Well, Uber does seem to be competing directly with Twitter when it comes to losing top executives. In what is the umpteenth departure of the year, Jim Callaghan, the company’s general counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa has stepped down from his post.
Jim is a highly experienced professional and has worked with Etihad Airways, and Ryanair prior to his stint at the cab aggregator. He is reportedly stepping down due to personal reasons. Meanwhile, his exit comes at a time when Uber has been facing a series of setbacks in the courts. From its recent case against Waymo, to the lawsuit in Europe, that saw the courts decide that Uber was a transportation service and not just a platform.
Along with its General Counsel for EMEA, Uber has also lost its VP of global vehicle programs, head of communications Rachel Whetstone, VP of growth, SVP of engineering. President, head of AI Labs, all this year. And of course, there is the high profile case involving Uber and Waymo that saw the company forced to remove Anthony Levandowski from his position overseeing the company’s LiDAR efforts — although he hasn’t left the company, yet.
A company of Uber’s stature probably faces more lawsuit than we would care to count, at any given moment. As such, it is important for it to maintain a keen and sharp legal team to counter lawsuits and slap its own on competitors. The company will probably want to fill the gaps in its legal team as quickly as possible.
The departure also comes at a time when the company is already hunting for its General Counsel. Current incumbent Salle Yoo is slated to become the Chief Legal Counselor and focus on the company culture once a suitable replacement can be found. The search now includes a general counsel for EMEA, a reigon very important to Uber, as well.
