Key points:
- Meta has named Microsoft executive C.J. Mahoney as its new chief legal officer.
- Mahoney replaces Jennifer Newstead, who has departed to join Apple as general counsel.
- The appointment comes as Big Tech companies recalibrate legal leadership amid intensifying regulatory scrutiny.
Meta has appointed C.J. Mahoney as its new chief legal officer, filling the role vacated by Jennifer Newstead, who recently left the social media giant to join Apple. The move was first reported by Global Legal Post.
Mahoney joins Meta from Microsoft, where he most recently served as general counsel for product, services and go-to-market legal. During a five-year tenure at the company, he also held senior roles overseeing cloud and artificial intelligence legal matters, as well as international trade and Azure-related work.
Before entering the corporate sector, Mahoney spent nearly three years as a deputy U.S. trade representative in the Executive Office of the President during Donald Trump’s first administration. Earlier in his career, he was a partner at litigation firm Williams & Connolly and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy.
At Meta, Mahoney will assume responsibility for the company’s global legal and regulatory affairs, a portfolio that continues to expand as regulators in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere increase scrutiny of artificial intelligence, data use and online platforms.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Mahoney brings “world-class legal expertise” and “deep insight into the global regulatory challenges facing our industry,” according to the company.
Mahoney said he was “excited to join Meta as it leads the way in AI innovation,” marking the end of what he described as “an incredible chapter” at Microsoft.
His appointment follows Newstead’s move to Apple, where she is set to replace long-serving general counsel Kate Adams, a transition Apple disclosed last month. Newstead spent more than six years at Meta after earlier roles at the U.S. State Department and in the George W. Bush White House.
The change comes amid broader churn in senior legal roles across the technology sector. Meta last month lost senior AI policy manager Gretchen Greene to Ropes & Gray, where she joined as chief of artificial intelligence. Microsoft, meanwhile, reshaped its own legal leadership in 2024, promoting Jonathan Palmer to chief legal officer following the departure of Hossein Nowbar after more than two decades with the company.
