Legal Counsel (Fractional)

Job title: Legal Counsel (Fractional)

Key Information: Role: General Counsel Salary: $200 - 300/hr for independent contractor; $220,000 - $300,000 gross annual full-time salary (prorated for fractional hours) For other currencies, we use a 5-year rolling average exchange rate. Location: Fully remote. UTC-5 to UTC+2 preferred, US or UK-based preferred given their legal footprint, but flexible. Job Type: Fractional, roughly 20-24 hours/week, with room to grow as their project portfolio scales. Open to employee or independent contractor structure (employee-route preferred). Reports to: Chief Operations Officer, Carolyn Footitt Start date: As soon as possible Application Deadline: End of the day, Sunday, November 1st.

About Rethink Priorities and the Position Rethink Priorities (RP) is a US 501(c)(3) research and implementation nonprofit working across global health and development, animal welfare, and reducing global catastrophic risk, including risks from advanced AI. Beyond their own research, RP acts as a fiscal sponsor — under a Model A structure — to a portfolio of independent, high-impact projects, each running its own show day to day while RP provides the legal, financial, HR, and compliance support to accelerate them towards spin-off and further impact.

We are seeking a general legal counsel for the following work:

• Nonprofit law. Advising our US 501(c)(3) on the boundaries of charitable activity, including fiscal sponsorship (Model A) of independent projects.
• Contracts and agreements. Drafting and reviewing contractor agreements and service agreements, among others.
• Employment law and immigration. Keeping multi-jurisdiction employment practice compliant, and supporting visa sponsorship and immigration compliance for staff.
• Grant and fiscal sponsorship agreements. Negotiating granting agreements with funders and grant recipients, and fiscal sponsorship agreements covering IP transfer and spin-off provisions.
• Regulatory compliance. Assessing FARA exposure, GDPR obligations across our UK and EU work, and emerging AI regulation that affects our research and operations.
• Entity formation and spin-off. Supporting projects as they become independent nonprofits, including entity formation, exemption applications and asset transfer.
• Ad hoc counsel and triage. Handling one-off structural questions in-house, and knowing when to escalate to specialist outside counsel.

About this Hiring Round Rethink Priorities has joined a shared hiring round for general counsels across multiple organisations. You can find more information here. You can choose to apply only to Rethink Priorities, or to multiple organisations. You can find the most relevant sections about this joint hiriring round copied below:

"Several organizations working on AI Safety are running a joint legal hiring round. Each organization has its own legal needs and many are hiring in-house counsel for the first time.

This round is open to individual attorneys seeking full-time or fractional in-house roles.

You need legal judgment, comfort with ambiguity and genuine interest in understanding organizations whose risk tolerance and operating speed may differ from a typical non-profit or corporate client. Generally applicants with at least 5 years of legal practice experience are more likely to be successful. You should be authorized to practice law where you intend to work from. Most roles require a US barred attorney.

What These Roles Have in Common:

• Speed matters. A recurring pain point for orgs has been slow turnaround. This ecosystem moves quickly, and needs counsel who can keep pace.
• Risk-calibrated, not risk averse. How much risk each org is comfortable with varies, but all of them want counsel who will lay out the risk, the likelihood and a clear recommendation based on the specifics of a given situation, not a counsel who defaults to best practices.
• Novel legal landscape. Fiscal sponsorship structures, frontier AI lab contract negotiation, export controls and FARA exposure, compute contract remedies, and the boundaries of 501(c)(3)/501(c)(4) activity all come up regularly, often without established precedent. How This Works:

These are distinct opportunities bundled into a single application process so candidates can be considered efficiently across the ecosystem.

Application Form:

• Evaluation: Candidates who move forward will be asked to complete a work test.
• Each organization will hire independently. Every org reviews applications, conducts interviews and makes its own hiring decision. The Opportunities

(Ordered from more fractional to more full-time leaning. Several organizations are genuinely open to either structure)

BERI (Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative) Quorum SecureBio Resolution Nightingale Good Impressions Secure AI Project Constellation Safe AI Forum Encode Institute for Law & AI (LawAI) 80,000 Hours Rethink Priorities

Benefits

Compensation

• Annual salary range: $200 - 300/hr for independent contractor; $220,000 - $300,000 gross annual full-time salary (prorated for fractional hours), based on a 40-hour workweek.
• Exact salary will be based on the candidate's prior relevant experience and corresponding title level, calculated using RP's salary algorithm.
• Compensation is not restricted to USD and can be offered in other currencies. We use a 5-year rolling average exchange rate.
• To ensure fairness across the organization, RP does not negotiate salaries.

Other Benefits

• Flexible work hours and location.
• Comprehensive benefits (varies by country and number of hours worked; RP aims for equity and quality across all staff).
• Generous paid time off, including vacation (with a minimum required statutory minimum), "mandated" mid- and end-year organization-wide breaks
• A collaborative leadership team and low administrative bureaucracy.
• Technology stipend for work and office equipment.
• AI tools budget of $40 USD equivalent monthly.
• Learning opportunities, including workshops/training sessions and work time dedicated to professional and personal development.
• Virtual co-working spaces, including a private Rethink Priorities Focusmate group.
• RP Peer Support Program for New Employees.
• Other benefits at the discretion of RP Leadership.
• A caring team that values respectful work relations and a healthy work-life balance.
• We don’t provide snacks, but we could mail you a box of Oreos if you want!

Additional Information About Rethink Priorities

Founded in 2018, Rethink Priorities (RP) is a think-and-do tank. Through research and action, the organization improves the lives of humans and animals—both now and in the future.

We work to identify solutions, mobilize resources, and empower our team and others to address some of the world’s most pressing problems. Our team conducts rigorous research across animal welfare, climate change, global health, international development, and other important and neglected areas. Our operations experts help high-impact organizations to improve efficiency and achieve meaningful results.

RP works as all of the following:

• A consultancy doing commissioned work in response to demands from organizations doing high-impact work

• A research institute driven by research agendas we set according to our own priorities.

• A think tank aiming to inform public policy to improve the world.

• An accelerator, incubator, and base for priority projects. Accomplishments include:

• Bringing attention to neglected issues, such as lead exposure, fungal diseases, and shrimp welfare.

• Increasing the collective impact of advocates across each field in which we work through strategic coordination.

• Investigating potential interventions and identifying the most cost-effective options. In 2025, our research influenced tens of millions of dollars in foundation grants.

• Creating practical tools for philanthropists to compare resource allocations across different species and cause areas and to build giving portfolios despite uncertainties.

• Providing organizations with data to inform their decisions. For example, we have conducted surveys on perceptions of existential risks, AI, effective giving, and other topics.

• Providing fiscal sponsorship and operational support to ensure that high-impact initiatives in areas like AI safety and animal welfare can launch and grow effectively.

• Donor Compass - Cross Cause Fund Tool to guide philanthropic giving

We welcome you to review our research database and our latest annual report.