Legal Counsel, part-time

About Main Sequence
It takes an unreasonable belief to achieve the impossible. This is what we invest in and create at Main Sequence.
Main Sequence (MSV) is Australia’s leading deep tech venture capital firm. With over $1 billion under management across three funds, we back inventors building the industries that will define the next century — from quantum computing and synthetic biology to climate tech, space, and AI. We operate at the intersection of frontier science and venture-scale ambition, and we’re now raising Fund 4.

The role opportunity
As Legal Counsel, you’ll be a commercially minded lawyer working alongside our General Counsel on the legal side of our investments, portfolio, and funds. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role in a fast-paced environment. You’ll run matters yourself, partner with the investment team on transactions and fund matters, and brief external counsel when needed.

This is a 12-month, part-time contract while a member of our team is on parental leave. We invest from seed through growth rounds across several funds and work with our companies from formation onwards, so there’s a steady flow of new deals, follow-ons and portfolio matters to own. Alongside that work, you’ll help us build legal workflows that make real use of AI.

This role is based in Sydney or Melbourne.

In this role, you’ll work on

• New and follow-on investments. Owning the legal side of deals, from structuring and first drafts through to completion: term sheets, subscription agreements, shareholders’ agreements, SAFEs, convertible notes and side letters.
• Diligence. Running legal, IP and corporate diligence, and giving the investment team a clear view of the risks that actually matter.
• Our growing portfolio. Supporting board and shareholder approvals, secondaries, restructures and exits. On larger, more complex transactions, working with our General Counsel to brief external counsel when appropriate.
• The fund and the firm. Supporting legal and compliance workflows, including ESVCLP obligations, and reviewing commercial contracts, NDAs and vendor agreements for the firm.
• Templates and knowledge. Keeping our templates, precedents and legal knowledge base current.
• AI-enabled legal workflows. Using AI tools every day for drafting, review, diligence and summarisation, and checking the output with a lawyer’s eye. Building and shipping repeatable workflows with the team (e.g. NDA triage, term sheet comparison, diligence checklists), and helping set sensible guardrails on confidentiality, accuracy and professional obligations.

Requirements

About you

You work well on your own, can juggle several live deals at once, and know when to escalate. You bring sound judgement on confidentiality and conflicts, and you’re at your best when you have real ownership of your matters.

We use AI across the firm every day, and you already do too. You have views on where it helps and where it doesn’t. You write clear prompts, you break complex legal tasks into steps AI can handle well, and you know where these tools fail, so you verify accordingly. You understand the confidentiality, privilege, and data-handling issues of putting information into AI tools. You’re curious about building reusable workflows and skills that make the team more efficient.

You’re energised by the chance to work with some of Australia’s most ambitious founders on deep tech.

You’ll bring

• Admission as a lawyer in Australia, with 3–5 years PQE.
• Venture capital experience, at a venture-focused firm or in-house at a VC-backed startup.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills.
• Strong AI literacy: tools like Claude are already part of your normal drafting, review and research.
• The ability to work independently, juggle several live deals at once and know when to escalate.
• Sound judgement on confidentiality and conflicts.

Nice-to-haves

• Familiarity with Australian VC documents (e.g. AIC templates), market norms and the ESVCLP regulatory framework.
• Transactional experience in other jurisdictions, such as the USA.
• Exposure to deep tech issues: IP ownership, university spin-outs and licensing.
• Experience building templates, playbooks or legal ops processes.

Benefits

Why join Main Sequence

• A front-row seat to deep tech investing and some of Australia’s most ambitious founders.
• Real ownership of matters from day one, and the chance to shape how a VC firm uses AI in legal work.
• Flexible part-time hours, and a team that trusts you to make them work around the rest of your life.

Unreasonable beliefs come in all forms and from all backgrounds. We actively encourage applications from people who bring different lived experiences, perspectives, and ways of seeing the world.