Amazon Is Hiring In-House Counsel in Virginia As It Revs Up for HQ2
Amazon is hiring corporate counsel in Arlington, Virginia, the city selected for the company's HQ2. It's a sign Amazon's legal team could be spreading to the East Coast.
April 29, 2019 at 04:19 PM
3 minute read
Amazon is shipping in-house counsel opportunities to its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
The Seattle-based tech giant has included a post for corporate counsel in the first stages of its hiring spree, which kicked off this month. It's a sign Amazon's more-than-800-person legal team may be split up as the company opens a second headquarters in the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington.
Amazon representatives have previously declined to answer whether the legal team would stay rooted in Seattle, mostly move to Arlington, or be divided, claiming it wasn't yet certain how teams would be split. They did not immediately respond for comment Monday. The company faced a series of challenges after announcing its plans to open two HQ2s in November, eventually ending its deal with the second city, New York.
Size has been the “biggest challenge” for Amazon's legal team before, general counsel David Zapolsky said in an August 2017 interview. At the time, Amazon already had in-house counsel in 15 different countries.
“Keeping up with what the company is doing around the world is our challenge. There are a lot of people out there that I don't know personally, which is a problem that gets worse every year,” Zapolsky said in the 2017 interview. He added he's tried to visit major international offices at least every two to three years.
It seems the in-house counsel brought on board to Amazon's office in Ballston, Arlington will be a public procurement lawyer to support Amazon Web Services and other company businesses selling to public sector customers in education, state and local government, and nonprofits.
The lawyer will be responsible for “reviewing, negotiating, and drafting” various tech contracts, including licensing, teaming, reseller and framework agreements with private and public sector customers. They'll also oversee “responses to requests for proposals and tenders” and support compliance with procurement laws, providing advice for senior executives on government contracts and pre-litigation issues.
A juris doctor and at least five years of experience in-house or at a firm are the basic requirements listed. A background in public procurement or at cloud companies and a knowledge of personal data law are also a plus. And Amazon lists its personality preferences for the first in-house counsel hired out of Arlington: “proactive, entrepreneurial, enjoy working hard and being challenged, have strong written and oral communication skills, demonstrate sound, pragmatic judgment in ambiguous situations, and have a healthy sense of humor.”
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