Legal Associate - Fintech & Digital Assets

As a Legal Associate at Hercle, you will contribute to the legal and regulatory work of a fintech building institutional-grade infrastructure for fiat, stablecoins, and digital assets. You join a lean, cross-domain legal team at a regulated scale-up, gaining exposure across institutional and commercial contracts, regulatory matters under MiCAR and payments regulation, governance, and international expansion. Your main focus will be the Italian entity, though you will also support other companies in Hercle's group. You will take ownership of live matters from day one, with the scope of your workstreams growing as your skills develop.

What you'll do

• Draft, review and negotiate commercial agreements including BaaS and partnership agreements, NDAs, vendor and outsourcing contracts, and OTC contracts.
• Support regulatory correspondence and requests from supervisory authorities.
• Review marketing communications, product documentation and customer terms against MiCAR and payments regulation.
• Answer legal inquiries from the business, onboarding, compliance, sales and product teams.
• Update internal policies, procedures and legal registers.
• Own legal workstreams end to end, such as a product launch, a new partnership or a regulatory filing.
• Contribute to the regulatory structuring of new products, from digital-asset services and e-money to payments and lending.
• Support the group's international expansion and global licensing efforts.
• Build and improve the legal team's templates, playbooks and internal tools, including AI-assisted workflows.
• Contribute to corporate and governance matters, including fundraising and investor documentation.
• Grow into a reference point for specific regulatory areas, such as MiCAR, DORA or AML.

What you bring

• A degree in Law.
• 2-3 years of experience in a top-tier law firm or a large, structured company.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills.
• Fluent Italian and English.
• The ability to work autonomously, manage several priorities at once and meet deadlines.

Nice to have

• Experience in fintech, banking, payments or digital assets.
• Familiarity with MiCAR, PSD2/EMD, TUB/TUF, DORA or AML regulation (D.Lgs. 231/2007).
• Experience with AI tools and process automation.

What we offer

• A hybrid role based in the Milan office.
• Direct exposure to regulators, institutional counterparties and the group's international projects.
• Ownership of entire workstreams from day one.
• The opportunity to develop your AI proficiency.

About Hercle

Hercle is a fast-growing fintech building institutional-grade infrastructure that bridges fiat, stablecoins, and digital assets. Serving over 200 clients globally, including banks, brokers, payment service providers, fintechs, commodity traders, and corporate treasuries, Hercle provides seamless solutions for cross-border payments and treasury management.