements, data licensing, and AI-specific terms and addenda. You will negotiate directly with the counterparty, not through a client intermediary. You will also create contracting playbooks specific to the client and their products.
AI product counsel
Sitting with product and engineering before a feature ships and advising on how to de-risk it based on your familiarity and understanding of sector-specific laws: AI and bot-disclosure laws and the wording and timing of the disclaimer; consent architecture for AI-initiated calls and texts (TCPA, CTIA, state recording laws); whether the feature pulls the client into HIPAA or state consumer health data laws; model and tooling vendor terms, including training-on-data and data-retention configuration; pilot and design-partner agreements for pre-GA features; and the agentic AI and MCP sections of the client’s contracting playbook. The AI-specific laws are often the smaller part of this work. The larger part is the sector the feature sells into—an AI recruiting tool is an ADEA and FCRA question before it is a disclosure question—and we expect familiarity with those sector-specific laws, not expertise in all of them.
Data privacy and consumer protection
GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, consumer health data privacy laws, state recording consent laws, TCPA, CAN-SPAM Act, COPPA, HIPAA. Privacy impact assessments, DPIAs, DSAR workflows, breach and incident response, subprocessor diligence, and drafting policies—but also counseling on how to build consent flows, gating, and technical architecture to give effect to the words on paper.
Who we are looking for
Ideal candidates should have the following:
- Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school;
- Admitted in New York and in good standing;
- 8+ years of legal practice, with at least 3 of them at an AmLaw 100 firm or a top-tier boutique, and meaningful time since then owning matters end to end—in-house at a high-growth technology company, or as the lead lawyer on your own client relationships;
- Excellent writing and presentation skills;
- Fully developed organizational skills and comfort working with multiple clients on a daily basis;
- Experience supporting startups or high-growth technology companies, as outside counsel or in-house counsel;
- Demonstrated ownership of commercial agreements from first draft or redline through signature, at volume, as the lead negotiator;
- Substantive privacy experience that goes beyond policy review: you have run assessments, advised on product design, or developed privacy programs, and you are adept at working directly with clients and providing them with clear, practical, and actionable advice on U.S. state privacy laws;
- Experience advising product and engineering teams on AI features before they ship: figuring out which laws apply to the feature (AI-specific and otherwise) and turning that into guidance the team can build to;
- Written work product that is filing-ready or client-ready without a rewrite;
- The judgment to size a question. Our clients pay for a decision and an answer they can implement, not a survey of the authorities.
We are flexible on the shape of the background. A commercial and privacy partner or counsel coming out of a firm, a senior in-house lawyer at a venture-backed company who wants a portfolio instead of one employer, and a litigator who has genuinely converted to transactional and advisory work or has significant experience representing companies in government investigations involving data practices are all credible profiles for this seat.
What will set a candidate apart
- CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPM, or AIGP certification.
- A second admission, or a working command of EU practice.
- Product counsel experience inside a technology company, on the other side of the table from outside counsel.
- Working knowledge of copyright, right of publicity, and trademark law—enough to catch IP issues in a product feature or a commercial deal before they become a dispute.
- Demonstrated capability building with AI or leveraging AI workflows.
What we are not asking for is a book of business. While you will participate in firm-directed business development, this is a lawyering seat. Our ability to sell work depends on our ability to perform the work, at exceptionally high standards.
Compensation
Base salary. Where an offer lands within the range depends on credited experience—prior relevant practice, certain degrees, and certifications.
- Origination credit
- 15% of collected fees in year one and 7.5% in year two on any client you bring in. Upside if it happens, not an expectation of the role.
- Performance bonus
- Discretionary, tied to utilization, client retention, and firm contribution; reviewed annually.
- Path to partnership
- Non-equity partner consideration at 18 to 24 months, with equity thereafter. Assessed on work product, client retention, business development, and the ability to run matters independently.
- Benefits
- A monthly pre-tax health insurance stipend (currently $850) through the firm’s ICHRA; 15 days of PTO in your first year, increasing by 2 days each year to a maximum of 25; 9 firm holidays plus 1 floating holiday; and reimbursement of primary bar dues and mandatory CLE.
How to apply
Send your resume and a short note to info@ambartlaw.com with the following in the subject line:
Senior Associate Application in response to September 17, 2026 PostingIn the note, tell us about one piece of advice you gave a client that you would defend today, and one you would give differently.
We read every application ourselves. No recruiters, please.
Email your applicationAMBART LAW is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on any basis protected by New York State or New York City law. Consistent with the New York City and New York State pay transparency laws, the good-faith base salary range for this position is stated above.