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July 08, 2021 at 03:39 PM
What You Need to Know
- Chief Legal Officer Dan Gallagher made $30 million total last year.
- The cryptocurrency known as Dogecoin has driven much of Robinhood’s recent growth.
- The firm faces at least 52 lawsuits over trading restrictions it put in place due to the GameStop short squeeze.
Hot on the heels of a hefty $70 million regulatory settlement, the largest in FINRA history, retail broker Robinhood has launched its IPO.
An initial public offering would have been enough to keep the company’s legal department busy, but the settlement news came just days before. “We are glad to put this matter behind us and look forward to continuing to focus on our customers and democratizing finance for all,” the company said in a statement via communications chief Jacqueline Ramsay, when asked about the matter.
While Robinhood declined to talk further about the settlement, the firm’s S-1 filing offered a peek into the company’s legal department and the many issues its lawyers have been juggling.
1. Robinhood Is Still Under Fire for Trading Restrictions
Many of Robinhood’s current headaches stem from having restricted trading of certain securities on Jan. 28, a move prompted by the now-infamous GameStop short squeeze. No less than 52 lawsuits across various jurisdictions continue to haunt Robinhood due to those restrictions, with plaintiffs alleging breach of contract, negligence, and other common-law claims.
2. CLO Dan Gallagher Makes Bank
With that in mind, being the company’s legal chief is a big job. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Chief Legal Officer Dan Gallagher made $30 million total last year from stock options, bonuses and salary. The former SEC commissioner (he served from 2011 to 2015) joined Robinhood in October 2019 before his promotion to CLO in May 2020. His base pay is just north of $250,000, but he was paid $4.2 million in bonuses and more than $24 million in stocks.
