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Comment by preommr | Hacker News Reader

The handling of this is so bizarre it makes me want to sympathize with Matt (even though some of the information against him seems pretty damning), grab him by the shoulders and yell "please, for your sake, get offline, listen to your lawyers - this can't be healthy".

Matt, please, I know you're not going to listen to some random stranger, but maybe think about distancing yourself from this and getting some perspective from people that aren't as emotionally invested in this and listen to people like your lawyers, pr people, other senior management, etc.

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Maybe that's why they are hiring an "Associate General Counsel"?

That’s really not the right way to hire a lawyer you need right now.

Probably not the right way to hire a lawyer at all, frankly.

How does he expect a junior attorney to help him at all, especially one who is depending on him for his paycheck?

There's nothing to indicate that they're hiring a lawyer to deal with this situation. That was just speculation on the part of the parent comment. They probably just need to fill a vacancy in their legal division.

The job specifically asks for a JD with 8+ years of experience. The position will lead corporate, securities and governance work. This is not a junior attorney.

Here’s the job ad:

https://automattic.com/work-with-us/job/associate-general-co...

Thanks, I was going off the description from the parent poster. My bad!

> That’s really not the right way to hire a lawyer you need right now.

> Probably not the right way to hire a lawyer at all, frankly.

> How does he expect a junior attorney to help him at all, especially one who is depending on him for his paycheck?

Most large companies outsource the bigger stuff and anything non day-to-day (like trademark enforcement and litigation) to law firms.

Yup, that’s what I was referring to - but they’re already doing a lot of weird stuff, so hiring someone internally to handle litigation (or similar) would be the kind of dumb I would expect.

And, while I'm not invested in this in any aspect, I feel: About time! I appreciate an executive with the passion/guts/ignorance to push a direction that's controversial and not safe. I'm really sick of working for companies that have no opinion or passion, and do a bunch of boring things.

Where's today's DHH, Jason Fried or Joel Spolsky?

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