Coinbase Inc. announced the appointment of Milana McCullagh, the former Google Senior Legal Director, as deputy general counsel for product and commercial legal.
It has been reported that McCullagh, who worked for more than 13 years at Google, will work across functions at Coinbase on product legal support, helping the firm to streamline legal compliance for new product launches.
However, McCullagh’s appointment is part of both a Coinbase campaign to attract legal talent that started last year, as well as a broader industry-wide movement of top-tier attorneys joining crypto firms.
The report said that between August and October, Coinbase appointed former general counsel at Dyson Ltd., Katherine Minarik, as general deputy counsel for litigation; former senior legal counsel at Uber Technologies Inc. in London, Carly Nuzbach Lowery, as an associate general counsel; the former attorney at Fenwick Jade Clemons as a commercial counsel; and head of supervisory affairs at CLS Group Holdings AG, Janice Payne, as director of regulatory compliance.
The crypto industry is beginning to attract big-name lawyers from Google, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and others in droves, but what do the hires mean for crypto's growth? https://t.co/YQ2Ji4YF9D — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 31, 2020
Likewise, the glut of hirings may be part of an effort by Coinbase to quell regulatory fears from potential investors on the eve of a possible IPO. The San Francisco-based company held talks with law firms and investment banks regarding an IPO earlier in the year.
Thus, these appointments coincide with the company’s recent decision to curtail “political” and “societal” discussions at work, which led to a request by 60 employees to take advantage of exit packages provided by the company.
Source: Cointelegraph