In-House Counsel

Role Summary

We are seeking a sharp, strategic, and highly organized In-House Counsel to serve as our primary internal legal advisor and strategic partner. In this role, you will work closely with our executive leadership team and Board of Directors (BOD) to protect the company's interests, manage legal risks, and oversee all corporate legal operations.

As a true generalist, you will handle day-to-day commercial contracts and HR compliance while acting as the single point of contact for external counsel. A critical component of this role involves attending leadership meetings as the counsel of record to establish and preserve attorney-client privilege over sensitive strategic discussions.

Responsibilities

Privilege & Executive Advisory

• Preserve Privilege: Attend executive and board-level meetings as counsel of record to establish and preserve attorney-client privilege over sensitive strategic discussions.
• Real-Time Counsel: Advise leadership in real time on legal risk during deal negotiations, personnel decisions, and corporate actions.
• Communications Infrastructure: Structure internal communications and document practices to protect privilege (including marking conventions, distribution discipline, and maintaining privilege logs when needed).
• Equity & Governance: Manage the corporate cap table and oversee stock transfers in coordination with the BOD.

External Counsel Management

• Single Point of Contact: Serve as the primary liaison for all outside firms, including project finance, real estate, capital markets, and specialty counsel.
• Vendor Management: Scope legal engagements, negotiate fee arrangements, and review/approve invoices against set budgets.
• Triage & Allocation: Evaluate incoming legal matters to decide what will be handled efficiently in-house versus what should be referred to external specialists.
• Executive Translation: Consolidate and translate complex external counsel work product into plain-English, actionable recommendations for the executive team.
• Operations Tracking: Maintain a centralized matter tracker across all active external engagements to monitor status, spend, and key deadlines.

Contracts & Redlines

• Commercial Review: Conduct first-pass review and redlining of commercial agreements, including colocation/hosting agreements, MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, and vendor/supplier contracts.
• Deal Optimization: Maintain and update standard templates and a negotiation playbook (fallback positions, non-negotiables) to speed up deal velocity.
• Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM): Manage the entire contract lifecycle, including execution, renewals, amendments, and archiving in an organized contract repository.

Employment & HR Support

• HR Advisory: Act as the primary legal advisor to the Director of People and Purpose (Soft HR).
• Employment Documentation: Draft and maintain employment agreements, offer letters, non-compete/non-solicit agreements, and severance packages.
• Policy Ownership: Own the employee handbook and workplace policies, ensuring strict compliance with Missouri law and multi-state requirements.
• Oversight & Compliance: Provide legal oversight on sensitive HR issues, including terminations, disciplinary actions, leave/accommodation requests, and wage-and-hour compliance.
• Workforce Architecture: Advise on contractor vs. employee classification and draft related equity/incentive documentation.

General Corporate Operations

• Dispute & Litigation Management: Vet and oversee specific project-based counsel or litigators, managing pre-litigation disputes through resolution or official handoff.
• Regulatory Tracking: Monitor ongoing regulatory and compliance obligations touching the business (e.g., tracking data center permitting, which is executed externally).
• Fiscal Responsibility: Own the legal department budget and deliver quarterly financial and operational reports to the CEO.
• Governance: Provide ongoing corporate governance consultation in partnership with the BOD.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from an accredited law school.
• Active bar license in good standing (eligible to practice as In-House Counsel in Missouri).
• 3–6+ years of legal experience, preferably blending top-tier law firm training with corporate in-house experience.
• Strong background in commercial contracts, corporate governance, and employment law.
• Experience with cap table management and corporate secretarial duties.
• Exceptional communication skills, with a proven ability to translate dense legal jargon into clear, business-minded recommendations.
• High emotional intelligence and the absolute discretion necessary to handle highly confidential, executive-level data.

Requirements

• Commercial contract drafting and negotiation · 3–6 years
• Corporate governance and cap table management · 3–6 years
• Employment law and HR compliance · 3–6 years
• Clear business-minded communication · Good–Excellent
• Discretion and confidentiality · Good–Excellent

Nice to Have

• External counsel and vendor management · 2–5 years
• Contract lifecycle management (CLM) · 1–4 years
• Strategic and organized thinking · Good–Excellent

About Patmos

Patmos Hosting, Inc. delivers Freedom as a Service™, providing organizations with an independent alternative to Big Tech's commercial constraints, censorship, cancellation and deplatforming. Patmos owns and operates datacenter infrastructure with decentralized connectivity, open peering, and free Internet Exchange hosting, ensuring resilience and true independence. Its services span multi-megawatt colocation for AI and hyperscale workloads, GPU/high-performance compute, custom data centers, domains, web and cloud hosting, colocation and tailored website and application development.

Founded in 2022, Patmos is headquartered in Kansas City, MO, with teams and datacenters/locations in Kansas City, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver.

Why Join Us

Be part of a mission-driven company defending free speech and internet freedom.

At Patmos, you'll help protect online expression while ensuring legal compliance. Our team is shaping the future of digital freedom by building secure, high-performance internet infrastructure. We value privacy, innovation, and individual liberty—creating a purpose-driven, collaborative environment where your work matters.

Benefits

• Unlimited PTO
• 401(k) match (4%)
• Health, dental, & vision insurance
• Short and long term disability
• Life insurance (company paid and supplemental available)
• Generous parental leave, baby bonuses, marital bonuses, and other family-friendly perks
• 14 observed paid holidays that include solemnities

Patmos is an equal opportunity employer and proud member of the Catholic Benefits Association offering employee benefits that promote the dignity of the human person, the dignity of work, and the common good.

About Patmos

Patmos is a company that provides custom data centers, bare metal servers, and colocation backed by support that knows your setup.