Kickstarter Lures Away Uber Lawyer to Serve as General Counsel
Nicole Benincasa takes over as Kickstarter's top lawyer next month. She has served as a New York-based in-house lawyer for Uber for the past seven years, most recently as senior counsel of global safety.
April 27, 2020 at 11:59 AM
3 minute read
(Photo: Postmodern Studio/Shutterstock.com)
Kickstarter has named Uber Technologies Inc. lawyer Nicole Benincasa as the Brooklyn-based crowdfunding platform's next general counsel.
Benincasa announced on LinkedIn that she was taking over as Kickstarter's top lawyer next month. She has served as an in-house lawyer for Uber in New York for the past seven years, most recently as senior counsel of global safety.
"Being a part of Uber's evolution since 2013 has been the thrill of a lifetime. Now, I'm excited to support Kickstarter's mission to help bring creative projects to life. Here's to the next big thing," Benincasa wrote.
Attempts to speak with Benincasa were not immediately successful. A spokesman for Kickstarter confirmed her appointment but said the company had not yet released a statement on her hiring.
Benincasa succeeds Christopher Mitchell, who left Kickstarter in January and now serves as an adviser for a stealth startup company.
As Kickstarter's GC, Benincasa will have a wide range of responsibilities, from overseeing all legal issues and outside counsel management to supporting the executive team and board of directors to handling public policy matters, including U.S. and international regulatory issues.
She joined Uber in 2013 as regulatory counsel and helped the company expand into New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont through the drafting and negotiation of model statewide ride-hailing legislation.
Benincasa stepped up in 2018 to serve as Uber's global safety counsel. She advised the firm's business team on developing company-wide safety policies and standards and also acted as primary safety legal adviser on Uber's emerging businesses, including Uber Eats and electric bike-sharing. She was promoted to senior counsel of global safety in September 2019.
Earlier in her career, Benincasa served as general counsel and operations manager of Sportaneous, a fitness app that a group of Columbia Business School students created. Fitness and health media firm Greatist acquired Sportaneous in 2013.
Benincasa is a graduate of Virginia Tech, William & Mary Law School and Harvard Business School Online.
Read More:
Crowdfunding: The Benefits, the Pitfalls, and Everything in Between
Uber Has Trouble Shaking Defunct Competitor's Monopoly Claims
Counsel and Advocate: How Kickstarter's New GC Balances Legal Work With His Company's Mission
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View All
'The Unheard of Superpower': How Women's Soft Skills Can Drive Success in Negotiations
Tales From the Trenches: What Outside Counsel Do That GCs Find Inexcusable
Venus Williams Tells WIPL Crowd: 'Living Your Dreams Should Be Easy'
The 2024 WIPL Awards: Law Firm Mentor and Mentee Collaboration
Trending Stories
- 1Bill Would Allow Californians to Sue Big Oil for Climate-Linked Wildfires, Floods
- 2LinkedIn Suit Says Millions of Profiles Scraped by Singapore Firm’s Fake Accounts
- 3Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Lawsuit Over FBI Raid at Wrong House
- 4What It Takes to Connect With Millennial Jurors
- 5How A New Texas Bill Endangers 'SLAPP' Victims
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250
