Legal & Regulatory Counsel

Role Overview

You will be responsible for overseeing all legal and regulatory matters related to Perena’s operations, product development, and market expansion. You will lead compliance initiatives, manage regulatory engagements, and mitigate legal risks, ensuring that Perena’s products align with global financial regulations.

The Problem You'll Solve We have a complex multi-jurisdiction structure (labs + foundation + BVI/Panama/Cayman entities) that needs to be rationalized and optimized. We need to make critical strategic decisions around becoming an RIA, broker-dealer, or alternative regulatory paths. Most importantly, we need someone who can think independently about regulatory strategy - not just copy what other crypto companies are doing.

What You'll Do

• Determine optimal entity structure across jurisdictions, decide on RIA/BD/alternative paths, and manage regulatory risk as our primary legal concern

• Evaluate and optimize our current multi-entity setup for compliance efficiency, cost, and risk mitigation

• Create internal processes for contract review, entity management, employment across jurisdictions, and compliance

• Operate in areas where there isn't clear precedent - research, analyze, and make defensible recommendations on novel regulatory questions

• Support fundraising, investor relations, and corporate structuring from a legal and compliance perspective.

What You Bring

• 3+ years legal experience: ideally mix of law firm and in-house

• Deep expertise in ONE of: structured products, fund formation (SPVs, statutory trusts, fund-of-funds), securities law, or RIA/BD regulatory work

• Willingness to learn: you bring expertise from traditional finance or crypto, but you're willing to learn the other side

• Independent thinking: you can research novel questions and form defensible views, not just follow what others did

• Startup mentality: you're comfortable being the only lawyer in the room and owning multiple workstreams

Nice to Have

• Experience at top law firm + in-house experience

• Background at fintech, funds, asset managers, or crypto companies

• Familiarity with decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenomics, and other key blockchain concepts.

• Familiarity with AML/KYC requirements and compliance frameworks

• Multi-jurisdiction entity management experience

• Based in NYC or willing to travel

Why Join Perena?

Shape the legal and regulatory strategy of an innovative digital finance company.

Work at the intersection of finance, technology, and policy.

Influence high-impact decisions in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.

Join a dynamic, mission-driven team at the forefront of decentralized finance.

If you are a legal and regulatory expert passionate about digital assets and financial innovation, we’d love to hear from you.