Contract Attorney / Commercial Counsel

$150/hrrate as listed

Review AI-generated contract redlines and negotiation transcripts and judge whether each edit reflects what competent commercial counsel would actually do. Work is per-task, fully remote across the US, at an observed rate of $150/hr on AfterQuery.

Summary, eligibility guidance and screening preparation are prepared by Sidequest from the platform's posting. Check the source listing before applying.

The work

You receive a contract negotiation artifact — typically a transcript of a negotiation plus a reference redline against an MSA, SOW, NDA, DPA, or vendor/SaaS agreement — and you assess the redline the way a supervising partner or GC would. Were the right issues flagged? Were the positions taken defensible for the party being represented? Were the edits surgical, or did the drafter rewrite clauses that didn't need touching? Your output is structured written feedback: what was missed, what was overreached, what was competently handled, and why. The written judgment matters as much as the verdict — this data trains models on legal reasoning, so an unexplained "wrong" is close to useless.

What the screen is looking for

AfterQuery is screening for attorneys who have actually sat across a negotiation, not just read contracts. Expect probes on specific clause families — limitation of liability carve-outs, indemnity scope, data processing terms, auto-renewal and termination mechanics, IP ownership in SOWs — and follow-ups asking why a position is or isn't market for a given party and deal size. They are also testing calibration: whether you can distinguish a redline that is merely stylistically different from yours versus one that is genuinely below competent standard. Attorneys who mark everything they'd have drafted differently as deficient tend not to pass.

Logistics

Fully remote, United States only; a US JD from an accredited law school is required and active bar admission is strongly preferred
Asynchronous and paid per task — most contributors fit it around full-time practice, and attorneys on a career break are explicitly welcomed
No minimum weekly commitment is stated, but volume tends to reward people who can commit predictable blocks rather than sporadic hours
Rate observed at $150/hr; pay bands on AfterQuery vary by task type and are not guaranteed

What they look for

3+ years hands-on commercial contract negotiation and redlining (MSAs, SOWs, NDAs, DPAs, vendor/SaaS)
US JD from an accredited law school
Structured written legal analysis — explaining why a position is or isn't defensible
Clause-level judgment on liability, indemnity, IP, data protection and termination terms
Active US bar admission (strongly preferred)
In-house, fractional GC, or high-volume contracts experience (preferred)

Included with this listing

Interview prep — 10 questions

Matched to what this platform's screening actually measures. Answer each out loud in 60–90 seconds: claim → concrete example → implication.

What it tests: Whether your experience is genuine negotiation reps or contract review/administration dressed up as negotiation.
A strong answer: Name specific agreement types (MSA, DPA, SaaS order form, SOW), who you represented (customer-side vs. vendor-side), rough deal sizes or volumes, and the counterparties' typical posture.
Where people lose it: Saying 'all types of commercial contracts' without naming a single clause you fought over — screeners read that as review-only experience.