Data Privacy - Transactional Attorney in Los Angeles, CA

Public Interest

Los Angeles, CA

Data Privacy - Transactional Attorney in Los Angeles, CA

Attorney

Min 10 yrs required

No

Associate General Counsel

Job Title: Associate General Counsel

Summary

The organization envisions a world where the entirety of human knowledge is accessible to everyone. As the nonprofit home of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and other educational initiatives, the organization serves as the core of a global movement comprising hundreds of thousands of contributors who collaborate to gather and share comprehensive human knowledge worldwide. A crucial aspect of the organization's mission involves protecting the privacy of its readers, contributors, and donors.

The Legal team provides counsel to the organization's engineers as they develop tools and features for Wikipedia, enhance website security, and collaborate with volunteer developers to shape the future of the projects. The organization seeks an Associate General Counsel to assist the Deputy General Counsel in leading essential functions within the Legal team, with a specific emphasis on refining privacy and product counseling workflows.

The Associate General Counsel will be a proactive leader with considerable management experience, tasked with overseeing and cultivating a highly skilled and collaborative team of lawyers and legal professionals. This role involves close collaboration with the Legal department leadership team, the organization’s Senior Leadership and executive teams, and external stakeholders. The ideal candidate should possess expertise and experience in leading teams that advise online platforms, with a particular focus on counseling technical teams and providing guidance on privacy and security matters. A proven track record of facilitating successful cross-departmental collaboration and nurturing both early-career and seasoned lawyers is essential. Additional relevant experience includes direct engagement with online communities.

Job Responsibilities

- Advise the Deputy General Counsel, General Counsel, and Senior Leadership team on legal and regulatory matters, especially concerning privacy and security.
- Collaborate with legal department staff to define and shape a renewed vision and strategy for the organization’s privacy team, setting priorities and evolving the infrastructure to deliver on that vision and strategy.
- Manage a team providing robust transactional and product counseling support for engineers and technologists, including direct counseling, setting organizational policy, and risk assessment and mitigation.
- Enhance internal workflows and collaboration related to product counseling and engineering-related legal advice.
- Annually oversee the refresh of the organization Privacy Policy to align with applicable regulations, protect user data, and adapt to new and evolving features on the organization projects; support internal and external communication campaigns to educate staff, users, and stakeholders on policy evolution.
- Develop and lead a robust, diverse, and collaborative team serving organizational programmatic goals and the movement.
- Oversee various privacy workflows and manage assigned lawyers; mentor high-performing legal staff.
- Provide advice and counsel on other legal areas, which may include regulatory compliance frameworks, open source licensing, and more, depending on organizational needs and candidate experience.

Education and Experience Information

- . from an accredited . law school or equivalent foreign degree, preferably paired with significant . legal experience.
- Current membership in good standing with at least one . state bar.
- Approximately 10+ years or significant experience practicing law and advising a user-facing digital technology or internet company, preferably with global reach.
- Significant management experience, including managing other high-performing, senior lawyers.
- Extensive experience working with engineering colleagues as a counselor and advisor to achieve organizational goals.
- Experience with, and deep technical understanding of, tools and methods related to digital privacy and security.
- Ability to work with a broad range of professionals, including lawyers, engineers, data analysts, and communications specialists.
- Experience with large, diverse, online user communities.
- Comfortable in a highly collaborative, multicultural, transparent environment.
- Ability to assess and manage complex risks.
- Mission-driven with a public service orientation and high personal integrity.
- An understanding of, and commitment to, a free and open internet, the open source and free culture movements, and the organization’s mission.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills; fluency in written and spoken English.
- Capable of prioritizing and adhering to deadlines, completing projects independently, and managing costs and budgets in a busy environment.
- Ability to work with a team primarily based in the US Pacific time zone (PST / UTC-8).
- Ability to travel domestically and internationally as needed, including attendance and speaking at conferences.

Additionally, preferred qualifications include substantial knowledge of engineering or experience with technical security measures, active participation as a volunteer, fluency or proficiency in languages other than English, experience in international law, particularly related to privacy, technical security, intermediary liability, and freedom of expression, and experience living or working outside the home country.

Salary Information

The organization is a remote-first organization with staff members, including contractors, based in over 40 countries. Salaries are set to be competitive, equitable, and consistent with the organization's values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range for this position for applicants based within the United States is USD 144,408 to USD 223,130. Multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, determine the offered pay. For applicants located outside the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. The organization does not consider the salary history of applicants. Compensation for a successful applicant will be based on skills, experience, and location. The organization is currently able to hire in several specified countries, and non-US employees are hired through a local third-party Employer of Record.

The organization periodically reviews this list to ensure alignment with hiring requirements. Applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.