In-House Counsel
Facebook’s New GC is Kirkland & Ellis Partner With GOP Ties
Posted Sep 30, 2008, 07:31 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Facebook has made a surprise choice for its general counsel by going outside the Silicon Valley to choose a lawyer with Republican ties.
The social networking site hired Kirkland & Ellis partner Theodore Ullyot, according to the Recorder and Daily Journal (sub. req.). The legal recruiter who handled the search, Robert Major of Major, Lindsey & Africa, told the Recorder that hundreds of lawyers had sought the job.
Ullyot was chief of staff for former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and associate counsel to President Bush. He also clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Judge J. Michael Luttig of the Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Major said the company was looking for a lawyer with government and policy experience. "The skill set was just different than most Silicon Valley lawyers—it wasn't [just] corporate and securities, it wasn't IP and licensing, it wasn't management."
Ullyot told the Washington Post’s Post I.T. blog that his objective is to build the company’s 10-member legal team to handle a full range of legal issues. His priority, he said, is to “get in and get to work."