Uber’s Top Lawyer Gets 40% Pay Boost Amid Legal Victories

D. Anthony “Tony” West, the top lawyer at Uber Technologies Inc., saw his total compensation soar by more than 40% in 2022 as he helped the ride-sharing giant cut its legal and regulatory payouts in half.

Uber disclosed in a proxy statement Monday that West received a pay package valued at more than $10.6 million last year, up from the $7.4 million he earned in 2021. West, hired by Uber in 2017, helped take the San Francisco-based company public in 2019. Uber made him a named executive officer the following year, one in which his total compensation hit $12.3 million.

An Uber spokesman confirmed that the company looked internally to replace West’s former No. 2 in legal, Tammy Albarrán, who left last year to become the new top lawyer at Peloton Interactive Inc. Uber promoted deputy general counsel Kathleen “Katie” Waitzman to succeed Albarrán as the company’s chief deputy general counsel. Waitzman has worked for Uber since 2015.

West’s total compensation at Uber in 2022 included $800,000 in base salary, more than $2.3 million in non-equity incentive plan cash compensation, and nearly $7.5 million in stock awards. The company credited West with reducing “legal and regulatory payouts against reserves by 47% in 2022.”

Uber, in its rationale for West’s remuneration, said he helped reduce its outside counsel spend last year by 25% and helped the company crack down on roughly $100 million in platform fraud losses though prevention and recovery efforts.

The company also cited West’s role working with other senior executives in completing strategic transactions and divestitures, such as the sale of Routematch, a software service Uber acquired in 2020, and the $376 million sale of a minority stake in Indian food delivery business Zomato.

Uber said it increased West’s target bonus last year—from $800,000 to $1.6 million— to ensure that it was “competitive with other top legal officers within our peer group and to account for the particularly complex and evolving legal and regulatory environment in which we operate.”

West, who has “overall responsibility” for that corporate function, has become one of the most well-known law department leaders of a US public company. The former Morrison & Foerster partner spent six years in the Obama administration’s Justice Department, and has been a key figure in Uber’s interactions with politicians and regulators.

West told Bloomberg Law in 2020 that he doesn’t discuss Uber with perhaps his most famous connection—his sister-in-law Vice President Kamala Harris. West also often speaks out about corporate ethics and other legal and compliance issues, which played a role in Uber recruiting him from the top legal job at PepsiCo Inc., which he joined in 2014.

At the time of his hire, Uber was coping with the fallout from the ouster of co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick. West helped Uber navigate the turmoil stemming from that exit, and legal and regulatory obstacles that followed.

The company scored a major legal victory this month when an appellate court in California ruled that Uber and other gig economy-focused companies can classify their workers as independent contractors.