Senior Director & Associate General Counsel, Earnest
$168-200k
+ Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Expert level
Remote from US
Student loan provider
Job no longer available
Student loan provider
201-500 employees
FintechB2CPersonal financeLendingCredit cardsFinancial Services
Job no longer available
$168-200k
+ Employee Stock Purchase Plan
Expert level
Remote from US
201-500 employees
FintechB2CPersonal financeLendingCredit cardsFinancial Services
Company mission
To make higher education accessible and affordable for everyone.
Role
Who you are
- Juris Doctor or LL.M. degree; Licensed and in good standing with any state bar. Strong educational background
- Strong foundational legal experience with at least 10+ years in a law firm, corporate legal department, or similar legal position
- Significant experience and knowledge of consumer lending laws and privacy laws is required and experience in student lending is highly preferred
- Strong legal and business acumen and ability to work effectively and multitask successfully in a fast-paced and complex business environment
- Self-starter with excellent attention to detail, thrives in a fast-paced, energetic and entrepreneurial environment, and has excellent problem solving, interpersonal, teamwork, writing, negotiation, and client communication skills
- Experience with FinTech bank partnerships and True Lender issues is preferred
- Proven Merger and Acquisition track record is preferred
- Strong knowledge of federal and state consumer lending and privacy laws and regulations (including ECOA, TILA, FCRA, UDAAP, SCRA/MLA, TCPA, NACHA, Regulation E, GLBA, CAN-SPAM, CCPA, and state consumer lending laws)
- Ability to handle a significant volume of work, timely complete complex legal analysis and balance multiple, simultaneously-assigned tasks
- Ability to quickly grasp and understand complex business practices, products and services, and operations, and adeptly interpret and explain the law and legal requirements in light of operations and business realities, and use that knowledge of the business to help assess risk and identify and propose risk mitigation options
- Ability to understand and then clearly communicate verbally and in writing complex legal and business concepts to others, including employees and managers in compliance, legal and operations
- Ability to make professional legal and business presentations in writing, through emails and reports, or orally, including complex legal, business, and technical matters to an audience of high technical skills, management, and operational experience
- Must have experience and proficiency with Microsoft Standard Office Suite and Google Suite
- Adaptability to changing demands
- Flexibility to work beyond regularly scheduled business hours; travel may be required locally or to other business locations, or to manage legal matters
- Strong legal/financial/business acumen and ability to work effectively and multitask successfully in a fast-paced and complex business environment
- Ability to effectively supervise outside attorneys when directed by the Head of Legal or senior attorneys
What the job involves
- As the Senior Director and Associate General Counsel, you will report to the Head of Legal and this position has primary responsibility for regulatory and privacy matters at Earnest and provides legal advice and support to senior compliance and business partners on projects in support of various business initiatives
- Regulatory and Privacy Support Provide legal advice and counsel, and other legal services, in support of Earnest’s business objectives, in a manner consistent with federal and state consumer lending laws and regulations (including ECOA, TILA, FCRA, UDAAP, SCRA/MLA, TCPA, NACHA, Regulation E, GLBA, CAN-SPAM, CCPA, and state consumer lending and privacy laws) as well as with internal policies and procedures
- Provide clear, timely, and actionable legal counsel and advice to senior compliance and business partners that advance business goals while addressing and mitigating regulatory risks
- Perform legal review of product flows, marketing collateral, consumer-facing policies, notices, disclosures, consumer-facing correspondence, and other documents and materials
- Facilitate, from a legal perspective, large-scale regulatory projects
- Generally, work with compliance and business partners to ensure a controlled and compliant environment through the remediation of root-cause issues identified in audits, litigation, compliance testing and monitoring, complaint handling, threatened litigation, and government inquiries or regulatory examinations
- Perform legal research and prepare legal memoranda, legal opinions, and other tools and resources
- Stay apprised of laws, regulations, guidance, and case law concerning Earnest’s consumer lending business. In particular, items related to consumer lending, privacy and true lender issues
- Other projects as directed by the Head of Legal
- This position will provide legal support for the Earnest Business Acquisition and Business Development Team
- Provide legal support to business partners in identifying business opportunities, surfacing and working through legal issues, due diligence, contractual support, etc
- Will require facilitation with internal and external business partners, parent company legal, outside counsel, regulators and other functions
- Work collaboratively and creatively with senior compliance and business stakeholders during product development to identify and address regulatory risks associated with company initiatives and ensure Earnest’s products are implemented in a manner consistent with federal and state consumer lending laws and regulations (including ECOA, TILA , FCRA, UDAAP, SCRA/MLA, TCPA, NACHA, Regulation E, GLBA, CAN-SPAM, CCPA, and state consumer lending laws) as well as with internal policies and procedures
- Draft, review, and maintain consumer-facing documents and marketing collateral for Earnest product offerings (e.g., web-based application flow, client dashboard, credit agreements, policies, notices, disclosures)
- Research legal issues triggered by proposed product features (or proposed underwriting criteria) and communicate the legal analysis and recommendation to the appropriate teams in a clear, timely, and actionable manner
- Liaison with outside counsel on appropriate regulatory matters as requested by Earnest Head of Legal
- Prepare legal summaries, memoranda, and other resources as appropriate
- Review various types of marketing collateral and draft accompanying consumer disclosures for prescreened offers, sweepstakes, scholarship offerings, SEO-driven content, partner integrations, blog posts and other funnel improvement effort
- Review and approve various customer communications, scripts, notices, and “help center” resources
- Support the development of legal safeguards for the Compliance team (e.g. draft template disclosures, provide guidance for marketing playbook, and other resource documents
- Research legal issues concerning novel initiatives and communicate the legal analysis and recommendation to the appropriate teams in a clear, timely and actionable manner
- Provide legal support for privacy and data security matters
- Track and support implementation of new state or federal privacy legislation
- Compliance team support
- Review proposed policies and procedures for compliance with laws and regulations
- Provide legal counsel and support to Earnest’s compliance team during government inquiries or regulatory examinations
- Partner compliance and business partners on remediation of root-cause issues identified in audits, litigation, compliance testing and monitoring, complaint handling, threatened litigation, and government inquiries or regulatory examinations
- Work collaboratively with compliance teams to identify legal impacts of new or amended laws and regulations on both the state and federal level. Specific emphasis on privacy and bank partnership/true lender
- Provide legal guidance to Earnest teams during the implementation of new regulatory requirements
- Legal team efficiency
- Promote team efficiency by setting up processes and SLAs for internal and cross-functional collaborations
- Maintain Earnest’s historical repository of legal work product
- Collaborate with the broader combined Earnest/Navient legal department to develop best practices and utilize subject matter expert counsel as appropriate.Special legal projects as assigned by the Earnest Head of Legal
Our take
Earnest offers student loan refinancing and personal loan products. It looks at thousands of data points such as education, saving patterns, investments, and career trajectory to issue a unique credit score, which can prove a lifeline for students who may otherwise struggle to qualify for loan refinancing.
For the portion of student debtors with low credit scores, Earnest is one of a few scant options. Borrowers can choose their own loan terms to fund up to the full cost of their education, and there are no origination, application, or late fees.
Earnest has grown from distributing $8M loans in its first year of business to an impressive total $18.5 billion in student loans refinanced, and has served upwards of 200,000 people. With student loans representing such a huge sector of lending, there should be plenty of room for Earnest to continue expanding in the future.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Top investors
4% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Mar 2017
$20m
SERIES C
Nov 2015
$75m
SERIES B
Total funding: $127m
Company benefits
- Remote-first flexibility
- Monthly & annual remote work stipends
- Professional development & tuition reimbursement
- $1000 annual travel perk
- Robust 401K package
- No meeting Thursdays
- Annual company-wide offsites
Company HQ
Downtown, Oakland, CA
Leadership
David Green
(CEO)Previously Co-Founder of Poplar Finance, Vice President of SitusAMC and COO of the Kellogg Collection.
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