Startup Counsel
About the role
Startup Counsel on Dover’s marketplace serves as a fractional legal leader for early-stage startups, providing pragmatic, business-oriented legal guidance across formation, fundraising, contracts, hiring, and compliance. Works directly with founders and leadership teams, collaborating with other Dover experts to support cross-functional company building. Starts as an independent contractor with option to join Dover full-time.
Responsibilities
- Advise founders and leadership teams on a wide range of legal matters, including company formation, fundraising, governance, terms of service, cap table considerations, and compliance
- Draft, review, and negotiate key documents such as financing documents, employment agreements, and commercial contracts
- Serve as ongoing outside counsel to your customers, acting as a strategic thought partner rather than a transactional service provider
- Assist with immigration-related needs by coordinating with external counsel, tracking key dates, and helping teams understand options and requirements across jurisdictions
- Help startups navigate complex decisions with clear, pragmatic legal guidance
- Collaborate with other Dover experts (e.g., finance, recruiting, HR) to support cross-functional company building
- Build strong, trusted relationships with founders and operators
Qualifications
- 10–20+ years of legal experience, ideally with a mix of law firm and/or in-house experience
- Experience in core startup legal areas: incorporation, fundraising, contracts, employment basics, corporate governance, commercial contracts, and immigration coordination
- 3+ years working directly with startups or high-growth companies
- Experience working closely with founders and executive teams
- A pragmatic, business-oriented approach to legal problem-solving
- Excellent judgment and ability to balance risk with speed
- Comfortable operating independently and managing multiple customer relationships
Skills
About Dover
Your startup's all-in-one recruiting solution
Dover is on a mission to help every company build an amazing team. Every founder and business leader should have the tools and support they need to hire the right talent — fast. Dover combines powerful free software with flexible recruiting services to help startups and growing companies scale efficiently. Dover is built around two core offerings: Free Recruiting Tools: Dover's ATS is a lightweight but powerful applicant tracking system built for busy founders and hiring managers. It’s as easy to use as a spreadsheet but includes everything you need to manage your first 100 hires — without the bloat of traditional ATS platforms. Hundreds of companies use Dover’s free tools to streamline their hiring process and stay in control as they grow. Recruiting Partner Marketplace: When companies need help, Dover connects them with top-tier, fractional recruiters through our on-demand marketplace. Recruiting Partners are experienced, startup-savvy professionals who can step in quickly to manage sourcing, interviewing, closing, and more — without the cost or commitment of an agency or full-time hire. Dover went through Y Combinator in 2019, and today 500+ companies use our product to run a better hiring process. We've raised $23M from top VCs.
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