Zoom Video Communications Inc. has recently undergone a reorganization of its in-house law department, resulting in changes to its key legal staff. The former General Counsel, Jeffrey True, has moved on, leaving the company since September, according to his LinkedIn profile and as reported by a Bloomberg Law Story. The same source indicated that Zoom removed True from the leadership page of its website in September.
Over the past year, Zoom had appointed two lawyers in key roles – Josh Parecki and Lynn Haaland. Parecki, former head of trust and safety at Zoom, is now assuming the position of chief compliance and ethics officer. Haaland, previously a deputy general counsel and chief privacy, compliance, and ethics officer for Zoom, has been named chief privacy officer and deputy general counsel for product and artificial intelligence.
True’s departure coincided with a time when the company, whose user base exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, has come under scrutiny by consumer advocates as reported by Bloomberg Law. Controversy arose over Zoom’s decision to update its terms of service, which permitted the company to employ user data to refine new artificial intelligence tools.
Furthermore, Zoom has also agreed to a $150-million settlement in a shareholder class-action lawsuit over alleged security flaws in the company’s encryption software, as Bloomberg Law reported. The case was led by its counsel, Cooley, who took charge of approximately 40 percent of cases involving Zoom in U.S federal courts within the past five years.
Earlier this year, following the post-pandemic slowdown, Zoom announced it would cut about 1,300 jobs, approximately 15% of its workforce. The cuts also affected the legal and compliance team, with at least half a dozen individuals being let go. This follows the departure of two deputy general counsel. Theodore Gizewski, left over the summer to become head of legal and compliance for US data security at TikTok Inc. whereas Adam Avrunin left to become the new general counsel for Stability AI Ltd.
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