Grindr GC Discusses ‘Smart’ Risks, Protecting Users’ Privacy

Zac Katz is comfortable in different mediums. Grindr Inc.’s top lawyer represented digital media and technologies companies as a litigator in private practice before going on to serve as a political and policy analyst, regulator, and business strategist during his nearly two decades practicing law.

Two years into his roles as general counsel and head of global affairs at Grindr, which provides social networking and a variety of other services to LGBTQ individuals in nearly 200 countries, Katz oversees a growing legal and compliance group tasked with keeping the company and its users—80% of whom are outside the US—safe from threats.

“We hear a lot from plaintiffs attorneys, regulators, and the media, so it’s definitely a wartime general counsel role,” Katz said.

Grindr is leanly staffed at roughly 150 employees. Those in Katz’s government affairs, legal, and privacy portfolio number about a dozen, but the West Hollywood, Calif.-based company is hiring as its operations expand into areas like e-commerce and telehealth.

“You can’t grow a business without taking some smart, significant risks,” said Katz, who joined Grindr in September 2023.

He previously spent more than nine years at Age of Learning Inc., a privately held education technology company that owns the digital education program ABCmouse. Katz was that company’s chief legal and corporate affairs officer as demand surged for edtech services during the pandemic. When a recruiter called about a public company legal chief position, Katz was ready.

“Zac has an exceptionally quick and wide-ranging intelligence matched with a warm personality,” said one of his mentors, Sonos Inc.'s legal and strategy chief Edward Lazarus, who worked with Katz at the Federal Communications Commission during the Obama administration. “He’s got a knack for navigating complicated situations, while staying remarkably unflappable.”

Mission Focus

Grindr, which went public in 2022, hired a new CEO that year in George Arison. Grindr is known for an app that connects gay men for dating, friendship, or sex, but Arison’s vision has broadened its business into a “global gayborhood” for products to a “historically underserved community,” said Katz, citing experiences, health and wellness, and travel as areas of expansion.

“When we set out to find a new general counsel, I knew the role had to encompass far more than legal,” Arison said. “Zac brought that rare mix of legal expertise, tech experience, and government service.”

Grindr also has major social impact issues on its docket by fighting for human rights and marriage equality, as well as public health positions like eradicating HIV, which Katz said were important factors in him coming aboard.

Katz, who is married with two children, doesn’t identify as one of Grindr’s primary client base—but considers himself a staunch ally.

Grindr operates in some countries where it is illegal to be gay, so it works with local community organizations and leans on a government relations team to navigate geopolitical dynamics. Grindr also faces an array of privacy, litigation, labor, and other issues that has Katz seeking efficiency from his outside counsel.

Grindr incorporates artificial intelligence tools into its platform, primarily for coding. Katz has asked law firms working for the company to do the same.

A firm retained by Grindr recently used AI—at Katz’s request—for a brief’s first draft to cut down on billable hours, he said. The final brief was heavily rewritten by experienced human lawyers, but Katz said it’s crucial for clients to push their legal advisers to embrace new technologies since the financial incentives for those in private practice aren’t always aligned with their in-house counterparts.

Katz doesn’t feel AI technology has advanced enough for it to fly solo or “shoulder a lot of the heavy lifting on briefs or contract negotiations,” he said. Still, he’s optimistic such new legal tools will get better.

Cooley LLP, Davis Wright Tremaine, Littler Mendelson, Jenner & Block, and Munger, Tolles & Olson—where Katz started his career—are some Big Law firms that have advised Grindr. Katz said many lawyers want to work with Grindr, given that some are members or allies of its core constituency, and that it’s a “pretty good volume client” for a company with a $3 billion market capitalization.

Moving Forward

Katz, a former editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal, said he was proud this year when his former firm Munger Tolles organized a response to the Trump administration’s attacks on the US legal industry. Grindr doesn’t work with any firms that settled with the government, Katz said.

Katz was a White House deputy special counsel and then chief counsel and chief of staff to former FCC chairman Julius Genachowski at the dawn of the social media era. Katz doesn’t hide his political allegiances, but avoids promoting them.

“I’ve found as a general counsel, your client, as a company, its executives, employees, and board—there’s going to be a diversity of political opinion,” said Katz, who counts Genachowski, Lazarus, and former Munger Tolles partner Jeffrey Bleich as mentors. “I don’t view it as my place to single-handedly articulate, ‘Here’s the political orientation of this company.’”

Katz empathizes with members of Grindr’s community who feel politically isolated. Grindr is a direct-to-consumer outfit that has no government contracts but 50% of its revenue comes from advertising. A small portion of that revenue stream has faced challenges in the current political climate, Katz said.

Grindr hired its first in-house lobbyist this year, Joseph Hack, to lead a government affairs team in guarding against federal budget cuts to programs that benefit the global gay community, Katz said. Jevan Hutson, a law professor and former Davis Wright associate, recently joined Grindr to bolster oversight on privacy matters, the company said. Grindr is also searching for a chief privacy officer to replace Kelly Peterson, who left this year.

Arison, Grindr’s CEO, praised Katz for transforming the company’s “legal and corporate affairs function into a strategic engine.” Katz’s leadership makes “Grindr stronger and better prepared for the future,” Arison said.

Editor’s note: This is the first profile in Inside In-House, a periodic series featuring corporate counsel.