DoorDash Paid Legal Group Leader Nearly $15.9 Million Last Year

DoorDash Inc. awarded its new general counsel Tia Sherringham nearly $15.9 million in total compensation last year, according to a proxy statement.

Her pay package included $350,000 in base salary and more than $15.5 million in stock awards that vest over four years, the proxy showed.

Sherringham, 41, joined DoorDash in 2017 after spending a year working for grocery delivery service Instacart Inc. She was an assistant general counsel before DoorDash promoted her to the company’s top legal and corporate secretary roles in January 2022.

The online food ordering and delivery company is facing litigation over the prices it charges customers and has clashed in court with delivery workers. DoorDash agreed last year to settle a dispute involving thousands of workers allegedly misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees.

Sherringham succeeded former chief legal and business officer Keith Yandell as he transitioned to focus solely on his non-legal duties. Yandell earned more than $5.3 million in total compensation last year, DoorDash disclosed in its proxy.

Yandell, 44, received $350,000 in base salary and roughly $5 million in stock awards from the San Francisco-based company last year, per its proxy. Yandell has also sold off almost $10.5 million in DoorDash stock since the beginning of 2022, according to separate securities filings.

Bloomberg data shows that Yandell owns nearly $16 million in DoorDash stock, while Sherringham’s shares in the company are valued at about $18.3 million. Yandell, a former in-house litigator at Uber Technologies Inc., was hired by DoorDash as its first-ever general counsel in 2016.

Instacart, Blue Apron

Instacart, which has joined DoorDash in backing proposals related to employment status, postponed its plans to go public last year due to economic turmoil. Ahead of that potential listing, Instacart was busy hiring in-house lawyers, including recruiting Alexander MacDonald, a gig economy expert who now serves as the company’s director for the future of work and labor law.

Bloomberg News reported last year that the food delivery market has taken a tough turn after growing during the pandemic. GrubHub, a DoorDash rival owned by Dutch company Just Eat Takeaway NV, received takeover interest last year from buyout giant Apollo Global Management Inc. Blue Apron Holdings Inc., a meal-kit delivery company that went public in 2017, has also faced headwinds.

Meredith Deutsch, a former lawyer and Jones Day and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson hired by Blue Apron in 2019 to be its general counsel, received almost $792,000 in total pay last year, according to a proxy statement filed in April. Deutsch received roughly $955,000 in 2021 from New York-based Blue Apron, which has struggled financially in recent months.

Blue Apron announced in December that it would reduce spending and cut 10% of its corporate workforce amid stagnating sales. Teghan Setty, a former assistant general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Blue Apron, left the company late last year for an in-house legal job at Lovevery Inc., a children’s education subscription service whose general counsel is David Morris.