Facebook Inc (FB) Names New Deputy General Counsel

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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has named Ashlie Beringer as its new deputy general counsel, according to Mike Isaac of All Things D. Beringer has been a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and she will be going to the social network to oversee the regulatory, litigation and product groups in the company’s law department.

Facebook Inc (FB) Names New Deputy General Counsel

Beringer’s work history

Before going to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:RB), Beringer was at Gibson Dunn for more than eight years. She specialized in representing technology and media companies. Interestingly enough, she represented Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne while they were disputing their contracts in connection with their reality TV show The Osbournes.

Beringer has also focused on disputes in trademark, copyright and patent disputes, including many of which were for technology companies, ecommerce platforms, ad networks and games—all of which are key parts of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s business. Before going to Gibson Dunn, she was an associate at another law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Beringer’s big cases

According to Gibson Dunn’s website, Beringer has played a role in several cases involving big-name technology companies, including Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP), ValueClick Inc (NASDAQ:VCLK) and Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE:VG).

She will start working at Facebook in November and will report to Colin Stretch, the company’s recently named general counsel.

Beringer has her work cut out for her

When Beringer comes to Facebook, she’ll have plenty of work to keep her busy. The company’s ongoing legal and regulatory battles just never seem to end. Most of those battles focus on privacy concerns. The company also continues to face legal challenges in connection with its botched initial public offering last year.

“Ms. Beringer has extensive experience defending companies in high stakes technology and intellectual property disputes, with particular expertise representing clients in the technology, media, Internet, and entertainment industries,” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch. “She has successfully represented clients in numerous consumer and regulatory actions relating to online and mobile technologies and data privacy and security issues.”

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