Associate Attorney - Startups, M&A and BD (AI-First, SF)

Fellow is the AI-native law firm for Bay Area startup founders. Profitable, founder-funded, and entering its next chapter. We run production AI workflows across drafting, classification, filing, and task orchestration, so lawyer time goes to the judgment-heavy work: fundraise strategy, founder disputes, board negotiations, M&A structuring.

This is not BigLaw with a chatbot bolted on.

Why this role exists?

Fellow is entering its next chapter, and our founder Milo is shifting his focus to fundraising, building, and expanding the firm. We are looking for someone who can take real ownership of client matters, lead M&A workstreams, and help bring in new business while our AI handles the repetitive layer.

What will you do?

• Client and corporate work. Run end-to-end matters for startup clients: formation, SAFEs, priced rounds, commercial contracts, employment, governance, and cross-border (especially EU to US). Lead M&A workstreams from diligence through closing. Same-day responses, live in founders' Slack and WhatsApp, anticipate issues before they hit.
• Business development. Meet founders, attend the rooms where they hang out, bring work into the firm. Build long-term relationships with VCs, accelerators, and the SF startup ecosystem. Help shape Fellow's positioning as we go to market.
• Building the machine. Be an active part of Fellow's next push by using our AI workflows daily and improving them. Work closely with our CTO so that every novel problem you come across gets turned into a workflow the next associate can reuse, saving time and raising quality for clients and the team. Focus on what you do best and let the machine handle the repetitive work where legal judgment is not required.

Who are we looking for?

Required:

• Active California Bar, or a US license plus eligibility for CA admission without resitting the bar
• 2-6 years of corporate, startup, transactional, M&A law experience
• M&A reps on either side (buy or sell)
• A real point of view that AI is going to change legal, and you want to be one of the people building it
• Strong founder-facing instincts: warm, fast, comfortable on Slack and calls from day one
• Comfort with Notion, Slack, and AI assistants, and curiosity about workflow automation
• The kind of energy where you propose a solution rather than wait for a brief

Bonus:

• Venture financing or cross-border (EU and US) experience
• Business development chops, you have brought in clients before
• Multilingual

What will you get?

• $150K - $180K base salary
• A real seat at the table. You help shape the firm, not just service it
• Profit sharing. You win when Fellow wins, not when you log hours
• The inflection point. Joining now means joining before the next stage of growth, with real ownership upside
• The machine. Fellow OS, with ten-plus production services already shipped. You will be measurably more productive here than anywhere else
• Autonomy. We hire problem-solvers and let them solve problems
• Unlimited PTO
• A team you actually want to hang out with