Legal Counsel, Emergency Cash & U.S. Programs

🕒 September 18

🌐 United States, United Kingdom, +1 more countries – Remote

🇺🇸 United States – Remote 🇬🇧 United Kingdom – Remote 🇰🇪 Kenya – Remote

💵 $134.4k / year

⏰ Full Time

🟡 Mid-level

🟠 Senior

⚖️ Legal Counsel / General Counsel

🦅 H1B Visa Sponsor

This company has sponsored H1B visas in the past.

👻 Ghost score 10%

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GiveDirectly

WebsiteLinkedInAll Job Openings

501 - 1000 employees

Founded 2009

🤲 Charity

🤝 Non-profit

🌍 Social Impact

💰 $1M Grant on 2018-03

Charity • Non-profit • Social Impact

GiveDirectly is a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by providing direct cash transfers to individuals in need around the world. With a mission to help people living on less than $2. 15 per day, GiveDirectly empowers recipients to make their own financial decisions by delivering unconditional cash directly to them, leveraging mobile money technology. Their innovative approach has led to broad recognition and has been studied in numerous research projects. By bypassing traditional aid mechanisms, GiveDirectly aims to efficiently and scalably transform lives, offering targeted assistance in regions such as Bangladesh, Kenya, and the United States, among others.

📋 Description

• Serve as the primary legal partner to Emergency Cash across program strategy, design, launch, and delivery • Build a repeatable legal model for emergency responses covering country entry, regulatory review, government engagement, contracting, data use, and local counsel • Develop response-readiness tools, templates, and decision frameworks • Lead legal work during active emergency responses and provide clear recommendations when information is incomplete • Coordinate with country teams, program-facing Counsel, and local advisors while retaining legal ownership • Apply global standards for MNO data and remote enablement to individual responses • Draft and negotiate partnership, technology, vendor, data-sharing, and other agreements • Capture lessons from responses to strengthen the Emergency Cash legal model • Serve as legal partner to U.S. programs across design, implementation, expansion, and operations • Advise on recipient eligibility, public benefits, tax treatment and reporting, payments involving minors or caregivers, family law, privacy, data use, and state-specific requirements • Structure and negotiate agreements with governments, research institutions, community organizations, payment providers, and other partners • Develop reusable guidance and coordinate state-specific or specialist counsel • Work with Legal colleagues on organization-wide standards and initiatives • Partner with Africa Programs & Country Operations Counsel during relevant emergency responses • Delegate recurring contracting, research, coordination, and administrative work with Legal Operations support • Support other priority legal matters as part of a small, global Legal team • Report to the Head of Legal

🎯 Requirements

• Qualification as an attorney in at least one jurisdiction, with relevant post-qualification legal experience • Experience advising on complex program, commercial, or regulatory matters in fast-moving or high-pressure environments • Strong commercial contracting skills, including drafting and negotiating complex partnership, technology, vendor, or data-related agreements • Ability to quickly understand unfamiliar legal and regulatory frameworks and advise where precedent, time, or information is limited • Strong legal and business judgment, including the ability to identify meaningful risks, assess tradeoffs, and recommend a practical path forward • Ability to translate complex legal requirements into clear, actionable guidance for colleagues without legal backgrounds • Experience coordinating external counsel, consultants, or other specialist advisors • Working knowledge of data privacy and data protection law • Ability to operate independently, manage competing priorities, and reprioritize quickly during active emergency responses • Excellent written and verbal communication skills; English fluency • Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity • Preferred: experience in emergency response, humanitarian operations, or crisis-context legal work • Preferred: experience supporting program or operations launches in new countries • Preferred: experience with U.S. public-benefits, family-law, charitable-assistance, or government-program matters • Preferred: experience working across multiple jurisdictions, particularly in emerging markets • Preferred: experience supporting programs involving vulnerable populations or sensitive personal data • Preferred: experience in international development or another mission-driven organization • Must overlap with an East Africa timezone by at least 3 hours • GiveDirectly cannot sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas in the U.S. or U.K.

🏖️ Benefits

• 10% bonus at target performance, with potential for upside • Annual benefits stipend of $21,393 for United States employees; £2,760 in the United Kingdom; $8,454 in Kenya • Supportive team • Robust health benefits plan, with details varying by country • Flexible paid time off • Desk setup allowance • Learning and development allowance • Referral reward of $3,000 for a Senior Manager or above role, paid if the referral is hired • Approximately 3–4 trips per year and travel as needed during active emergency responses