Artificial intelligence
10 Anthropic legal leaders
These ten current and former Anthropic legal leaders include two people who have held the Anthropic general counsel title, along with deputy and associate general counsels and heads of regulatory and commercial legal. Readers can learn how the company's legal team is organized and how it handles product, commercial, regulatory and employment questions.
Professionals to explore
01—10Brian Israel
LinkedInExperience: Chief Legal Officer · Anthropic
Chief Legal Officer at Anthropic since July 2025, and General Counsel at Anthropic from 2022 to 2025. Former Associate General Counsel for International Law at NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration (2020–2022). The profile describes tech startup general counsel experience in IP, international transactions and operations, and the development and regulation of unprecedented technologies.
Broc Cocoman
LinkedInExperience: Head of GTM Commercial Legal, International · Anthropic
Head of GTM Commercial Legal, International at Anthropic since December 2025, a director-level role according to the profile. Former Head of Commercial Legal (GTM) at Stripe (2020–2025) and Lead Commercial Counsel - EMEA at Stripe (2017–2020), and Corporate Associate at A&L Goodbody LLP (2015–2017).
David Saunders
LinkedInExperience: Associate General Counsel · Anthropic
Associate General Counsel at Anthropic since September 2025. Former Senior Counsel - Gemini AI & Chrome Enterprise at Google (2020–2025), Lead Commercial & Product Counsel at Google (2017–2020) and Deputy General Counsel at Cloudflare (2015–2017), where the profile says he was the second lawyer and handled the legal challenges of a high-growth, rapidly scaling company.
Ethan Forrest
LinkedInExperience: Associate General Counsel · Anthropic
Associate General Counsel at Anthropic since 2023. The profile says he handles novel product, privacy, IP, litigation and commercial matters for Anthropic. Former Associate Director, Product Counsel at Twitter (2020–2022) and Law Clerk at the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (2013–2014).
Janel Thamkul
LinkedInExperience: Deputy General Counsel · Anthropic
Former Deputy General Counsel at Anthropic (2023–2026). The profile describes being the first Deputy General Counsel hire, responsible for building and scaling Anthropic's legal function to support commercial operations, research and product development. Other rows include Senior Product Counsel and Legal Manager, Google AI at Google (2018–2023) and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Law & AI (LawAI) since 2026.
Jeffrey Bleich
LinkedInExperience: General Counsel · Anthropic
General Counsel at Anthropic since July 2025, and Special Envoy at Anthropic since August 2026. Former Chief Legal and Policy Officer at Cruise (2020–2023) and Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (2024–2025). The profile also links a news item about Anthropic naming a successor to its General Counsel, who is taking on a new role.
Mark Pike
LinkedInExperience: Associate General Counsel · Anthropic
Associate General Counsel at Anthropic since 2023, listed in the legal department at manager level. Former Senior Director, Product Legal at Slack (2016–2023) and Privacy Program Manager at Facebook (2010–2016), so his rows cover both product legal leadership and privacy program work.
Michael Riess
LinkedInExperience: Associate General Counsel, Employment · Anthropic
Associate General Counsel, Employment at Anthropic since December 2025; the profile headline places the role in People Legal. Former Senior Director, Global Head of Litigation and Employment Law at Braze (2024–2025), with Senior Director, Global Employment Law (2023–2024) and Director, Global Employment Law (2022–2023) rows at Braze, and Director, Legal, Employment at WeWork (2020–2022).
Rob Hester
LinkedInExperience: Head of Commercial Legal · Anthropic
Head of Commercial Legal at Anthropic since 2026 and Associate General Counsel at Anthropic since 2024; the profile headline describes the AGC role as covering compute and commercial work. Former Senior Corporate Counsel at Amazon Web Services (AWS) (2022–2024) and Director, Legal Counsel - Commercial at Rogers Communications (2014–2019).
Ronan Davy
LinkedInExperience: Head of Regulatory Legal · Anthropic
Head of Regulatory Legal at Anthropic since December 2025, and Associate General Counsel at Anthropic from 2024 to 2025. Former VP, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Etsy (2020–2024), with Senior Director & Associate General Counsel (2018–2020) and Director & Assistant General Counsel (2016–2018) rows at Etsy. The profile describes a legal, privacy, regulatory and compliance executive whose experience includes serving as Acting General Counsel.
Choose the right perspective
Match the person's practice area to your question, for example a regulatory or product lawyer for AI policy and compliance issues, or a commercial lawyer for customer and compute contracts. Check whether each person's Anthropic role is current and when it started, since legal practices at a fast-growing company can change quickly.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How does an AI company's legal team review new model and product launches for privacy, IP and regulatory risk?
- 02Which contract terms matter most in large enterprise and compute agreements for an AI developer?
- 03How should a legal function be structured across commercial, product, regulatory and employment work as the company scales?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
Request a correction or removal