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Founding Legal Counsel & Strategic Operations

Garage

New York City, NYFull-time$200–275K/yrSeen todayStill listed today

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At a glance

Compensation
$200–275K/yr
Location
New York City, NY
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Requirements

Credentials this posting asks for.

Law LicenseDoctorate

Job overview

Garage is seeking its first in-house legal hire to partner with leadership on commercial, corporate, regulatory, and operational matters. The role involves structuring financing transactions, evaluating acquisitions, negotiating partnerships, and building legal frameworks and infrastructure to support the company’s growth. The counsel will also oversee governance, board matters, equity administration, compliance, and outside counsel.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Commercial Agreement ManagementLegal JudgmentBusiness JudgmentLegal Matter NavigationOrganizational SkillsProcess BuildingSystems Building

Qualifications

Law LicenseJuris DoctorTop Law School4+ Years Legal ExperienceTop-Tier Law Firm TrainingHigh-Growth Company in-House Experience

Benefits

Medical Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Paid Time Off
401(k) Match
Relocation Assistance

Full job description

About Us Our vision is to become the marketplace for everything expensive, specialized, and difficult to move. We’re building the infrastructure that powers the procurement and disposition of assets across America’s essential industries, automating everything from discovery and payments to freight, warranty, and financing. Today, Garage operates in cities and towns across all 50 states and has surpassed $100M+ in annualized transaction volume on the platform. Our mission is to save local governments and essential services businesses time and money. We started with fire departments two years ago and have since expanded into EMS and heavy-duty, launching new verticals while growing revenue >10x last year. If you move fast, hold a high bar, and want meaningful ownership in building a category-defining company, Garage is the place to do it. About the Role We're looking for an exceptional lawyer to join Garage as our first in-house legal hire, partnering with leadership on commercial, corporate, regulatory, and operational matters. You'll be involved in some of the most consequential decisions at Garage—from structuring financing transactions and evaluating acquisitions to negotiating strategic partnerships and significant agreements. You’ll shape the legal frameworks and policies governing our marketplace and oversee corporate governance, board matters, equity administration, and compliance, while building the legal infrastructure to support our growth. What You’ll Do

  • Serve as Garage's primary internal legal advisor, partnering with leadership across commercial, corporate, regulatory, and operational matters.

  • Draft, negotiate, and manage commercial agreements, including customer, vendor, and strategic partnership contracts.

  • Own the legal frameworks governing our marketplace.

  • Manage corporate governance, board matters, equity administration, and compliance.

  • Advise and oversee outside counsel across specialized legal matters, including litigation, regulatory issues, employment, intellectual property, and complex corporate transactions.

  • Structure and negotiate significant commercial partnership agreements

Who You Are

  • Must be licensed to practice law in at least one jurisdiction.

  • A JD from a top law school and a minimum of 4 years of legal experience, ideally with top-tier law firm training and/or in-house experience at a high-growth company.

  • Demonstrated experience independently managing and closing commercial agreements, with strong legal and business judgment.

  • Ability to navigate a broad range of legal matters, work through ambiguity, and balance legal considerations with business objectives.

  • Strong organizational skills and the ability to build scalable processes and systems from the ground up.

Our Values

  • Take Big Swings. We are here to transform an overlooked industry—not make small improvements around the edges. We set ambitious goals, take calculated risks, and push through setbacks. We never trade lasting impact for short-term comfort.

  • Customers Come First. Our customers operate in an industry burdened by slow, expensive, and outdated processes. We attack the problems that cost them the most and measure our success by the time and money we give back to them.

  • Play For the Front of the Jersey. We put the mission ahead of ourselves. We challenge each other directly, support each other relentlessly, and step up whenever the team needs us. We win together, and we have fun doing it.

  • All Gas, No Ego. Building something that matters takes relentless effort. We move fast, take ownership, and see hard problems through. When we fall short, we own it, learn quickly, and come back stronger.

Why Join Garage?

  • Do work that matters. Our platform helps people buy the assets that local communities rely on to keep their communities safe, clean, and operating every day.

  • Help shape the company. Join as one of our first 50 employees and work directly alongside the founders.

  • Make an outsized impact. You’ll join a talent-dense, high-performance team where every person moves the company forward.

  • Build from a strong foundation. We’ve raised $18M, including a $13.5M Series A, from Y Combinator, Initialized Capital, Infinity Ventures, FJ Labs, and other leading investors.

What we offer

  • Competitive salary and stock options

  • 100% medical, dental and vision insurance coverage

  • Unlimited PTO (in addition to company observed holidays)

  • Daily lunch & dinner (for employees based in NYC)

  • $100/month wellness stipend

  • 401(k) w/ employer match

  • Pre-tax commuter benefits

  • Annual team offsite

  • Relocation assistance

We realize applying for jobs can feel daunting at times. We don’t expect you to check all the qualification boxes and encourage you to apply if you have experience in some of the areas. Equal Opportunity As an equal-opportunity employer, we are committed to building an inclusive environment where you can be you. We work hard to evaluate all employees and job applicants consistently, without regard to race, color, religion, gender, natural origin, age, disability, pregnancy, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected class.

How this job compares

Set against the 2,790 open Legal Counsel jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 5, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$200–275K/yr
  • New York median$160–225K/yr299 salary ranges
  • US median$154–230K/yr2,091 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $238K, is 19% above the New York median midpoint ($199K) — in the top quarter of Legal Counsel salary ranges in New York.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 375 open Legal Counsel jobs in New York and 2,790 across the US. 10% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in New York
Experience
This posting asks for no prior experience — less than three in four Legal Counsel postings that state a minimum ask for (median 5 years, across 2,479 postings).
Education
This posting asks for a doctorate or professional degree; 2,021 of the 2,790 open Legal Counsel jobs (72%) ask for a doctorate or professional degree.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 5, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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