Groupon Inc.’s standard counsel Dane Drobny will step down following week to return to regulation firm Winston & Strawn as a partner.
The Chicago-dependent organization disclosed Drobny’s voluntary resignation Thursday in a securities submitting. Groupon stated Drobny, who formally departs Feb. 24 for Winston, will go on as its outside the house typical counsel as a result of at the very least the finish of the calendar year.
Drobny’s exit will come as the e-commerce market moves to restructure its functions. Groupon declared final summer that it was laying off 500 workforce. The corporation reduce a different 500 employees in a 2nd layoff round past month.
Drobny and Winston did not respond to remark requests.
Groupon spokesman Nicholas Halliwell reported the corporation will not identify a new authorized chief to succeed Drobny.
“He will proceed to collaborate with and guidance Groupon’s board of directors, senior management crew, in-residence legal, and business companions as we generate our transformation,” Halliwell explained. “He will dedicate a sizeable quantity of his time to this new advisory purpose and will continue being concentrated on aiding Groupon leverage its entire potential to come to be the final location for neighborhood activities and expert services.”
Drobny acquired approximately $5.1 million in overall compensation from Groupon in 2021, in accordance to the company’s most current proxy statement.
That sum was comprised of $3.9 million in inventory awards and much more than $1.1 million in cash, which includes a $590,000 annual foundation wage. Groupon reported Drobny received his reward in January 2022 “in mild of management changes and to make certain stability and retention by the transition” of Kedar Deshpande as the company’s new CEO.
Deshpande has sought to lower expenditures to offset mounting losses considering that getting about the company’s top management function in 2021.
Drobny joined Groupon as its best lawyer in 2014. He succeeded former common counsel David Schellhase, who previous 12 months joined Sullivan & Cromwell. Drobny had beforehand been a litigator at Winston and lawful main for Sears Holdings Corp.
Bloomberg facts reveals that Drobny owns additional than $1 million in Groupon stock.
Winston Pipeline
Winston has near ties to Groupon, which the business took general public in 2011, and its co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Bradley Keywell. The business has done fundraising operate for Tempus Labs Inc., a precision medication startup founded and led by Lefkofsky.
Previous Winston legal professionals Tracy O’Flaherty and Kevin McCormick provide as a deputy typical counsel and senior director, respectively, at Groupon. Erin Stone, an ex-Winston associate, was also a deputy typical counsel at Groupon until finally past 12 months. She’s now the major law firm at non-public keeping company StoicLane Inc.
Richard Ginsberg, the former head of Winston’s technological know-how and emerging businesses apply, has also advised Lefkofsky and Keywell. Cooley hired Ginsberg in 2021 to enable the West Coast company grow into Chicago. Cooley’s purchasers include Keywell’s software program startup Uptake Systems Inc., which Groupon sued last thirty day period trying to get $1.5 million in allegedly unpaid lease from a Chicago sublease settlement.
Drobny “will get no positive aspects beneath his severance advantage arrangement in link with his resignation,” Groupon explained in its submitting. The organization has the appropriate to terminate Drobny’s outdoors basic counsel companies arrangement at any time.
Drobny’s unvested fairness awards in Groupon will go on to vest so prolonged as he carries on to provide providers to the organization. A a person-time cash retention reward supplied to Drobny past yr will be subject matter to clawback provisions on a pro rata foundation for the period of his new arrangement with the organization.