Uber Brings in 'Holder Report' Co-Author as Deputy GC, Angela Padilla Out
Tammy Albarran, a partner at Covington & Burling, was named to the key post Tuesday.
March 21, 2018 at 12:56 AM
4 minute read
Photo credit: Jason Doiy/ALM
Uber Technologies Inc. has found itself a new deputy general counsel.
Tammy Albarran, a partner at Covington & Burling, was named to the post Tuesday, replacing Angela Padilla, as first reported by Bloomberg. Albarran will be second-in-command to chief legal officer Tony West who was appointed late last year after leading the legal department at PepsiCo Inc.
Albarran began work at Covington in 2007. She was named a partner in 2010, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Albarran was a co-author of the “Holder Report,” an executive summary of which was published last June. The report offered guidance for the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company following an investigation into internal claims of sexual harassment and discrimination. The investigation was led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who is a partner at Covington.
Padilla, who joined Uber's legal team in November 2015, “is leaving Uber but will remain an adviser,” according to a company representative. Padilla was hired by Uber's former CLO Salle Yoo and played an active role in the company's many litigation and employment matters.
Padilla briefly grabbed the spotlight as a witness in a pretrial hearing in the Waymo v. Uber trade secrets battle late last year. She testified before a San Francisco federal judge, who criticized her for failing to produce a letter from a former Uber employee as evidence. The letter accused Uber of using encryption and ephemeral messaging to keep certain information off the company's servers and creating an internal unit to steal trade secrets.
Padilla testified that she believed the letter would be found by Waymo's legal team during its search of Uber's servers.
West told Corporate Counsel Tuesday, “I am absolutely thrilled that Tammy has agreed to help me lead Uber's in-house legal team. She will be my trusted, right-hand partner as we navigate some of the most interesting, dynamic and difficult legal challenges facing any company in the world today. I have known Tammy for nearly 20 years, and I have always admired her intelligence, integrity and grit—all qualities that will make her an excellent co-author of Uber's second act.”
Albarran's appointment appears to be one of the first high-profile changes in personnel within the legal department since West took over nearly four months ago. In a January interview with Corporate Counsel, West said he expected to soon make changes to the department's structure.
“I haven't made any changes to Salle's direct reports at this point,” West told Corporate Counsel in that interview. “I think the best way to address any of the talent issues and personnel issues is through this organizational structure that we're going to be rolling out through the next few weeks.”
Neither Albarran nor Padilla responded to requests for comments for this article.
A representative for Uber could not disclose any specific plans for the team of in-house lawyers but confirmed a “reorganizing” is underway.
“From Day 1, Tony West's top priority has been to build the most effective, talented in-house legal department anywhere,” the Uber representative said in an email Tuesday. “As co-author of the Covington report, Tammy literally wrote the book on what doing the right thing means for Uber.”
“We are very proud that Tammy has been selected for this key role with one of the firm's leading clients,” Covington chair Timothy Hester said in a statement. “Her dynamism, legal skills and leadership strengths will make fundamental contributions to Uber as it continues to evolve and mature. Tammy has been a tremendous colleague and a great partner, and she has brought her drive, zest, and exceptional skills to bear across a range of clients and important matters over many years.”
West previously told Corporate Counsel that one of his top priorities for future hires within the legal department will be to bring on a chief compliance and ethics officer. On Tuesday evening, the Uber representative said no hire has yet been made but said the company is “committed to making significant investments in the compliance function this year.”
West did not disclose, back in January, whether he expects to make any hires from PepsiCo. “We'll have to wait and see,” West told Corporate Counsel.
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