Global Head of Legal, Blank Street
$200-250k
+ Equity
Coffee chain
Open for applications
Coffee chain
501-1000 employees
Open for applications
$200-250k
+ Equity
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To become the defining food and beverage brands of our generation.
Role
Who you are
- JD from an accredited law school and active bar admission (US required)
- 5+ years of legal experience, ideally combining law firm training with public or in-house experience in a high-growth, high-paced, commercial environments
- Broad generalist legal expertise across commercial contracts, corporate governance, employment law, and real estate, with the judgment to know when to escalate to specialized outside counsel
- Experience supporting multi-jurisdiction operations (US multi-state, and/or UK or the EU) and new market entry
- A builder's mindset — comfortable being the first legal hire, creating processes, templates, and playbooks from scratch, and flexing between high-level strategy and hands-on execution
- Strong commercial instincts — able to balance legal risk with the speed and pragmatism a fast-growing business needs
- Excellent communication skills, able to translate complex legal matters clearly for non-legal stakeholders, from store operators to executives
- Ability to work independently, manage a high volume of competing priorities, and own outcomes end-to-end with minimal oversight
- A team-first, discreet, and trustworthy approach to handling sensitive company, employee, and legal matters
What the job involves
- Blank Street is seeking a smart, business-minded and technically excellent Global Head of Legal to join as our first legal hire and help build our legal function from the ground up
- This role owns all legal matters, coordinating our network of external counsel, across our growing footprint — corporate governance, cap table management, fundraising workstreams, commercial contracts, employment law, real estate and store leases, litigation and disputes, intellectual property, and regulatory compliance — across the US and UK, and as we continue to expand into new states, and geographies
- As Blank Street scales, you'll be the primary legal partner to our executive team and every function across the business — Finance, People, Real Estate, Supply Chain, Digital and Operations — providing pragmatic, risk-aware counsel that moves fast without slowing the business down
- You'll manage and help negotiate a high volume of commercial agreements (vendors, landlords, technology partners, marketing), manage our cap table, guide our investment processes, own our corporate governance and entity structure across jurisdictions, and be the first point of contact for employment matters, disputes, and regulatory inquiries
- Beyond day-to-day legal support, you'll help build the legal infrastructure Blank Street needs to scale responsibly: templated contracts and playbooks, a scalable approach to store lease review and new-market entry, and the judgment to know when to handle something in-house versus bring in outside counsel
- This is a high-impact, high-ownership role for someone who takes pride in being both a trusted advisor and a hands-on operator — equal parts strategist and executor — and who wants to build a best-in-class legal function as we grow globally
- This is an in-person role based in our New York office, reporting to the Sr
- Director of Global Finance, partnering closely with all department heads as well as outside counsel
- Serve as Blank Street's in-house legal counsel, owning all legal matters across our US and UK footprint (and future international expansion), advising the executive team on legal risk and strategy
- Draft, review, and negotiate a high volume of commercial agreements, including vendor, supplier, technology, marketing, and partnership contracts, balancing legal protection with commercial speed
- Support real estate legal matters, alongside external counsel, including store lease review, negotiation, and renewals, partnering closely with the Real Estate and New Store & Facilities teams on new market and location openings
- Lead employment law matters across jurisdictions, alongside external counsel, partnering with the People team on policies, disputes, terminations, and compliance with local labor and employment regulations
- Own corporate governance and entity management across all Blank Street entities and jurisdictions, including resolutions, and equity/cap table matters in partnership with Finance
- Manage litigation, disputes, and regulatory inquiries end-to-end, engaging and directing outside counsel where needed while retaining ownership of strategy and outcomes
- Advise on intellectual property matters, including trademarks, brand protection, and licensing across markets
- Partner with Product and Digital teams on legal considerations for the app, subscriptions, and e-commerce, including terms of service, privacy, and data protection compliance
- Support new market entry and expansion, researching jurisdiction-specific legal and regulatory requirements alongside Finance and Tax
- Develop and maintain a library of contract templates, playbooks, and legal policies to scale legal support efficiently as the company grows
- Build and manage relationships with outside counsel across jurisdictions, owning budget, scope, and quality of external legal spend
- Proactively identify legal and regulatory risk as Blank Street scales, and design practical mitigation strategies before issues arise
- Take a major role in Blank Street’s financing processes, alongside external counsel, advising the execute team
Our take
More people deserve great coffee and Blank Street strives to make this possible. Blank Street’s formula involves technology enabled, micro-footprint brick-and-mortar spaces which operate at a cheap price meaning they can produce excellent coffee, also, at a reasonable price.
What started as one electric-powered coffee cart in 2020 has expanded to over 90 locations across the US and the UK. Blank Street wants to serve coffee cheaper than Starbucks but tastier than Dunkin’ Donuts – its main competitors – and has done so with automation, specifically Eversys espresso makers that can produce 700 drinks an hour.
The chain has received mighty financing too, including from real estate tycoon Tishman Speyer as well as from General Catalyst Partners and Tiger Global Management. This brand is certainly making its mark as its growth has remained at an impressive rate, especially following its entrance into the thriving coffee shop market in the UK.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
11% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Mar 2023
$20m
EARLY VC
Oct 2021
$25m
SERIES A
Total funding: $52m
Company HQ
South Williamsburg, NY
Leadership
Issam Freiha
(Co-Founder & CEO)Issam co-founded Blank Street in 2020 alongside Vinay. Previously, he was a Partner at Reshape Ventures and Graduated from Columbia University with a BA in Economics & Statistics.
Vinay Menda
(Co-Founder & President)Vinay graduated from NYU Stern School of Business with a Bachelor's Degree in Finance in 2015. And he is currently a Managing Partner at Reshape Ventures.
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