Legal Team Internship - Winter 2024/25

Founded in 2009, we began in the traditional finance world, as a leader in the FX space. Sensing the seismic shifts taking place in the financial industry, and the disruptive power of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, we made it our mission to make these decentralized trends accessible to every business, from market leaders to small retailers.

We are offering an internship opportunity on our Legal team, which begins at the start of the intern’s Winter 2024/25 semester and concludes before the start of the intern’s following semester. As our Winter Legal Team intern, your areas of focus will be licensing and regulatory research. You’ll be regularly interacting with members of the Legal team and will be mentored by our Associate Counsel, Regulatory & Compliance. Qualified candidates for this internship are current law school students or current students with a Bachelor’s in progress with a major in Law (or a related major such as Public Policy and History). Ideal candidates are able to take initiative, are flexible, familiar with legal concepts, and are exemplary researchers and writers.

Internships at Shift Markets are designed to provide students with hands-on training, similar to a university lab course, which enriches the educational experience. The goal is to add professional context to the student’s specialized academic program for the upcoming academic year. A major in Law (or a related major, such as Public Policy or History), is best suited for tying this internship to an academic program.

The intern will gain valuable experience by:

• Communicating daily with internal team members, under the supervision of our Associate Counsel.
• Receiving hands-on training from our Legal team on regulatory & compliance aspects of the digital asset space.
• Monitoring regulatory developments and preparing comparison documents, alongside our Legal team.
• Learning how to maintain systems to track and log regulatory changes, with guidance from Legal team members.
• Developing skills in synthesizing case law and broad regulatory expectations, with guidance from our Associate Counsel.
• Researching the financial services industry and pinpointing regulatory obligations, alongside members of our Legal team.
• Completing and processing paperwork required by law, with guidance from Legal team members.

The ideal intern is familiar with the following programs used by our company:

• Google Apps
• Notion
• Familiarity using legal tools such as LexisNexis and Westlaw is a plus

The ideal intern already has these required skills:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Meticulous attention to detail and well organized
• Ability to receive constructive feedback to refine and improve
• Self-motivated and able to focus in a remote environment
• Proven ability to complete projects autonomously and independently
• Adapts well to quickly changing priorities
• Ability to prioritize tasks in a dynamic environment
• Demonstrable research skills, such as research papers and summarizing complex information

Qualified candidates meet the following expectations:

• Extensive experience with legal research
• Experience working in or with a jurisdiction outside of the US
• Experience giving presentations to third parties
• Previously or currently head of a college society or club
• Current law school student or current student with a Bachelor’s in progress with a major in Law (or a related major such as Public Policy and History)

This is an unpaid internship with academic credit available. This internship requires 10-20 hours per week, and can be either remote or on-site in NYC. Internships with Shift are conducted without entitlement to a paid job at the conclusion of the internship.