legal
Posted Apr 6Legal Counsel, M&A
at Mistral AI
Paris, FranceOn-site
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Responsibilities
- Draft, negotiate, and provide strategic advice on a wide range of M&A transactions, including acquisitions, acqui-hires, and other internal or external growth projects worldwide.
- Lead or coordinate legal due diligence processes, identifying and managing key legal risks across corporate, IP, employment, and regulatory workstreams.
- Draft, negotiate, and advise on transaction documentation including LOIs, NDAs, SPAs, shareholders' agreements, earn-out mechanisms, and post-closing arrangements.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including other corporate functions
- Build our internal templates, practices and guidelines for M&A documentation.
Requirements
- About Mistral At Mistral AI, we believe in the power of AI to simplify tasks, save time, and enhance learning and creativity.
- We democratize AI through high-performance, optimized, open-source and cutting-edge models, products and solutions.
- Our comprehensive AI platform is designed to meet enterprise as well as personal needs.
- Our offerings include Le Chat, AI Studio, Mistral Code and Mistral Compute — a suite that brings frontier intelligence to end-users.
- We are a dynamic, collaborative team passionate about AI and its potential to transform society.
- Join us to be part of a pioneering company shaping the future of AI.
- See more about our culture on https://mistral.ai/careers.
- Mistral operates at the frontier of AI, where the pace of innovation demands M&A speed and precision that matches the technology itself.
- Bachelor degree or above (LLB, LLM, Juris Doctor preferred) from an accredited law school in France or another EU country.
- Admission to practice law in at least another jurisdiction, in particular in the USA would be a plus.
- experience in structuring and negotiating M&A transactions, including hands-on
- experience leading large to mid-cap acquisitions from due diligence through signing and closing.
- Familiarity with VC-PE type transactions is highly valued: you understand sophisticated shareholders' agreements, liquidation preferences, anti-dilution provisions, management and employees' incentive packages, as well as the governance dynamics of venture-backed and PE-backed companies.
- Demonstrated ability to navigate cross-border M&A structuring questions and multi-jurisdictional transactions, including coordinating with local external counsel.
- Excellent written and verbal communication in both English and French. Strong ability to present complex legal concepts in a clear and understandable manner to non-legal stakeholders.
- experience working within businesses — ideally across multiple industries — where you have delivered measurable impact and demonstrated a deep understanding of operational and strategic priorities.
- An understanding of the tax implications of M&A structuring, allowing you to optimise outcomes and mitigate risks.
- Knowledge and usage of Artificial Intelligence: an understanding of AI technologies, including machine learning, natural language processing and their applications, is important.
- Ethical Awareness: a strong understanding of ethical considerations related to AI, such as fairness, transparency, accountability, and bias mitigation, is important.
- Ability to shape the exciting journey of AI and be part of the very early days of one of the hottest AI companies.
Benefits
- Support on other legal topics as needed, especially on the compliance front related to corporate matters (including labor law, insurances, Sapin II, etc.).
- Competitive salary and bonus structure & Comprehensive benefits package.
Additional details
- Our technology is designed to integrate seamlessly into daily working life.
- Our diverse workforce thrives in competitive environments and is committed to driving innovation.
- Our teams are distributed between France, USA, UK, Germany and Singapore.
- Role Summary As our M&A Legal Counsel, you will work directly under the Head of M&A and Finance Legal Counsel, based in Paris.
- In close collaboration with our Business and Finance teams, you will be instrumental in structuring, drafting, and negotiating Mistral's external growth transactions — from talent-driven acqui-hires and technology acquisitions to small-to-mid cap strategic deals.
- You will help shape our growth and business relationships that will define Mistral's next chapter.
- Take an active part in every stage of M&A transactions: deal structuring, due diligence, strategic negotiations, signing and closing
- A minimum of 5-8 years of relevant legal experience, including a minimum of 4 in an international law firm. Strong
- Great negotiation skills, with a history of successfully leading critical discussions with founders, boards, investors, and their advisors, balancing assertiveness with collaboration, and maintaining positive, long-term relationships with all stakeholders.
- Adaptability: proactive, flexible, and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.