Legal Intern (3L) - Fall 2026
cartesia
OnSite
*HQ - San Francisco, CA
Uncategorized
Job Score
70 pts
On-site model (+70)
About Cartesia
Our mission is to architect AI that learns from and interacts with the world like humans do.
We're pioneering the model architectures that will make this possible. Our founding team met as PhDs at the Stanford AI Lab, where we invented State Space Models or SSMs, a new primitive for training efficient, large-scale foundation models. Our team combines deep expertise in model innovation and systems engineering paired with a design-minded product engineering team to build and ship cutting edge models and experiences.
We're funded by leading investors at Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with Factory, Conviction, A Star, General Catalyst, SV Angel, Databricks and others. We're fortunate to have the support of many amazing advisors, and 90+ angels across many industries, including the world's foremost experts in AI.
About the Role
We're looking for a rising 3L Legal Intern to join our in-house legal team onsite in San Francisco during a high-growth phase. This is a great hands-on opportunity for a law school student to work directly on the cutting-edge legal questions shaping frontier AI, contracts and commercial transactions, privacy, intellectual property, and much more. You will support the General Counsel and cross-functional teams across Operations, Product, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, and Research, to do important legal work that meaningfully impacts the business, including researching emerging AI regulatory frameworks, and building reusable legal resources that help scale the business.
This is a paid, onsite internship based in San Francisco, CA, and is open to rising third-year law students currently enrolled at an ABA-accredited law school.
Your Impact
Commercial Contracts: Conduct first-pass reviews and triage business legal requests, including customer agreements, non-disclosure agreements (NDA), business associate agreements (BAA), and data processing agreements (DPA) to provide concise summaries with recommended next steps for attorney review.
AI Governance and Regulation: Research and analyze emerging global AI regulations, including the EU AI Act, and US state and federal frameworks to help draft internal governance policies.
Privacy and Data Compliance: Help ensure compliance with major privacy regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, BIPA, CUBI.
Intellectual Property Strategy: Assist with intellectual property workflow, including copyright issues related to AI training, open-source software compliance, and filings for trademarks and patents.
Product Counseling: Work alongside non-legal stakeholders across Operations, Product, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, and Research to evaluate legal risks and translate legal analysis into practical, decision-ready recommendations.
What You Bring
Currently enrolled as a rising third-year student (3L) at an ABA-accredited law school; graduating in 2027.
Experience producing legal writing, including memos, contract summaries, issue briefs, or policy analyses that turns complex legal questions into concise, actionable recommendations a supervising attorney or business stakeholder can act on.
Demonstrated ability to take a defined research, review, or legal operations project from intake to a usable work product, with clear assumptions, organized analysis, and appropriate escalation.
Comfort using AI tools (including Claude for Legal), Google Workspace (Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, Calendar, Meet), Slack, legal research platforms, document trackers, spreadsheets, and knowledge-management systems to work efficiently while maintaining accuracy and confidentiality.
A proactive, flexible, positive, and low ego attitude. You take ownership and thrive in a fast-moving and changing environment, and effectively handle ambiguity.
Ability to work onsite at our San Francisco office for 15 hours a week during the Fall 2026 semester.
Nice to Have
Experience supporting a technology company or startup, or in-house legal team on matters involving contracts, operations, product, marketing, sales, data privacy, cybersecurity, or AI governance.
Experience working with or supporting non-legal stakeholders such as Operations, Product, Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, or Engineering, and translating legal questions into practical business advice and next steps.
Please note: This is a temporary, hourly, non-exempt internship position. Interns are eligible for legally required benefits and protections, but are not eligible for Cartesia’s full-time employee benefit programs unless expressly stated in the applicable plan documents or offer materials.
Cartesia is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status.
Cartesia participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with Form I-9 information to confirm employment eligibility after hire.
More Details
🏢 In-office policy: We’re an in-person team based out of offices in 🇺🇸 San Francisco, 🇬🇧 London and 🇮🇳 Bangalore. We love being in the office, hanging out together, and learning from each other every day.
🌎 Visa sponsorship: We provide visa sponsorship support and assess each circumstance on a case-by-case basis. However, visa sponsorship is dependent on many factors, including the role you are applying for, and the location you are going to be based, and so we can't always guarantee success. Your Recruiter will work with you to understand your visa sponsorship needs from the first call.
🚢 We ship fast. All of our work is novel and cutting edge, and execution speed is paramount. We have a high bar, and we don’t sacrifice quality or design along the way.
🤝 We support each other. We have an open & inclusive culture that’s focused on giving everyone the resources they need to succeed.
Our Benefits (US Employees Only)
💰 Compensation Competitive base salary alongside attractive equity package.
🩺 Health Insurance Fully covered medical insurance along with dental and vision for you and your family.
🧑🧑🧒🧒 Parental Leave 9 weeks paternity & 12 weeks maternity leave
🏦 401(k)
🚆 Commuter Allowance A monthly stipend to help you get to and from the office.
🏖️ Flexible PTO Take as much time as you need to recharge your batteries.
🍲 Meals & Snacks Lunch, dinner and plenty of snacks, provided daily.
🦖 Your own personal Yoshi
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