© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.
Finalist: Non-GC of the Year for Mid-sized Legal Depts.
By Mark Curriden
(Jan. 11) – Brittany Perez loved reading books as a kid. Black Beauty and Misty of Chincoteague led to her love of horses. To Kill a Mockingbird and other legal thrillers opened her mind to the world of lawyers.
Twenty-seven years later, Perez is a competitive horse jumper who also happens to be the associate general counsel and vice president of Match.com and a bright young star of corporate law.
Since joining Match.com in 2009, she has handled multinational M&A transactions, managed constantly changing compliance standards levied by state and federal agencies around the globe, and worked diligently to protect confidential company and client data from hackers.
“I love my job because I am always in triage mode at Match and have to do a little bit of everything,” she says. “It can be very stressful, but it is extremely interesting work and I know that my work directly helps the operations of the company.”
Perez is a finalist for the 2017 Outstanding Corporate Counsel Award for Non-GC of the Year Award for a Mid-sized Legal Department. The Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW Chapter and The Texas Lawbook will recognize the finalist and announce the winners on Thursday, Jan. 25, at the Bush Institute.
Locke Lord partner Jason Mueller says that Perez has demonstrated “exceptional character and leadership” for Match during a time of extraordinary growth and constant change for the company.
“[Brittany] has worked tirelessly to integrate acquisition targets and harmonize brand efforts around the globe,” says Mueller, who nominated Perez for the award. “Brittany has crafted unique and custom solutions to complex legal issues around the globe.”
Born and raised in Houston, Perez’s parents were hardworking, middle-class Americans who pushed her hard to succeed. Her mother is a CPA; her father is a turbine engine mechanic.
In junior high, she developed a passion for riding horses and started taking lessons. At the same time, she was a ferocious reader. There were no lawyers in her family, but the story of Atticus Finch and Scout and A Time to Kill by John Grisham made a deep impression on her conscience.
But even in high school, Perez recognized the practical benefits of becoming a lawyer.
“I wanted a job that paid me money so I could ride,” she says. “I had to stop taking horse-riding lessons as a junior because we just didn’t have the resources.”
Perez received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Texas. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center in 2005.
The Dallas office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, which was proactively recruiting and promoting women and ethnic minorities, came calling.
“Weil was very appealing to me,” she says. “I was able to practice corporate law in Texas at a global firm.”
In 2009, the general counsel of Match was friends with a partner at Weil and asked for help identifying a few candidates.
More than 400 lawyers applied for the position, but Match chose Perez because of her corporate transactional experience, her fluency in Spanish and a strong recommendation from Weil. In fact, the company was working on a joint venture in Brazil when Perez joined, and she immediately got involved in the deal.
“Weil is a firm where it is extremely difficult to make partner and Match was an interesting brand and business,” she says. “Plus, the JV in Brazil was exactly the kind of work I was already doing at Weil.”
Perez was the second in-house lawyer in Match’s legal department. Now, there are 12. In 2010, she was promoted from Corporate Counsel to Associate General Counsel. In 2015, she added the title of Vice President.
During her eight years at Match, Perez has handled a plethora of large and complex legal matters, including consumer class-actions and regulatory inquiries. She is the primary legal adviser for the “Plenty of Fish” and “Tinder” operations. She reviews marketing and advertising materials before they are made public. And she has been on the front lines of cybersecurity and data privacy.
“Compliance with evolving privacy and consumer laws, especially the European data protection requirements going into effect in 2018, has been a considerable undertaking for us,” she says. “Many times, regulations by the states and various countries conflict with one another.
“Data privacy is a critical legal issue,” she says. “We have confidential information of our customers, such as their sexual preferences. Our users and our brand are our two most important assets and we work every day to protect them.”
Perez says the most exciting legal matter she has worked on since joining Match was the company’s initial public offering in the fall of 2015.
“I did the due diligence for the underwriters,” she says. “It was a thrill to be a part of such a great day at the company.”
Perez is married to a lawyer who specializes in personal injury litigation.
“No, we did not meet on Match,” she says. “But that would make for a great story if we did.”
Perez bought a jumper horse a few years ago, rides three times a week and competes. In 2017, she won the Texas High Point Jumper Award for competitors in her class.
“I feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity for challenge and growth in both my career and the show ring,” she says.
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