Netflix Hires Mayer Brown Partner McGarrity Amid Tax Battles

Netflix Inc. has recruited a new global tax controversy lead in William McGarrity as the streaming media giant faces a variety of tax-related legal and regulatory issues.

McGarrity, who joined Netflix last month, was most recently a partner at law firm Mayer Brown in Chicago. A new tax on streaming entertainment services adopted by the city during the pandemic has prompted a movement by other municipalities to implement similar tax regimes.

Joshua Mishcoe, vice president of international tax at Netflix, confirmed via email the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company’s hire of McGarrity. Mishcoe said Netflix backfilled the role following the departure of its previous global tax controversy lead.

“We are always interested in efforts by various jurisdictions to impose digital services taxes, but that isn’t really the target of this position,” said Mishcoe. He joined Netflix in mid-2021 after serving as vice president of tax planning, controversy, policy, and mergers and acquisitions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.

Netflix “will focus on managing our audit process for a variety of different taxes,” Mischoe said.

Sonja Schiller, McGarrity’s predecessor, joined Alphabet Inc.-owned Google last summer in a regulatory and litigation counsel role, according to her LinkedIn profile and Illinois bar registration. Schiller was an associate at Baker McKenzie and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom before Microsoft Corp. hired her in 2018. She spent four years there before moving to Netflix in January 2022.

Netflix also recently adjusted its pay for David Hyman, the company’s longtime chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Netflix disclosed in a Dec. 23 securities filing that Hyman’s $11 million in total compensation will remain the same during fiscal 2023, although he’ll receive $4 million in salary and $7 million in stock, a slight change from the construction of his 2022 pay package.

Hyman, a former associate at Morrison & Foerster, has been Netflix’s top in-house lawyer since 2002. Netflix saw Stefanie Markman, an eight-year veteran of its legal team, exit last summer to become the top lawyer for Candle Media Co. Ltd., a startup formed by former Walt Disney Co. executives.

An online jobs board shows that Netflix has more than a dozen legal-related positions for which the company is looking to hire.

Netflix and two of its in-house lawyers were also hit with an amended complaint last week in a gender and race discrimination lawsuit filed by Nandini Mehta, a former director of legal and business affairs at the company. Mehta claims she was fired after raising concerns about alleged tax avoidance practices at Netflix.

The company issued a statement last year calling Mehta’s allegations without merit and asserting that she was fired for improper expenses.

In November, a California state court judge ordered Mehta to shore up her harassment and emotional distress claims against Josephine Choy and David “Ben” McClean, a pair of Netflix lawyers who are co-defendants in the case.