In-house Counsel

Loyal is developing drugs intended to extend dog lifespan and healthspan. Loyal was founded in October 2019 and currently has ~40 team members.

We aim to build a consumer-friendly brand around a series of deeply technical products - a consumer-first pharmaceutical company. Loyal is backed by top deep tech & consumer investors and is based in San Francisco, CA. Loyal was founded and is run by a female, first-gen CEO.

You will be the first in-house legal team member at Loyal! You will be responsible for planning & execution of Loyal’s legal affairs and operations. You will lead the negotiation of contracts with our partners and vendors, and own the implementation of our intellectual property strategy via external legal counsel. You will report to the Head of Business Operations to start.

We’re looking for someone who’s familiar with the corporate proceedings of startups, and has the requisite experience to build a first-class legal team at a fast-growing startup. The ideal candidate will marry intellectual verve with a scrappy work ethic, capable of both writing the playbook and making the plays.

You will:

• • Lead all legal matters for the business
  • Own the execution of Loyal’s IP strategy in collaboration with external legal counsel
  • Manage the entire contracts life cycle, including employment contracts of Loyal team
  • Manage relationships with external legal firms
  • Evaluate proposed partnerships and collaborations; provide legal guidance on risks and mitigations
  • Ensure appropriate structure and policies in all financial efforts, including fundraising
  • Scale our legal function in step with the needs of the business

Who you are:

• • JD and 5-10 years of relevant experience
  • Significant experience drafting and editing MSAs, SOWs, etc.
  • Highly organized - able to manage and prioritize across multiple projects
  • Strong written and verbal communication
  • Thrive with autonomy
  • Preference to biology education, or comparable work history in biotech/biopharma

Reasons you may not like this role

• • As our first legal hire, you will have to balance reactive requests while building processes to set us up for scale
  • Your work will span disciplines -- R&D, CMC, etc. -- and you will need to pick up a significant amount of cross-functional context quickly
  • We are targeting a nascent category of biology in aging -- our scientific and operational challenges are unique even for biotech, and we need someone who can rise to the particular challenges of our field
  • We are ~40 people - startup early adolescence - and experiencing the requisite growing pains

The Fundamentality of Health | Good health is critical to every other human (and animal!) experience. We believe health is a fundamental right and are dedicating our lives to maximizing health and developing better medicines for the worst diseases.

Truth Seeking & Feedback Loops | Uniquely in biology, there is a predetermined truth of whether a specific drug will work or not — we just have to catch up with biology! We seek out this truth and do not shy away from inconvenient truths. This holds for personal development too: we are always searching for feedback loops and embody a perpetual growth mindset.

Morality & Empathy | We are developing medicines that may one day be given to a living animal, medicines that if designed badly could hurt that animal instead of help. This is a huge responsibility and should be respected as such. Our work needs to adhere to the strictest moral code and always integrate empathy for the patient.

Transparency | We believe full transparency in thoughts, opinions, intentions, and actions (both good ones and mistakes) is a better way to build a business and work together.

Kindness | Great business(wo)men do not need to be ruthless — you can execute excellently with kindness.

Dog gifs | We love them.