Snap’s Big Stock Award Bolsters Legal Ties Amid Lawsuit Wave (1)

Snap Inc. has hired a new top lawyer in Zachary Briers, who joins Snapchat’s parent entity at a crucial time as the company and other social media platforms face a potential reckoning in court over their services.

Documents show that to make the move from Munger, Tolles & Olson, Briers received 2,988,793 shares of Snap’s Class A common stock that are valued at almost $23 million, according to Bloomberg data. Briers said in a statement posted to his LinkedIn profile that he wants to contribute at a company helping to “redefine how people communicate and express themselves.”

In making the switch from private practice, Briers takes the legal helm at a key juncture in his new employer’s history. Snap is among several Big Tech companies involved in multidistrict litigation in state and federal courts. Dozens of Big Law firms have lined up to advise defendants as they seek to avoid potential multibillion-dollar verdicts or settlements akin to the mass torts fallout faced by tobacco and opioid companies.

Snap confirmed that Briers was hired as general counsel Nov. 17 from the the partnership at Munger Tolles. During his time at the firm, Briers had a mixed practice that included patent and intellectual property litigation, as well as technology transactions. He was unavailable for comment.

Securities filings give a window into the deep ties between Santa Monica, Calif.-based Snap and two large firms. Snap has paid Munger Tolles, a Los Angeles-based firm known for its litigation expertise, more than $72 million in legal fees within the last decade. Those legal bills, however, are now on the upswing with Munger Tolles incurring a $51.2 million bill for its work in just 2024.

Briers, who spent 14 years at Munger Tolles, was hired to succeed Michael O’Sullivan, who Snap previously disclosed will leave the company at year’s end. O’Sullivan was also once a partner at Munger Tolles, leaving the firm to join Snap in 2017 as a replacement for its first general counsel Chris Handman.

Snap’s co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel is the son of Munger Tolles litigation partner John Spiegel, who over the years has occasionally been outside counsel to Snap, which went public in 2017.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm affiliated with Spiegel’s stepmother, Debra Wong Yang, has been paid more than $19.9 million by Snap since 2018. During that time O’Sullivan collectively earned about $65 million in total compensation as Snap’s legal chief through 2024, according to filings by the company.

Public filings show that through the first three quarters of this year Snap has paid $240,000 to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP for the firm to lobby on “issues related to consumer protection, privacy, safety, and data security.”

Social Media Litigation

Snap, founded in 2011, and other leading social media services—such as Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms Inc.; Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube; and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok Inc.—are facing a swirl of lawsuits accusing them of harming adolescent users with allegedly addictive features.

The cases will test the limits of product liability in the digital realm.

Munger Tolles has had a role on roughly 20% of cases involving Snap in US federal courts within the past five years, according to Bloomberg Law litigation data. Name partner Ronald Olson has long served as outside general counsel to another key client, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Court filings show that Munger Tolles is working alongside lawyers from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Kirkland & Ellis; and Farella Braun + Martel in handling social media litigation for Snap.

The company is one of several social media outfits set to face a trio of trials in California Superior Court in January over claims by plaintiffs that their services caused a litany of harms to children, including addiction and other mental health issues. Snap said in a recent statement issued by its counsel at Kirkland that the company is different than its co-defendants.

“Snapchat was designed different from traditional social media; it opens to the camera, allowing Snapchatters to connect with family and friends in an environment that prioritizes their safety and privacy,” Snap said.

In-House Additions

Snap, which is poised to debut next year a new augmented reality device called Specs, has made several other notable legal hires in recent months. The company brought on Isabelle Young, a former lawyer at Alphabet’s Google and Coinbase Global Inc., to head its government litigation team in June. Vladislav Vainberg, a former associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz who spent the past decade as a federal prosecutor in New York, joined Snap in September as senior counsel for safety and law enforcement.

Renée Machi Lawson, a former deputy general counsel at Airbnb Inc. who most recently was a vice president of legal and deputy general counsel at Dropbox Inc., was hired by Snap last year to lead its global litigation team. Snap’s online jobs board shows it has a half-dozen legal and policy openings, including regional team leadership roles in India and Singapore.

O’Sullivan, Snap’s outgoing legal leader, has sold off almost $4.8 million in company stock so far this year, according to public filings. Bloomberg data shows that he still owns Snap shares valued at more than $18 million.