Lauren Thomas Joins Faire as General Counsel
January 31, 2022 | By Faire
At Faire, we’re dedicated to becoming the trusted wholesale operating system for the global retail community. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that Faire has hired Lauren Thomas as our first General Counsel.
Lauren brings over a decade of experience across financial, regulatory, and corporate governance. Most recently, she served as General Counsel at Dutchie, one of the first national payments service providers for the cannabis industry. At Dutchie, Lauren was crucial in helping the technology company navigate extremely complex regulatory and legal challenges, ultimately scaling the brand’s counsel function to a team of seven. Prior to that role, Lauren served as the first General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at digital banking platform, Good Money. In her role, Lauren was responsible for building the legal, securities, and compliance functions for the social equity brand which directed 50% of its profits toward environmental and social justice initiatives through impact investments and charitable donations.
Previously, Lauren also served as Corporate Counsel at Block (previously Square, NYSE: SQ), where she managed all aspects of Block’s equity and asset acquisitions, as well as 20 domestic and international subsidiaries. At Block, she also served as Program Coordinator for the Black Squares Association and chaired Block’s first Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, helping create the company’s first public report inclusive of diversity, inclusion, and sustainability reporting. Earlier in her career, Lauren was a Corporate Associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Lauren currently serves on the board for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of San Francisco, where she assisted in expanding its cannabis expungement and bail clinics to Block’s pro bono program. She has also dedicated a significant amount of pro bono work towards Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an organization that provides protection and free legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children. She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a B.A. from Harvard University, and is a member of the New York and California State Bars.
“As the child of an immigrant and entrepreneur, the Faire mission deeply resonates with me. I am thrilled to join Faire and continue providing small business owners with the support and tools they need to thrive.”
– Lauren Thomas, General Counsel at Faire.
Lauren joins Faire after a period of remarkable growth, with the platform now serving hundreds of thousands of brands and retailers around the world. After expanding into the United Kingdom and 14 markets across Europe, Faire raised a Series G round at a $12.4 billion valuation bringing its total funding-to-date to more than $1 billion. With Lauren’s diversified background in payments and small business support, she is uniquely suited to tackle complex legal initiatives that will promote Faire’s global mission of empowering entrepreneurs.
At Faire, Lauren will lead all corporate strategic and tactical legal initiatives on a global basis, building out a team to execute critical legal judgment in order to effectively serve our community. Current open roles on the team include a Corporate Paralegal and Senior Global Equity Manager.
Join us in welcoming Lauren Thomas to Faire!
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