Groupon Outsources Legal Executive Role to Winston & Strawn (1)

Groupon Inc.’s normal counsel Dane Drobny will stage down future week to return to legislation business Winston & Strawn as a companion.

The Chicago-centered enterprise disclosed Drobny’s voluntary resignation Thursday in a securities filing. Groupon explained Drobny, who formally departs Feb. 24 for Winston, will continue as its outdoors general counsel by means of at least the conclude of the 12 months.

Drobny’s exit will come as the e-commerce marketplace moves to restructure its operations. Groupon announced last summer months that it was laying off 500 staff members. The organization slice another 500 workers in a next layoff spherical final month.

Drobny and Winston did not reply to remark requests.

Groupon spokesman Nicholas Halliwell said the firm will not name a new legal main to succeed Drobny.

“He will continue to collaborate with and aid Groupon’s board of administrators, senior administration staff, in-household authorized, and small business partners as we drive our transformation,” Halliwell stated. “He will devote a considerable sum of his time to this new advisory part and will keep on being targeted on helping Groupon leverage its whole potential to come to be the best destination for neighborhood activities and products and services.”

Drobny obtained practically $5.1 million in total payment from Groupon in 2021, in accordance to the company’s most modern proxy statement.

That sum was comprised of $3.9 million in stock awards and additional than $1.1 million in income, which include a $590,000 once-a-year base wage. Groupon explained Drobny been given his reward in January 2022 “in light-weight of administration variations and to assure stability and retention via the transition” of Kedar Deshpande as the company’s new CEO.

Deshpande has sought to slice expenses to offset mounting losses because having more than the company’s major leadership purpose in 2021.

Drobny joined Groupon as its top law firm in 2014. He succeeded former basic counsel David Schellhase, who very last year joined Sullivan & Cromwell. Drobny experienced earlier been a litigator at Winston and legal main for Sears Holdings Corp.

Bloomberg data reveals that Drobny owns more than $1 million in Groupon stock.

Winston Pipeline

Winston has shut ties to Groupon, which the firm took general public in 2011, and its co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Bradley Keywell. The organization has completed fundraising operate for Tempus Labs Inc., a precision drugs startup founded and led by Lefkofsky.

Previous Winston attorneys Tracy O’Flaherty and Kevin McCormick provide as a deputy typical counsel and senior director, respectively, at Groupon. Erin Stone, an ex-Winston spouse, was also a deputy common counsel at Groupon until eventually final year. She’s now the leading attorney at private keeping enterprise StoicLane Inc.

Richard Ginsberg, the previous head of Winston’s know-how and emerging companies apply, has also encouraged Lefkofsky and Keywell. Cooley employed Ginsberg in 2021 to assist the West Coastline organization grow into Chicago. Cooley’s shoppers consist of Keywell’s computer software startup Uptake Technologies Inc., which Groupon sued past thirty day period searching for $1.5 million in allegedly unpaid rent from a Chicago sublease settlement.

Drobny “will receive no advantages beneath his severance reward arrangement in relationship with his resignation,” Groupon stated in its submitting. The organization has the correct to terminate Drobny’s outside the house normal counsel solutions arrangement at any time.

Drobny’s unvested fairness awards in Groupon will continue on to vest so extended as he continues to present expert services to the business. A just one-time money retention bonus supplied to Drobny past calendar year will be issue to clawback provisions on a pro rata foundation for the duration of his new arrangement with the enterprise.