PayPal taps Treasury, O'Melveny alum Patel as new legal chief

(Reuters) - PayPal Holdings Inc is bringing on a new top lawyer to succeed Louise Pentland, who will step down from her role as chief business affairs and legal officer at the end of the year, the company confirmed Tuesday.

Pentland, who has led PayPal's legal functions for nearly seven years, announced her resignation on LinkedIn Tuesday. Bimal Patel, a former head of the financial advisory and regulatory practice at O'Melveny & Myers who held a senior U.S. Treasury Department post during the Trump administration, will be the company's new general counsel.

Patel, who joined Treasury in 2017 and served as the agency's assistant secretary for financial institutions, is set to assume leadership of PayPal's legal team on Jan. 1.

"I am stepping down to seek renewal and creating space to do that," Pentland wrote in her LinkedIn post. According to a PayPal spokeswoman, she will remain in her current role until Dec. 31 and will continue to serve as "a counselor and advisor" to the company through mid-2022.

Paypal said in a Monday regulatory filing that as part of a severance agreement, it will pay Pentland a more than $2.5 million cash payment before she leaves the company next year.

Pentland joined PayPal in 2015 after 16 years at Nokia Corp. According to Paypal's proxy statement filed in April, she earned nearly $10.1 million in total compensation last year.

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