In House Counsel

Profile

Coinbase CLO—and Former Atherton Mayor—On Being a Crypto Industry Veteran

Caroline Spiezio | August 17, 2018

Given his prior gig, Mike Lempres, chief legal officer at San Francisco-based Coinbase, has a deep understanding of why and how regulators do what they do.

Event

The Pitch Is for Practice, but the Clients Are Real

Vanessa Blum | Ross Todd | August 15, 2018

ALM’s Perfecting Your Pitch program set for Nov. 14 in San Francisco will be a forum for female lawyers to practice pitch delivery and receive valuable feedback from in-house lawyers.

Q&A

Terra Tech CLO on Life In-House at a California Cannabis Company

Caroline Spiezio | August 14, 2018

Joseph Segilia built a legal department from scratch at Irvine's Terra Tech, and learned a lot about cannabis law in the process.

News

Lessons from Elon Musk: What the CEO's Tweet Can Teach GCs About Damage Control

Caroline Spiezio | August 08, 2018

When Musk tweeted about potentially taking his company private this week, the world listened. And it's likely his in-house lawyers had to step up their game.

Slideshow

Big Earners in the Golden State: Here Are Calif.'s Top 10 Best Paid GCs

Caroline Spiezio | August 07, 2018

Tech, entertainment and other industries fueled some big time GC salaries in California, according to the latest edition of Corporate Counsel's GC Compensation Survey.

News

Summer Internships: A More Direct Route In-House for Law Students With Eyes on Silicon Valley

Caroline Spiezio | August 07, 2018

NetApp, Adobe and Google have joined the ranks of tech companies offering summer programs geared toward law students aiming to go in-house in their legal careers.

News

Granite Construction Brings on Industry Vet as New General Counsel

Dan Clark | August 06, 2018

Craig Hall has spent more than two decades in the construction industry in the run-up to joining the Watsonville-based, publicly-traded construction company.

News

Irvine's Bankruptcy Management Solutions Brings on Christopher Updike as GC

Sue Reisinger | August 03, 2018

Updike, a veteran of both Cadwalader and Debevoise, joins a lawyer-helmed company that provides software and services for consumer and corporate bankruptcy.

News

Gearing Up For an IPO, Uber Hires Another Covington Alum To Head In-House Transactions Team

Dan Clark | August 02, 2018

Uber Technologies Inc. announced on Thursday that it will be adding longtime Covington & Burling partner Keir Gumbs as associate general counsel, corporate transactions and deputy corporate secretary. Deptury GC Tammy Albarran previously joined Uber from the firm.

News

LA-Based Electric Carmaker Hires Banking, Regulatory Expert as Top Lawyer

Phillip Bantz | August 02, 2018

Henry (Hong) Liu, a former partner at Mayer Brown who served as general counsel of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, will hold several global roles at Faraday Future, bringing years of experience in Asian markets.

News

4 Lessons on Handling a Sexual Abuse Scandal for Embattled USC

Sue Reisinger | August 01, 2018

The Los Angeles school and its legal department could learn from Michigan State University, which has been trying to repair the damage after the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal.

Analysis

Google’s Kent Walker Faces Delicate Balancing Act in New, Broader Public Policy Role

Phillip Bantz | August 01, 2018

Walker and other in-house lawyers who find themselves moving up in the world will have to approach their work from multiple perspectives besides just legal.

Q&A

Keeping HPE Compliant with Global Anti-Corruption Laws: A Q&A with Becky Rohr

Caroline Spiezio | July 25, 2018

Rohr, formerly a high-level attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, is tasked with ensuring that the tech company respects the letter of the law in the 70 countries where it operates.

News

Uber Finds Its First Chief Privacy Officer in Longtime Intel In-House Counsel Ruby Zefo

Caroline Spiezio | July 18, 2018

Along with announcing the hire of its first chief privacy officer in Zefo, the company also announced it will bring on TomTom's Simon Hania as its first data protection officer, a role required under the GDPR.

Analysis

The Long Road to Going Public: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Lawyering of Dropbox's IPO

Caroline Spiezio | July 13, 2018

It took teamwork, preparation and smart technology use to get Dropbox's IPO over the finish line earlier this year.

News

Report: Big Tech Companies' Privacy Policies Not Totally GDPR Compliant

Dan Clark | July 09, 2018

The report from a consumer protection group indicates that even though privacy policies were revamped right before the GDPR came into effect in late May, “there is still room for significant improvements.” The survey used artificial intelligence to analyze 14 privacy policies at major tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple.

Q&A

In-House Q&A: Robinhood's Adele Faure on New Tech, Old Regs and Life as a 'Crypto Nerd'

Caroline Spiezio | July 06, 2018

"The more regulatory framework that comes to this space, the better the entire ecosystem will be," says Faure, assistant general counsel at the Palo Alto financial services firm.

Quick Takes

Altamont Capital Partners Names New General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer

Sue Reisinger | June 29, 2018

Jennifer Mello has joined Altamont, which is based in the Palo Alto and specializes in middle-market investments.

News

The Search is Over: Google Nabs GE Veteran Karan Bhatia as Global Head of Policy

Caroline Spiezio | June 28, 2018

Former Wilmer partner Bhatia is a 10-year veteran of GE and also has worked in Big Law and at various positions in government.

News

Tech Legal Leaders Dish on How to Build Relationships With the Business and the Board

Caroline Spiezio | June 27, 2018

Silicon Valley legal leaders, including the GCs of Square and eBay, spoke on a panel at Bloomberg Law In-House Forum West about how to forge strong business-side relationships.

News

Uber CLO Tony West Touts Company's New 'Do the Right Thing' Philosophy at In-House Forum

Caroline Spiezio | June 27, 2018

"Uber survives only if people trust us. Simple as that," West said. "They have to trust us with their data, they have to trust us with their safety, or the safety of their mother, and we have to earn that trust every day."

Q&A

Tania Daniels Talks Shop About Legal Operations at Walt Disney Company and the ACC

Dan Clark | June 25, 2018

The Recorder affiliate Corporate Counsel spoke with Tania Daniels about how she started off a career in legal ops, the future of the profession and how technology has changed the ops game.

News

E-Cigarette Maker Bums New CLO From Biopharma Celgene

Kristen Rasmussen | June 21, 2018

San Francisco-based JUUL Labs Inc. announced Thursday that Gerald “Jerry” Masoudi has been named chief legal officer, effective July 9. Most recently, Masoudi was executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Celgene Corp. He once served as chief counsel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Analysis

EU Copyright Directive Moves Forward: What Does It Mean for In House Lawyers in Silicon Valley?

Caroline Spiezio | June 21, 2018

"The only companies that are really going to be able to implement filtering on a wide scale are the big incumbent companies, like YouTube," said the former GC of the Wikimedia Foundation.

News

‘We Are a Better Nation Than This:’ Tech’s In-House Leaders Share Views on Immigration Policies

Caroline Spiezio | June 19, 2018

Top in-house lawyers in the tech industry have taken to social media to discuss Trump's immigration policies.

News

Meet David Taylor, the Theranos GC and Former Munger Associate Who Just Became the Troubled Company's CEO

Caroline Spiezio | June 18, 2018

Taylor will have his work cut out for him, replacing former CEO Elizabeth Holmes at a company that has been stuck in a downward spiral of legal troubles and bad headlines.

Expert Opinion

What's Market-Rate Compensation for a Midlevel Associate Heading In-House?

Julie Q. Brush | June 15, 2018

Moving in-house is an alluring proposition that has been a major driver for the exodus of today’s young law firm associates.

News

PTAB Chief Accusing Former Employer Medtronic of Sexual Orientation, Disability Bias

Scott Graham | June 13, 2018

Chief Judge David Ruschke alleges he was laid off from Medtronic's in-house department for pretextual reasons in 2015 in a lawsuit playing out in Oakland federal court.

News

Steptoe & Johnson Lawyer Moves In-House as Vote.org's First GC

Caroline Spiezio | June 13, 2018

Steptoe & Johnson litigator Sarah Jackel has come aboard to help the online voter registration nonprofit navigate state laws to help citizens sign up to vote digitally.

News

At Stanford Conference, In-House Leaders Discuss 'Delicate Tension' Between Legal Obligations, Consumer Demands

Caroline Spiezio | June 12, 2018

Companies are increasingly being asked to take political stands, which can make life a bit more complicated for in-house lawyers, according to speakers on a Monday panel at the 15th annual Stanford E-Commerce Best Practices Conference.

Expert Opinion

Q&A: Title IX in the Wake of the USC Physician Sexual Misconduct Scandal

Ryan Whitacre, Major, Lindsey & Africa | June 11, 2018

"Remember that Title IX cases that make the news—like Larry Nassar’s unspeakable criminal sexual assaults at Michigan State—are outliers and the vast majority of educational institutions work really hard to maintain a healthy and safe environment," said Natalie Brouwer Potts in a Q&A with Ryan Whitacre of Major, Lindsey & Africa.

Video

Video: Louise Pentland of PayPal is a Legal Leader, and a Business Boss Too

Rebekah Mintzer Rebekah Mintzer | June 07, 2018

In a one-on-one interview, Corporate Counsel spoke to Pentland about how she found a role at the payment transfer company that stretches far beyond just legal.

News

LinkedIn Names Caroline Goulding as Data Protection Officer Under GDPR

Caroline Spiezio | June 05, 2018

Goulding will return to her home country of Ireland, where she will help ensure that LinkedIn stays compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation.

Analysis

How Tech's In-House Lawyers Balance IP and Open Source

Caroline Spiezio | June 05, 2018

In-house attorneys at Pure Storage and Dropbox say that education is key when it comes to making sure rights to innovative technologies are protected.

News

UC Berkeley Appoints Chief Campus Counsel, Months After Former Counsel's Death

Caroline Spiezio | June 01, 2018

After serving in the role as chief campus counsel on an interim basis for nine months following the death of his predecessor Christopher Patti, David Robinson was named to the position permanently on Thursday.

Video

Video: OpenTable GC Connie Chen On What’s Cooking in Her Law Department

Caroline Spiezio | Jason Doiy | May 24, 2018

The Recorder affilliate Corporate Counsel recently sat down with Chen to talk about her role at the San Francisco-based company and her career advice—plus her favorite foods.

News

After Just 16 Months at Square, GC Hillary Smith Resigns

Caroline Spiezio | May 22, 2018

It's unknown where Smith will land next, but another in-house lawyer at Square, Sivan Whiteley, has been named as her successor.

News

Silicon Valley Digital Wealth Management Firm Names Allison Amadia New GC

Stephanie Forshee | May 21, 2018

"My experience helping technology companies grow and stay ahead of the increasingly complex legal and compliance matters as they scale will allow me to add value right from the start," said the new Personal Capital Corp. general counsel.

News

San Mateo Software Company Alfresco Names New General Counsel

Dan Clark | May 03, 2018

New GC Kamil Chaudhary's promotion is one of a few executive moves in Alfresco's ranks as of late.

Expert Opinion

Consider Retaining Outside Counsel for Ethics Issues

Shari L. Klevens and Alanna Clair | May 01, 2018

Handling ethics compliance issues can be one of the most difficult tasks inherent in running a law firm.

News

Daphne Frydman Promoted to Top Legal Role at Oakland Investment Manager

Dan Clark | May 01, 2018

Daphne Frydman, the new GC at USCF, has over 17 years of experience counseling companies in the financial services industry.

Expert Opinion

How to Score an In-House Job Without In-House Experience

Julie Brush | April 27, 2018

Whether you’re a litigator or a transaction lawyer, the lack of in-house experience can put you at a competitive disadvantage when applying for an in-house position.

News

Top Lawyers at Cisco, NetApp and HPE Say Legal Ops Has Been a Game Changer

Caroline Spiezio | April 26, 2018

At the final panel at the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium's 2018 institute, in-house leaders from the Silicon Valley tech companies shared thoughts about the rise of legal ops.

News

Zero to Hero: Legal Ops Leaders From Gap and Cisco Discuss Starting From Scratch

Caroline Spiezio | April 24, 2018

At CLOC's annual conference in Las Vegas this week, Mike Haven of The Gap and Steve Harmon of Cisco Systems gave some pointers on how to build an ops function where there wasn't one before. "It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon," Haven said.

News

Margo Smith Leaves Apttus After 10 Months for Snowflake Computing

Stephanie Forshee | April 24, 2018

Smith replaces Barbara Walkowski in the CLO role at the cloud-based data warehousing company in San Mateo.

News

In-House Leaders From Facebook, Uber, Dropbox and Salesforce: 'Consent Is Complex in GDPR'

Caroline Spiezio | April 20, 2018

Are companies seeking too much consent to process data? Too little? It's a situation that poses challenges for in-house lawyers far and wide, according to a panel discussion of industry leaders at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Profile

Former ClearSlide GC Olga Mack Joins San Francisco's Quantstamp as VP of Strategy

Caroline Spiezio | April 18, 2018

Mack, who was also formerly in-house at Zoosk, was planning to take some time off, but then found a job that she couldn't turn down.

Slideshow

What 5 California Legal Department Luminaries Have Said About Outside Firms

Rebekah Mintzer | April 16, 2018

Here are some of the quotable (and occasionally controversial) statements California lawyers in corporate legal departments have made about outside partners.

Dodgers' GC Says Technology Has Created Major League Changes for Baseball Lawyers

Caroline Spiezio | April 13, 2018

Veteran legal leader Sam Fernandez spoke on Friday at Berkeley Law about how in-house lawyers' roles in the sport have evolved over his three-and-half decades on the job.

News

In-House Leaders: The Future of IP Law Is Global, Data-Driven

Caroline Spiezio | April 12, 2018

At Wednesday's IPForward Conference in San Francisco, the Recorder took a look into the crystal ball with in-house IP luminaries.