Fractional General Counsel (~15 hours/week)

Location: Remote in the USA

About Sunfish

Sunfish is a fast-growing, venture-backed Series A health tech startup. Our mission is to make the parenthood journey easy and affordable to help everyone build the family of their dreams. Used by leading fertility clinics throughout the United States, we help patients navigate and afford treatments. Our company ingests unique patient biodata to support patients using AI/ML. Sunfish’s team is composed of individuals with backgrounds in fertility, health tech, insurtech, and fintech – all with a shared passion for bringing equity to family building. And we’ve done this before - our executive team has had 19 exits and 4 IPOs to date.

The Position: Fractional General Counsel

Sunfish is seeking an experienced Fractional General Counsel to serve as the company's primary legal advisor and a trusted member of the senior leadership team. This role is highly integrated with management and provides ongoing legal, regulatory, and strategic counsel across operations, commercial contracting, compliance, privacy, employment, and litigation matters. Startup and healthcare experience are a must.

The Fractional General Counsel will partner closely with the CEO and senior leadership, attend standing management and legal meetings, and maintain ownership of the Company’s core legal and compliance infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities:

• Executive & Strategic Advisory:

  • Serve as the Company’s primary legal advisor to the CEO and senior management team.

  • Participate in a weekly senior management team meeting and a weekly legal and operations call.

  • Provide practical, business-oriented legal guidance on strategic initiatives, partnerships, and risk management.

  • Support leadership decision-making with clear, actionable legal advice.

• Commercial & Program Documentation:

  • Maintain, update, and advise on the Company’s core legal and program documentation, including clinic and provider agreements, program terms, and related customer-facing documents.

  • Draft, review, and negotiate NDAs, commercial agreements, vendor agreements, and partner contracts.

  • Ensure documentation remains aligned with evolving business practices and regulatory requirements.

• Healthcare Regulatory & Privacy:

  • Provide ongoing advice on healthcare law and regulatory compliance, including HIPAA and data privacy and security.

  • Proactively advise on compliance considerations related to marketing, partnerships, and data sharing.

  • Coordinate with outside counsel as needed on specialized regulatory matters.

• Employment, HR & Corporate Matters:

  • Advise management on employment and HR-related matters, including policies, procedures, employee relations issues, and risk mitigation.

  • Support corporate governance and internal compliance initiatives as needed.

• Litigation & Risk Management:

  • Advise on actual or threatened litigation, disputes, and claims.

  • Manage and coordinate with outside counsel where appropriate.

  • Assist in developing litigation strategy, risk assessments, and response plans.

Must-Have Qualifications:

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.

• Active bar admission in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.

• Eight or more years of legal experience, including in-house counsel experience and healthcare, privacy, or other regulated industry experience.

• Early-stage (Series A-B) healthcare startup experience

• Strong working knowledge of healthcare regulatory frameworks, commercial contracting, and employment and HR matters.

• Proven ability to operate effectively in a fractional or embedded advisory role.

Additional ‘nice to haves’

• Expertise in the fertility industry

• Expertise in insurance/claims

• Based in Los Angeles or New York and able to meet in person at times

Working Style & Attributes:

• Comfortable working hands-on with limited structure and resources in a fast-moving environment.

• You are able to work independently and own projects, figuring out who to involve when necessary

• Highly responsive and capable of prioritizing across multiple matters.

• Strong judgment with the ability to balance legal risk against business objectives.

• Collaborative and trusted advisor to executive leadership.

Engagement Structure:

• Fractional engagement of approximately 15 hours per week.

• Flexible schedule with availability aligned to standing weekly meetings.

• Independent contractor or fractional engagement structure, as applicable.