John Spinosa of Taylor Root has written a smart guide for quant funds and proprietary trading firms hiring a general counsel, and it doubles as a roadmap for any lawyer who wants to be a quant fund general counsel. His main point: hire for where the firm will be in three to five years, not today’s workload. Legal risk at these shops sits in trading strategies, data licensing, technology and AI, so a lawyer who has worked with engineers and data teams can beat a candidate with only financial-services credentials.
The other tell is judgment. Spinosa says to test candidates with scenarios, not rule recitals. That is good news for in-house lawyers coming from tech, and it fits what Taylor Root said last week about buy-side GC pay. Our guide on how to become a general counsel or chief legal officer covers the rest, and fund roles post on our funds counsel jobs page.
“In Taylor Root’s 2026 global in-house legal survey, 49% of respondents said risk management had been added to their remit over the previous 24 months.”
Read: Hiring a General Counsel for a quant fund or proprietary trading firm at Taylor Root