GE Energy Unit Pays $5.1 Million to Ex-Starbucks Lawyer Gonzalez

General Electric Co.’s energy business paid more than $5.1 million to its new general counsel Rachel Gonzalez in 2023, a year after she was fired from the same role at Starbucks Corp.

Gonzalez, 54, in April 2023 joined what will soon become GE Vernova Inc. She had been general counsel for Starbucks from 2018 to 2022, securing a nearly $12 million severance package from the coffee chain when her job was a casualty of a leadership change at the Seattle-based company.

Gonzalez received $675,000 in base salary, more than $1 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and roughly $2.4 million in stock awards from GE Vernova, according to an information statement filed by the Cambridge, Mass.-based company. Gonzalez also earned about $950,000 in other compensation, the bulk of which came in the form of relocation and tax benefits.

GE Vernova is one of three standalone companies being created by the breakup of Boston-based GE, a complicated process requiring teams of advisers to navigate various legal, logistical, and regulatory issues. GE Vernova expects to complete its separation from its parent by the second quarter of this year, following GE HealthCare Technologies Inc., which was spun-off a year ago.

GE Vernova disclosed in a series of securities filings that lawyers from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; DLA Piper; Jones Day; Mayer Brown; and Proskauer Rose are advising on its separation from GE.

Paul Weiss and Gibson, Dunn & Crucher were initially identified as advising GE when the conglomerate revealed in late 2021 its plans to form standalone aviation, energy, and health care companies. Scott Barshay, chair of the corporate practice at Paul Weiss, has taken the lead representing GE, along with deputy corporate chair Steven Williams and corporate partner Andrew Krause, according to a separation and distribution agreement filed by GE Vernova.

Media contacts for GE, GE Vernova, and their outside law firms didn’t return comment requests about their respective legal teams.

Legal Leadership

In revealing more details about Gonzalez’s total compensation, GE Vernova said that for the full year she was eligible to receive $900,000 in base salary, an annual cash bonus equal to 100% of that salary once the spin-off is complete, and equity awards valued at $3.5 million that are subject to accelerated vesting if the company’s separation from GE doesn’t occur by Dec. 31.

Gonzalez is also a board member at travel technology provider Sabre Corp., where she previously served as its general counsel, as well as a director at video game maker Electronic Arts Inc.

Board roles are increasingly coveted positions by corporate lawyers. Gonzalez received nearly $418,000 in total compensation from Sabre during fiscal 2022 and almost $337,000 from Electronic Arts in fiscal 2023, according to each company’s most recent proxy statement.

In a Feb. 16 securities filing, vacation rental company Vacasa Inc. said Gonzalez resigned from a board position “in consideration of her responsibilities and time commitments in her role” as GE Vernova’s top lawyer.

Gonzalez, a former corporate partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, also serves on the advisory board of Poder25, an initiative by the Hispanic National Bar Association that seeks to increase the number of Latino legal chiefs within Fortune 1000 companies by 2025.

GE Vernova’s executive leadership team will also include chief compliance officer Amber Kagan, another former Morgan Lewis partner who has been a longtime in-house lawyer at GE, most recently as its chief ethics and compliance officer and global head of labor and employment law.

A timeline of GE’s separation protocol provided by the company shows that once GE Vernova’s spin-off is complete this year, the legacy parent plans to by mid-2024 to become aviation-focused GE Aerospace.

GE Aerospace hired John “Jake” Phillips III, a former White House deputy counsel and legal adviser to the National Security Council, as general counsel in October 2023. Prior to joining the Biden administration in 2022, Phillips spent 13 years at Boeing Co., where he most recently handled 737 MAX litigation and investigations as an assistant general counsel and corporate secretary.

GE HealthCare hired Frank Jimenez from Raytheon Technologies Corp. to be its general counsel in 2022. Michael Holston, another former partner at Morgan Lewis, has been general counsel for GE itself since 2018.

Holston didn’t respond to a request for comment about his plans once the spin-offs of GE Vernova and GE Aerospace are completed this year.