Round Up: This Week’s General Counsel Moves

It was a week of ups and downs for law departments of media and tech companies.

To top off our list of notable general counsel moves, media startup Cheddar snagged a former GC of eyeglasses startup, Warby Parker.

Meanwhile, Uber, the ubiquitous ride sharing app, hit another bump in a recent series of shakeups, as news that its top lawyer would depart.

Elsewhere in the industry, a litigation finance giant got a new legal chief and a federal acting general counsel was replaced after a month on the job.

Here is a look at highlights from the world of general counsel:

“CNBC for Millennials” Cheddar hires Warby Parker general counsel

• Cheddar, a live streaming network that broadcasts shows about business, tech and product news, hired Anjali Kumar as chief people officer and general counsel.

Founded by Jon Steinberg, a former president of BuzzFeed, Cheddar is angling to be the business broadcaster for the online generation.

Kumar was recently general counsel at eyeglasses startup Warby Parker. Earlier in her career she was a senior counsel at Google. She will lead Cheddar’s talent acquisition, learning and development and legal functions among other jobs according to a company release. Kumar is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and the author of a forthcoming book being published by Hachette.

Uber GC to Depart

• Uber chief legal officer Salle Yoo is planning to leave the company in the near future, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg . In the note, Yoo said she will continue to serve in her position until the new CEO of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi names a replacement.

Yoo has been with Uber since 2012. The ride hailing company is currently embroiled in legal troubles stemming from accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct from its leadership staff. Uber is also embroiled in a trade secrets case with Waymo, after that company claimed an engineer stole trade secrets about its self-driving car technology and brought them to Uber. Before joining the ride sharing company, Yoo was a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine.

FCC Names Acting General Counsel

• Nicholas Degani has taken on the role of the Federal Communications Commission’s acting general counsel following Jennifer Tatel’s departure from the agency. Tatel served as acting general counsel since August.

Degani has been with the agency since 2007 and has served as senior counsel to commissioner Ajit Pai and been detailed to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. Earlier in his career Degani clerked for Judge Jeffrey Sutton in the Sixth Circuit according to his Linkedin. Degani got his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

NY Real Estate Firm Hires GC

• Real estate investment firm, Monday Properties, has hired Evan Dreilinger as its newly minted senior vice president and general counsel according to a company release.

Dreilinger comes to the firm from Gramercy Property Trust, a global investor of single tenant industrial properties. At that company he served as senior vice president and associate general counsel according to his LinkedIn profile.

Dreilinger brings 18 years of experience to the job, having started in real estate law at the law firm Ellenoff Grossman & Schole in 1999. He earned his JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Burford Capital Appoints GC

• Litigation finance giant Burford Capital, has appointed Mark Klein as its general counsel according to a company release.

Klein comes to the firm from MarketField Asset Management, where he was general counsel and chief compliance officer.

Previously, he spent 13 years at UBS, serving for five years as its general counsel. He went on to two different investment management firms, serving in compliance and legal positions at both. Klein began his career at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he worked on public and private mergers and acquisitions and other areas of financial law.

Write Big Law Business with news of general counsel transitions at biglawbusiness@bna.com .

Write to the author at maxsiegelbaum@gmail.com.

Write to the editor at csullivan@bloomberglaw.com.