Research Counsel

About This Role

As a member of the Research Legal team, you'll advise on legal topics across the full lifecycle of building and studying frontier AI models. This includes data acquisition and use, training pipelines, model evaluation and launch, alignment, interpretability, model welfare, societal impacts, and beneficial deployments research, as well as Responsible Scaling Policy work on biological risk. The role presents the opportunity to be a leader in AI legal thought, navigating complex legal questions at the intersection of machine learning, data, and academic research in a fast-moving technical environment.

Responsibilities

• Advise research and data teams on data sourcing, licensing, partnerships, and use, and help shape Anthropic's data acquisition and use strategy as laws and markets evolve
• Help coordinate regulatory readiness and model launches, review model documentation and system cards, respond to regulatory inquiries, and advise on legal questions for pre-release and internal models
• Support the Responsible Scaling Policy as applied to biological and chemical risk, including capability evaluations, tiered access for biosecurity researchers, and dual-use research questions
• Counsel the Societal Impacts, Economic, Alignment, Interpretability, Model Welfare, and Beneficial Deployments teams on research design, data collection and sharing, external collaborations, program launches, and publication review
• Monitor global AI, privacy, copyright, and export-control developments and translate them into practical internal guidance and policy, working closely with Product, Policy, and other legal stakeholders
• Engage with academics, regulators, industry groups, and civil society to help develop norms and best practices for responsible AI development and data governance

Requirements

• Hold a law degree (JD, LLB, or equivalent) and meet the local licensing requirements to work as in-house counsel where you'll be based (California or New York preferred)
• Practical, creative problem-solving skills to apply legal requirements to fast-changing, deeply technical work, enabling responsible research and product development in a risk-calibrated environment
• Exceptional communication and analytical skills, technical fluency, and the ability to navigate ambiguous and uncharted legal territory, turning complex technical and legal analysis into actionable advice
• Familiarity and comfort advising on the EU AI Act, U.S. legislation and AI frameworks, GDPR/CCPA, and comparable regimes globally, sometimes where no AI-specific legislation exists
• Interest in the impact of AI on society and how to make humanity's transition to the AI age as beneficial as possible
• Sound judgment about when to be flexible and when to hold a line; comfort making high-stakes calls in unsettled areas and outside your core expertise; and a low-ego, collaborative approach