Kim Kardashian’s $4 Billion Skims Brand Gets First Legal Chief

Skims Body Inc., an underwear and apparel label fronted by Kim Kardashian, hired former HelloFresh SE executive Colin Bennett as its first general counsel and chief compliance officer.

Bennett anticipates growing the in-house legal team at Skims, he said in an email. Bennett reports directly to Jens Grede, a co-founder and chief executive officer of the Culver City, Calif.-based company, he said.

Bennett’s new role puts him in a key part of Kardashian’s growing business empire, one that includes reality television stardom and new private equity firm Skky Partners LP, according to a Fortune feature story this month. Kardashian started Skky last year with former Carlyle Group Inc. executive Jay Sammons.

Skims, co-founded in 2019 by Kardashian, Grede, and his wife, fellow entrepreneur Emma Grede, is preparing to open its first stores next year as part of a retail expansion in the US and abroad.

HelloFresh, a meal-kit delivery and grocery subscription service, hired Bennett in 2017 after he worked at digital marketer Yext Inc. and health technology startup Counsyl Inc. He most recently served as a New York-based general counsel for Grocery Delivery E-Services USA Inc., the US unit of publicly traded HelloFresh.

Bennett, 40, began his career as a corporate securities and mergers and acquisitions associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York and Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco. He joined Skims in mid-July, shortly before the company disclosed a $270 million Series C funding valuing it at $4 billion.

Latham & Watkins represented Skims on its most recent fundraising, Bennett said. Los Angeles-based Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, which has handled litigation matters for Skims and the Kardashian family, also advised the company on its two previous fundraising rounds.

Kardashian’s Role

Kardashian, 42, is one of four children of the late Robert Kardashian, an attorney and businessman best known for representing O.J. Simpson.

An advocate for prison reform, Kardashian announced in 2021 that she passed California’s “baby bar” exam on her fourth try. She has not yet passed California’s general bar exam, which is required to practice law.

Kardashian made waves in the investment industry when she appeared at a prominent private equity conference in Berlin over the summer, during which time she spoke with Bloomberg TV about her business ventures.

The Boston- and Los Angeles-based Skky has stated that Kirkland & Ellis is its outside counsel. Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital Management LLC, a Kirkland client, was among several early investors in Skims.

Skky has been busy hiring other veteran private equity professionals. The firm said this year it was looking to raise at least $1 billion for deals.

Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., an executive recruitment and consulting company engaged by Skims, handled Bennett’s placement, he said.

Bennett said Skims has assembled a legal panel in addition to Latham and Greenberg Glusker. Other law firms doing work for Skims include Benesch; Katten Muchin Rosenman; Littler Mendelson; intellectual property-focused Pearne & Gordon; Riker Danzig; and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton.