Head of Legal – Immigration & AI Disruptor
Location: San Francisco, CA or Palo Alto, CA (On-site 4 days per week)
Remuneration: $250,000 – $330,000 + Competitive Equity + Comprehensive Benefits Package
The Opportunity We are partnering with a highly capitalised, category-defining LegalTech start-up backed by a consortium of elite Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Operating within a $5B+ market ripe for innovation, this firm is at the precise inflection point where artificial intelligence meets employment-based immigration law.
Having rapidly scaled to over 60 employees, they are explicitly building a platform to disrupt the legacy tier-1 immigration firms. We are securing an executive-level Head of Legal to take real ownership of the legal service delivery function. This is a rare opportunity to architect a legal department from the ground up, within a business where the legal function is the product.
The Position Reporting directly to the CEO—a former top-tier corporate lawyer and strategic consultant who deeply understands the uncompromising nature of exceptional legal work—this is an executive management seat.
Crucially, this is not a traditional General Counsel role buried in internal corporate contracts. You will own the quality, performance, and accountability of every immigration case. You will set the ultimate quality bar, driving client outcomes and shaping how immigration law is practised at a massive scale.
Key Responsibilities
- Define Legal Excellence: Standardise and enforce exceptional quality across a growing team of ~20 attorneys and paralegals. You will set the standard for drafting, client communication, RFE responses, and case strategy to continuously drive up approval rates.
- Scale the Team: Take full ownership of hiring, onboarding, coaching, and performance management, developing paralegals and attorneys into proactive, high-performing client partners.
- Manage Escalations: Oversee the full lifecycle of complex cases—from intake and triage to resolution and post-mortem—implementing systemic improvements to keep escalation volumes to a minimum.
- Drive Commercial Growth: Lead business development and client retention initiatives. Bring in new clients and ensure service delivery is so robust that clients remain fiercely loyal to your leadership.
- Cross-Functional Innovation: Partner with the CEO and the Heads of Operations and Product to identify tooling gaps, translate regulatory shifts into operational frameworks, and feed deep legal intelligence into the firm’s proprietary AI platform.
Candidate Profile
We are seeking a senior immigration specialist with a proven track record of excellence, client origination, and team leadership.
- Experience: 10 to 20 years of post-qualification experience specifically in employment-based immigration law (H-1B, O-1, L-1, EB-1, EB-2 NIW). Note: Exceptional candidates currently operating at Partner level with slightly fewer years of experience will be highly considered.
- Commercial Acumen: A proven book of business and a strong history of client origination, demonstrating market excellence.
- Pedigree: Significant tenure and leadership experience at a Tier 1 immigration firm (e.g., Fragomen, BAL, WR, Ogletree or equivalent).
- Leadership: Demonstrated experience managing and scaling teams of 10+ attorneys or paralegals.
- Technical Fluency: You must be genuinely fluent in artificial intelligence, already utilising AI tools daily within your legal practice.
- Qualifications: Juris Doctor (JD) degree and active California Bar admission in good standing.
- Alignment: A deep personal mission alignment with the immigrant experience and a drive to reform the sector.
The Package
- Base salary of $250,000 – $330,000 dependent on experience and commercial track record.
- Highly competitive executive equity allocation.
- 100% premium coverage for medical, dental, and vision.
- 20 days PTO + 10 federal holidays.
- Monthly wellness allowance.
- Visa sponsorship is available for the right candidate.
