After 16 Months at Square, GC Hillary Smith Resigns
It's unknown where Hillary Smith of Square will land next, but her successor, Sivan Whiteley, has been named.
May 22, 2018 at 01:08 PM
3 minute read
Hillary Smith, formerly of Square Inc. Courtesy photo.
Hillary Smith joined Square Inc. as general counsel in November 2016. Less than a year and a half later, she resigned.
The mobile payments company announced Smith's resignation in an 8-K filed in March, though her exit was widely publicized only on Monday by Business Insider.
According to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Smith announced her intent to leave the San Francisco-based mobile payments company at the end of February with the resignation effective March 18—though she'll provide Square with “transitional services” through September. During that time of transition, the filing stated Smith will continue to receive her current salary and company benefits.
Smith's offer letter, attached to a 10-K filing from Square in February 2017, said she received an annual salary of $350,000, as well as a $100,000 starting bonus. After staying more than a year, Smith's offer letter indicates she would have received another $100,000 bonus and that at least 150,000 of her restricted units of the company's Class A stock would have vested. Going by the stock's current value—around $56—that would bring the total estimated value of her compensation to more than $8 million.
It's not yet clear why Smith resigned or where she'll be headed next. Smith did not immediately respond to request for comment about her departure, and a representative from Square declined to comment.
Smith, who was GC and corporate secretary at Zenefits for more than a year before joining Square, told The Recorder in a July 2017 interview that at Square she was managing a group of about 140 people, including both lawyers and nonlawyers. She spoke about how the company is leveraging technology to tackle a litany of regulatory requirements and said that she had no “typical” day at Square.
“You get to work with all kinds of different people on all kinds of issues,” Smith said at the time. “I never get bored.”
Square has named a replacement for Smith from within the legal department, Sivan Whiteley.
Whiteley began serving as the company's general counsel upon Smith's resignation in March. Whiteley has been at Square for more than five years, most recently in the role of director, associate general counsel. She also served as acting co-general counsel of the company from August to November 2016, according to her LinkedIn profile.
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
© 2024 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 AllAggressive FTC May Force Merging Companies to Bolster Legal Defenses
4 minute readBest Legal Departments: How Blackstone's Legal and Compliance Team Got the All-Clear to Grow Business
CEOs Want Data-Based Risk Management; GCs Lack the Tech to Do So.
InCloudCounsel Hires First GC to Continue Expansion in Asia
Trending Stories
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
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