Senior Counsel

Location: Remote
Department: Legal
Reports To: CEO
FLSA Status: Exempt
Travel: N/A
Salary Range: $200,000 - $240,000

About the Company

At Vanna Health, we believe that a sense of belonging and engagement in the community is the foundation for improving overall health and wellbeing for individuals with serious mental illness. We help people living with serious mental illness thrive by strengthening the community ecosystem around them. Through innovative payment models and technology, Vanna Health promotes collaboration across existing behavioral health and primary care providers, hospitals, payers, clubhouses and other community based organizations. Additionally, Vanna Health can deploy our own top quality providers and case managers, as needed, in areas where there may be a shortage of resources.

Vanna Health was founded in 2021 by a team of mission-driven entrepreneurs, working in close partnership with payers, providers, and community based organizations to promote collaboration and improve outcomes while driving down costs. We are committed to the goal of supporting all individuals with culturally competent care regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. With modern technology, extensive development opportunities, diverse careers paths, and a culture that values diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, we are redefining what it means to work in community health.

About the Role

Vanna Health is hiring its first in-house Senior Counsel: a practical, business-minded attorney with prior in-house experience who wants to build a legal function and work directly with the executive team. Employment law is the core of the role, with a broad portfolio of routine commercial and corporate work and support from outside specialists. This highly visible and influential role reports directly to the CEO.

Key Responsibilities

Employment Law

• Own day-to-day legal advice across the employment lifecycle in partnership with the VP of People, using outside specialists for litigation and other high-risk or specialized matters.

• Oversee and ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment, labor, and wage-and-hour laws (e.g., FLSA, FMLA, ADA, Title VII, NLRA, state specific laws like CA/NY/IL labor codes, and local ordinances).

• Lead employment compliance planning for opening, staffing and winding down sites across multiple jurisdictions, working with People and Operations on practical implementation.

• Serve as the trusted legal advisor to the VP of People, HR team, and business leaders on complex employment decisions, employee relations issues, leaves of absence, background checks, accommodations, performance management, and terminations.

• Review and update state-specific employee handbooks, company policies, offer letters, employment agreements, restrictive covenants, and separation agreements.

• Advise on worker classification and wage-and-hour questions for a field-based, multi-site workforce.

• Lead or oversee sensitive workplace investigations, including discrimination, harassment and retaliation complaints, and recommend next steps with outside counsel where appropriate.

• Support site openings and exits, including staffing and notice requirements.

• Partner with People and Operations so managers get clear, timely guidance and issues are identified early, with appropriate escalation to outside counsel.

• Manage pre-litigation disputes, administrative charges, wage-and-hour audits and employment claims; coordinate litigation strategy and representation with outside counsel.

• Monitor legal and regulatory trends, court rulings, and legislative changes impacting the employment landscape to proactively adjust company policies and practices.

Commercial and contracts

• Be the first-line counsel for our contracts with vendors and real estate leases, and will coordinate closely with specialist outside counsel on our value based provider and vendor contracts with health plan partners.

• Review and negotiate office leases and other real estate agreements.

• Review and negotiate routine NDAs and data use agreements with health plan partners

• Lead business-side coordination with specialist counsel on value-based care contracts with health plans, working alongside the CFO and Business Development team

• Track key contract terms, including risk-sharing arrangements, performance measurement, and payment provisions.

• Help the business interpret customer contract language when questions arise in the course of day to day operations

• Build templates, playbooks, and approval processes so the business can move quickly on routine agreements.

Corporate governance, equity and risk management

• Keep Vanna's corporate house in order and ready for the next raise.

• Prepare board meeting materials and draft minutes.

• Maintain corporate records and the cap table with the CFO.

• Coordinate equity-plan administration, proposed grants and 409A valuations with the CFO, People team and outside counsel; prepare required consents and maintain records of approvals by the board or other authorized decision-makers.

• Manage state registrations and entity compliance as we enter new markets.

• Partner with the CFO on corporate insurance, claims, coverage matters and other enterprise risk issues.

• Support future fundraising with diligence and data-room preparation.

• Work with operations to manage potential regulatory risks as they arise, and escalate to specialist outside counsel when needed

Managing outside counsel

• Identify when specialist advice is needed, agree on scope and budgets with the relevant business owner, and manage outside firms against clear deliverables.

• Stays with outside firms: complex healthcare regulatory questions (fraud and abuse, state licensure, HIPAA and privacy beyond day-to-day practice), financings, litigation, and immigration.

• Own routine legal work in-house while scoping specialist matters, tracking fees against budgets and escalating material risks or changes before additional work is committed.

What success looks like in the first year

• Establish a practical intake and prioritization process so People leaders and managers receive timely employment guidance, with clear escalation paths for high-risk matters.

• Build templates and review playbooks for recurring employment and commercial matters, with turnaround expectations agreed with the business and specialists engaged where needed.

• Create a reliable governance and equity-administration calendar with the CFO and People team, maintain current records, and prepare materials for the board or other authorized decision-makers.

• Establish an outside-counsel spend baseline, matter budgets and regular reporting with the CFO; agree on realistic priorities and savings opportunities without compromising legal quality.

Qualifications

Required

• Juris Doctor, active bar admission and eligibility to practice in the role’s work location, including any required in-house registration.

• Prior in-house legal experience and substantive employment-law experience are required. We are looking for an attorney ready to own a broad, practical portfolio and build a first in-house legal function with support from specialist firms.

• Substantive employment law experience, and real enthusiasm for it in a growing, multi-site organization.

• Good judgment and comfort with ambiguity.

• Clear, practical advice that business leaders can act on.

Strongly desired

• Experience in healthcare, Medicaid, or value-based care.

• Experience as a solo or first in-house lawyer, or building processes from scratch.

• Multi-state employment experience, especially in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Arizona, New York, or Ohio.