Ex Google Lawyer Joins Coinbase Legal Support Team: Report

An ex Google lawyer has just joined Coinbase’s legal support team as a deputy general counsel for product and commercial legal as we are reading more in today’s Coinbase news.

CoinbaseInc. Announced the appointment of the ex Google lawyer Milana McCullagh who worked more than 13 years for Google and will now work at Coinbase on product legal support, helping the company to streamline legal compliance for the new product launches. McCullagh’s appointment is a part of the Coinbase campaign to attract more legal talent that started in 2019 as well as a broader industry movement of the top tier attorneys that are joining crypto firms.

We welcome Katherine Minarik as VP, Deputy GC – Litigation and Milana McCullagh as VP, Deputy GC – Product and Commercial — both will help drive our momentum to ensure our internal and external operations remain strong and regulatory compliant. https://t.co/DVlZdEy6Cb

— Coinbase (@coinbase) October 30, 2020

Between October and August, Coinbase appointed former general counsel Katherine Minarik as a general deputy counsel for litigation, as well as former senior legal counsel at Uber Technologies in London, Cary Nuzbach Lowery as an associate general counsel, and Janice Payne as the new director of regulatory compliance that previously worked as a head of supervisory affairs at CLS Group Holding.

The new wave of hirings could be a part of the efforts by Coinbase to quell the regulatory fears from potential investors with the potential upcoming IPO. The San Francisco-based company also talked with law firms and investment banks about an IPO in 2019. Additionally, these appointments coincide with the company’s recent decision to “curtail political and societal discussions at work” which eventually led to about 60 employees leaving the company and taking advantage of packages that were provided by Coinbase.

Coinbase is not alone in the goal of bringing top-tier legal professionals to the crypto industry as the blockchain-based company Labs Operating Corp announced the appointment of the former attorney at Goldman Sachs Sang Joon Kim as a new general counsel. The crypto exchange and custodian Gemini Trust Co. LLC appointed the former head of legal with Morgan Stanley’s global financial crimes division Andy Meehan as the chief compliance officer for the entire Asia-Pacific region.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced the appointment of the former chief regulatory officer from the New York Stock Exchange Anthony Albanese in order to work on crypto regulatory matters. These moves coincide with the steps taken by US regulators to legalize the entire crypto sector. The US Department of Justice issued more guidelines to regulate the crypto market and to hold it accountable.

Erich Dylus, the finance attorney for Vedder Price said that the new wave of hirings could be a sign of the legal world approving of the growing influence of crypto:

 “Some attorneys are discovering an exciting frontier in need of ‘meatspace’ legal guidance — it speaks to the maturing nature of the crypto and crypto-adjacent industries that big names are making the jump.”