Square Legal Counsel
Sivan Whiteley`s legal career began with the study of rational choice theory at university – to decipher why people make the decisions they make. Her professional life has since tested the limits of these theories, to her current role as general counsel and corporate secretary of Square, the San Francisco-based $30 billion mobile payments company. Square Key Facts Team Size More than 200 external legal questions Tens of millions of preferred advisors Osborne Clarke, Bird & Bird, Taylor Wessing Under his leadership, Square`s legal department focused on improving the automation of certain legal processes. For example, Whiteley hopes to use artificial intelligence to automate the creation of relatively standardized non-disclosure agreements, waivers, and other contracts. As Square`s General Counsel, Whiteley is responsible for overseeing a variety of commercial industries. She must keep abreast of the latest legal, business, and regulatory developments impacting Square`s various areas of business. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are external online distributors of ALM`s extensive collection of current and archived versions of legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law clients may access and use ALM content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, New York Law Journal and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information. “The founders took payments and made them beautiful, elegant and simple, in a way that had never been done before. It requires real vision and skills,” she reflects.
“From a legal perspective, that`s one of the most exciting things you can do: take something complicated and find ways to explain it to engineers and designers to make sure we all understand what we`re working on.” At the time Whiteley joined Square, he was best known for the card reader product that worked with smartphones or tablets. She joined as an attorney and quickly became involved in a legal battle involving the company at the time, as well as negotiating contracts with suppliers for hardware that reads the credit card. Square is seeking a Business Consultant to join our M&A legal team and support our business development efforts. You will support our M&A, investment and other business development activities, including the due diligence process, negotiation of terms sheets and definitive transaction agreements, as well as M&A manuals and related support projects. As corporate counsel, you`ll also support Square`s antitrust compliance efforts and other general corporate matters. As we expand our product and service offerings, your ideas and contributions will impact Square`s overall strategy. A creative legal mind and a thirst for adventure are qualities we look for. Unlike many other companies, Square`s legal department plays a key role in decision-making and corporate strategy development.
Whiteley works closely with other senior executives, including CEO Jack Dorsey and CFO Amrita Ahuja. Whiteley`s first legal job, however, saw her against irrational people: she joined the litigation team at Bingham McCutchen, which has since become Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. She quickly became frustrated with what she saw as “just a lot of conflict, that`s work” and went to e-commerce giant eBay a few years later, in 2007. One of Whiteley`s goals for the legal department is to further automate his work, such as NDAs and waivers. The company has also developed an in-house tool that uses machine learning to detect money laundering and fraudulent activity. Careers 2002 Litigator, Bingham McCutchen 2007 Business and Product Advisor, eBay 2009 Deputy General Counsel, Better Place 2013 Lawyer, Deputy General Counsel, Square 2018 General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Square Help us make salaries more transparent. Get exclusive access to anonymized legal salary data. Conduct legal research on a wide range of complex corporate governance issues Sivan Whiteley is General Counsel at fintech payments company Square.