10 Anthropic legal leaders
Two people who have held Anthropic's General Counsel title, Brian Israel (now Chief Legal Officer) and Jeffrey Bleich, appear with a former Deputy General Counsel, heads of regulatory, commercial and international GTM commercial legal, and four associate general counsels covering product, privacy, commercial and employment work. Useful when an AI company is setting up product counsel, regulatory coverage or commercial contracting.
Professionals to explore
Brian Israel
LinkedInExperience: Chief Legal Officer · Anthropic
Brian Israel was General Counsel at Anthropic (2022-2025) and has been Chief Legal Officer since July 2025, citing experience in IP, international transactions & operations, and the development and regulation of unprecedented technologies. Brian also served as Associate General Counsel for International Law at NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration (2020-2022) and Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley - School of Law (2019-2022), the senior pick for questions on regulating new technology.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Broc Cocoman
LinkedInExperience: Head of GTM Commercial Legal, International · Anthropic
International customer contracting questions point to Broc Cocoman, Head of GTM Commercial Legal, International at Anthropic since December 2025. At Stripe, Broc was Lead Commercial Counsel - EMEA (2017-2020) and Head of Commercial Legal (GTM) (2020-2025); earlier roles are Corporate Associate at A&L Goodbody LLP (2015-2017) and Solicitor, Corporate Restructuring & Insolvency Group at Matheson LLP (2009-2014).
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
David Saunders
LinkedInExperience: Associate General Counsel · Anthropic
Second lawyer at Cloudflare as Deputy General Counsel (2015-2017), David Saunders went on to Lead Commercial & Product Counsel at Google (2017-2020) and Senior Counsel - Gemini AI & Chrome Enterprise there (2020-2025), and has been Associate General Counsel at Anthropic since September 2025. That path fits AI product counsel questions and building legal at a rapidly scaling company.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Ethan Forrest
LinkedInExperience: Associate General Counsel · Anthropic
Since 2023 Ethan Forrest has been Associate General Counsel at Anthropic, handling novel product, privacy, IP, litigation and commercial matters. Earlier roles were Associate Director, Product Counsel at Twitter (2020-2022), Law Clerk at the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (2013-2014) and Non-Resident Fellow at Stanford University Center for Internet and Society (2012-2014), a fit for product, privacy and IP questions on new AI features.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Janel Thamkul
LinkedInExperience: Former Deputy General Counsel · Anthropic
As Anthropic's first Deputy General Counsel hire (2023-2026), Janel Thamkul was responsible for building and scaling the legal function to support commercial operations, research and product development. Earlier Google roles were Product and Commercial Counsel Google Play Movies, Books, Newsstand, Analytics (2015-2018) and Senior Product Counsel and Legal Manager, Google AI (2018-2023), and Janel has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Law & AI (LawAI) since 2026.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Jeffrey Bleich
LinkedInExperience: General Counsel · Anthropic
General Counsel at Anthropic since July 2025 and Special Envoy there since August 2026, Jeffrey Bleich was Chief Legal and Policy Officer at Cruise (2020-2023) and Visiting Scholar at Stanford University (2024-2025), and has been Board Director at the Jeff Bleich Centre since 2020. That mix fits questions where AI legal work meets policy and international engagement.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Mark Pike
LinkedInExperience: Associate General Counsel · Anthropic
Mark Pike has been Associate General Counsel at Anthropic since September 2023, following Senior Director, Product Legal at Slack (2016-2023) and Privacy Program Manager at Facebook (2010-2016). A Summer Clerk role at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (2007) came first, and the Slack and Facebook titles make Mark a fit for product legal and privacy program questions.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Michael Riess
LinkedInExperience: Associate General Counsel, Employment · Anthropic
Employment law questions are Michael Riess's lane: Associate General Counsel, Employment at Anthropic since December 2025, also titled Associate General Counsel, People Legal. Braze titles were Director, Global Employment Law (2022-2023), Senior Director, Global Employment Law (2023-2024) and Senior Director, Global Head of Litigation and Employment Law (2024-2025), with Director, Legal, Employment at WeWork (2020-2022) before that.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Rob Hester
LinkedInExperience: Head of Commercial Legal · Anthropic
Compute and commercial contract questions go to Rob Hester, Associate General Counsel at Anthropic since June 2024 and Head of Commercial Legal since August 2026, with the title AGC @ Anthropic - Compute/Commercial. At Amazon Web Services (AWS), Rob was Corporate Counsel (2019-2022) and Senior Corporate Counsel (2022-2024); Director, Legal Counsel - Commercial at Rogers Communications (2014-2019) came before.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Ronan Davy
LinkedInExperience: Head of Regulatory Legal · Anthropic
Based in Dublin, Ronan Davy has been Head of Regulatory Legal at Anthropic since December 2025, following Associate General Counsel there (2024-2025). Earlier Etsy titles were Director & Assistant General Counsel (2016-2018), Senior Director & Associate General Counsel (2018-2020) and VP, Deputy General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer (2020-2024), and Ronan describes a background as a senior legal, privacy, regulatory and compliance executive, a fit for AI regulation and compliance program questions.
Is this you? Claim your profile and get paid for calls.
Choose the right perspective
Senior structure questions go to Brian Israel, Jeffrey Bleich or Janel Thamkul, who held the general counsel and first deputy general counsel roles. Regulation sits with Ronan Davy, contracts with Rob Hester (compute and commercial) and Broc Cocoman (international GTM), product and privacy with Ethan Forrest, Mark Pike or David Saunders, and employment with Michael Riess.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How does Anthropic's legal team review a new model or product feature for privacy, IP and regulatory risk before launch?
- 02Which terms in enterprise and compute contracts does Anthropic's commercial legal team negotiate hardest, and how do they differ outside the U.S.?
- 03How does Anthropic's regulatory legal team divide work with policy staff as AI rules change across jurisdictions?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot; roles marked former had ended by then. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.