OpenAI Adds Netflix, Google Veterans to Growing Legal Roster – Bloomberg Law
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By Brian Baxter
OpenAI has hired Andrea Appella, a former head of global competition at Netflix Inc., bolstering one of the fastest-growing legal teams in the technology sector.
The San Francisco-based generative artificial intelligence company has sought new funding at a roughly $100 billion valuation. OpenAI has been busy building its law department by recruiting from the US government, Big Law, and Big Tech.
Appella joined OpenAI this month as its first lawyer in London, where he’ll serve as an associate general counsel for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The Italian national will oversee a range of competition, regulatory, and policy issues.
OpenAI, its key financial backer Microsoft Corp., and other technology giants are facing antitrust inquiries about their AI partnerships. Appella’s hire comes as European Union regulators recently announced new guardrails for AI tools.
The US Federal Trade Commission is also examining the nature of Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, and the “real relationship” between both companies is of interest to EU regulators, the bloc’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a January Bloomberg Television interview.
The potential probe by EU watchdogs came after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said it was mulling a similar inquiry in the aftermath of the sudden firing and rehiring of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.
OpenAI has grappled with a growing list of lawsuits related to how the company trains AI systems, in addition to questions about the recent boardroom drama.
The complex and challenging environment facing outfits like OpenAI has provided work for a bevy of high-powered law firms. Those lawyers work with their in-house counterparts to address legal, policy, and regulatory challenges.
Lawyers that find themselves at the forefront of technological evolution and innovation will have a “competitive advantage” over their peers when it comes to furthering their careers, especially in a new field like AI, said Julie Brush, an attorney, founder, and CEO of Solutus Legal Search in Silicon Valley.
“It’s attractive to go to a high-profile company that has cutting-edge legal issues,” Brush said. “There’s going to be new law that evolves from AI and to be part of that as a lawyer is exciting. AI is infiltrating everything, and to have experience in that world will make a candidate extremely marketable for future opportunities.”
There’s also a financial component.
The potential for riches—and the ability to retire early—by getting in on the ground level, or at least close to it, at an organization that’s emerged as an early AI leader is its own recruitment tool, Brush said. While she has no inside knowledge of OpenAI’s compensation grid, Brush is familiar with its general counsel, Che Chang. The company seems to have little trouble hiring and its pick of top-tier legal talent, she said.
“If they can get in the general range of compensation, they’re going to be able to poach a lot of candidates from what we call compensation market outlier companies,” said Brush, citing those that OpenAI’s recruited from like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Airbnb Inc. “And that’s what we’re seeing now.”
OpenAI has hired more than a half-dozen lawyers who worked at Google, including its former head of global litigation Renny Hwang and Fred von Lohmann, who retired in 2018 after nearly a decade as Google’s top copyright lawyer.
This month OpenAI hired senior privacy counsel Charles Proctor from Google after picking up former Google litigation director Nora Puckett as an associate general counsel in January. Two other ex-Googlers, Cary Bassin and Natalie Kim, left the company late last year to join OpenAI’s legal team.
Meng Jia Yang, a former senior policy counsel at Airbnb, this month became senior counsel for AI policy and regulation at OpenAI.
Appella, who touted his new role at OpenAI via LinkedIn but declined further comment, spent 25 years working for major entertainment companies, including Time Warner Inc., 21st Century Fox Inc., and MTV Europe.
He spent three years at Netflix before leaving in 2022—the streaming media giant has restructured its law department—and for the past five months he was a consultant at Herbert Smith Freehills, where Appella started his career.
OpenAI’s appetite for expertise also sees it go beyond the technology sector. The company added attorney Katrina Mulligan, a national security expert who since 2022 had been chief of staff to US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, last month to fill a national security and partnerships position.
Big Law has been another talent pool to tap.
The company hired Haidee Schwartz—a former acting deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition—last year as an associate general counsel for competition. Schwartz was most recently an Akin partner.
Tyce Walters, a former Latham litigation associate who had been seconded last year to another AI startup, joined OpenAI as a product counsel in February.
Heather Whitney, a former Morrison & Foerster associate who was part of the firm’s AI steering committee, came aboard as a copyright counsel in January after OpenAI was hit with landmark lawsuit by The New York Times Co. OpenAI also snagged Katherine Chasmar, a former associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz who had been a senior attorney at Stripe Inc., as a senior corporate counsel. MoFo and Wachtell are both outside counsel to OpenAI.
One downside in moving to an emerging company like OpenAI is its illiquid stock, Brush said. Restricted stock units given to employees, while desirable, can also be risky if the value of those shares goes down after a company goes public or has some other kind of “liquidity event,” she said. Startups offset that risk by increasing the cash component—in salary and target bonus—of their pay plans.
After months of talks that were complicated by Altman’s brief exit, OpenAI completed a deal last month allowing employees to sell their stakes in the privately held company via a tender offer valuing it at $86 billion.
To contact the reporter on this story:Brian Baxter in New York at bbaxter@bloomberglaw.com
To contact the editors responsible for this story:Chris Opfer at copfer@bloombergindustry.com; John Hughes at jhughes@bloombergindustry.com; Alessandra Rafferty at arafferty@bloombergindustry.com
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This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
Americas+1 212 318 2000
EMEA+44 20 7330 7500
Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000
Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world.
Americas+1 212 318 2000
EMEA+44 20 7330 7500
Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000
By Brian Baxter
OpenAI has hired Andrea Appella, a former head of global competition at Netflix Inc., bolstering one of the fastest-growing legal teams in the technology sector.
The San Francisco-based generative artificial intelligence company has sought new funding at a roughly $100 billion valuation. OpenAI has been busy building its law department by recruiting from the US government, Big Law, and Big Tech.
Appella joined OpenAI this month as its first lawyer in London, where he’ll serve as an associate general counsel for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The Italian national will oversee a range of competition, regulatory, and policy issues.
OpenAI, its key financial backer Microsoft Corp., and other technology giants are facing antitrust inquiries about their AI partnerships. Appella’s hire comes as European Union regulators recently announced new guardrails for AI tools.
The US Federal Trade Commission is also examining the nature of Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, and the “real relationship” between both companies is of interest to EU regulators, the bloc’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a January Bloomberg Television interview.
The potential probe by EU watchdogs came after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said it was mulling a similar inquiry in the aftermath of the sudden firing and rehiring of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.
OpenAI has grappled with a growing list of lawsuits related to how the company trains AI systems, in addition to questions about the recent boardroom drama.
The complex and challenging environment facing outfits like OpenAI has provided work for a bevy of high-powered law firms. Those lawyers work with their in-house counterparts to address legal, policy, and regulatory challenges.
Lawyers that find themselves at the forefront of technological evolution and innovation will have a “competitive advantage” over their peers when it comes to furthering their careers, especially in a new field like AI, said Julie Brush, an attorney, founder, and CEO of Solutus Legal Search in Silicon Valley.
“It’s attractive to go to a high-profile company that has cutting-edge legal issues,” Brush said. “There’s going to be new law that evolves from AI and to be part of that as a lawyer is exciting. AI is infiltrating everything, and to have experience in that world will make a candidate extremely marketable for future opportunities.”
There’s also a financial component.
The potential for riches—and the ability to retire early—by getting in on the ground level, or at least close to it, at an organization that’s emerged as an early AI leader is its own recruitment tool, Brush said. While she has no inside knowledge of OpenAI’s compensation grid, Brush is familiar with its general counsel, Che Chang. The company seems to have little trouble hiring and its pick of top-tier legal talent, she said.
“If they can get in the general range of compensation, they’re going to be able to poach a lot of candidates from what we call compensation market outlier companies,” said Brush, citing those that OpenAI’s recruited from like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Airbnb Inc. “And that’s what we’re seeing now.”
OpenAI has hired more than a half-dozen lawyers who worked at Google, including its former head of global litigation Renny Hwang and Fred von Lohmann, who retired in 2018 after nearly a decade as Google’s top copyright lawyer.
This month OpenAI hired senior privacy counsel Charles Proctor from Google after picking up former Google litigation director Nora Puckett as an associate general counsel in January. Two other ex-Googlers, Cary Bassin and Natalie Kim, left the company late last year to join OpenAI’s legal team.
Meng Jia Yang, a former senior policy counsel at Airbnb, this month became senior counsel for AI policy and regulation at OpenAI.
Appella, who touted his new role at OpenAI via LinkedIn but declined further comment, spent 25 years working for major entertainment companies, including Time Warner Inc., 21st Century Fox Inc., and MTV Europe.
He spent three years at Netflix before leaving in 2022—the streaming media giant has restructured its law department—and for the past five months he was a consultant at Herbert Smith Freehills, where Appella started his career.
OpenAI’s appetite for expertise also sees it go beyond the technology sector. The company added attorney Katrina Mulligan, a national security expert who since 2022 had been chief of staff to US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, last month to fill a national security and partnerships position.
Big Law has been another talent pool to tap.
The company hired Haidee Schwartz—a former acting deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition—last year as an associate general counsel for competition. Schwartz was most recently an Akin partner.
Tyce Walters, a former Latham litigation associate who had been seconded last year to another AI startup, joined OpenAI as a product counsel in February.
Heather Whitney, a former Morrison & Foerster associate who was part of the firm’s AI steering committee, came aboard as a copyright counsel in January after OpenAI was hit with landmark lawsuit by The New York Times Co. OpenAI also snagged Katherine Chasmar, a former associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz who had been a senior attorney at Stripe Inc., as a senior corporate counsel. MoFo and Wachtell are both outside counsel to OpenAI.
One downside in moving to an emerging company like OpenAI is its illiquid stock, Brush said. Restricted stock units given to employees, while desirable, can also be risky if the value of those shares goes down after a company goes public or has some other kind of “liquidity event,” she said. Startups offset that risk by increasing the cash component—in salary and target bonus—of their pay plans.
After months of talks that were complicated by Altman’s brief exit, OpenAI completed a deal last month allowing employees to sell their stakes in the privately held company via a tender offer valuing it at $86 billion.
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
AI-powered legal analytics, workflow tools and premium legal & business news.
Log in to keep reading or access research tools.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
