FitBit’s Former Legal Chief Lands New Role at Air Taxi Startup

Archer Aviation Inc., an electric aircraft startup looking to bring flying taxis to market by 2024, announced Monday its hire of chief legal officer Andrew Missan.

Missan, formerly the top lawyer at FitBit Inc., joins Archer six months after the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company announced plans to go public by merging with Atlas Crest Investment Corp., a special purpose acquisition company.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. agreed to buy up to 200 of Archer’s small flying taxis as part of the deal. The agreement, valued at roughly $1 billion, came as Archer announced in mid-February its $3.8 billion tie-up with New York-based Atlas.

Archer’s prototype electric takeoff and landing vehicle, called Maker, will have a 60-mile range and fly at roughly 150 miles per hour, according to Bloomberg News.

Cooley is advising Archer on its merger with Atlas, while the latter has turned to Kirkland & Ellis for counsel on the transaction. Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that the deadline for the deal’s closing had been extended until October amid an ongoing trade secrets dispute between Archer and rival Wisk Aero LLC.

“It’s an exhilarating opportunity to join Archer and continue to develop the legal function for a team that is creating such a transformational product and defining a new industry,” Missan said in a statement.

Missan’s move comes after he spent eight-plus years at FitBit, where he guided the wearable fitness technology company through a $732 million initial public offering in 2015 and a prolonged patent litigation battle with now-defunct rival Jawbone. FitBit eventually prevailed in its trade secrets war with Jawbone.

Archer, Missan’s new employer, noted its new legal chief’s track record in helping guide FitBit “through complex legal challenges during a tremendous period of growth” that took it from a private to public company.

In late 2019, Alphabet Inc.’s Google agreed to buy FitBit for $2.1 billion in cash. Google completed its acquisition of San Francisco-based FitBit this past January after a prolonged regulatory review in the U.S. and other jurisdictions.

Missan received nearly $1.6 million in total compensation from FitBit in 2019, according to the most recent proxy statement filed by the company.

Prior to FitBit, Archer said Missan built corporate law departments at startup companies like Bytemobile Inc., MobiTV Inc., and Danger Inc.

Bytemobile, a mobile video optimization specialist, was sold to Citrix Systems Inc. in 2012. Microsoft Corp. purchased Danger, a software company, in 2008. MobiTV’s assets were sold out of bankruptcy court this year to TiVo Corp.

Bloomberg Law reported earlier this year on Molly Abraham, general counsel at Kitty Hawk Inc., leaving the flying car startup to become an associate general counsel for commercial at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc.

Kitty Hawk, backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, elevated Abraham’s former deputy, Angela Gandhi, to succeed her as head of legal. Kitty Hawk also hired Madison Jellins, a former Alston & Bird partner who has worked in-house at Apple Inc. and Coherus Biosciences Inc., to be its interim head of legal in June.

Gandhi is now on maternity leave, according to a bounce-back message from her Kitty Hawk email address. Gandhi, Jellins, and Kitty Hawk didn’t respond to requests for comment about the company’s in-house legal team.

Joby Aviation LLC, another flying taxi startup that took over Uber Technologies Inc.’s flying car unit as it went public this month via a SPAC merger, also plans to debut its commercial fleet by 2024. Former Uber lawyers Kate DeHoff and Audrey Lin became general counsel and deputy general counsel, respectively, for Joby earlier this year.