TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd., is expanding its legal team in response to mounting scrutiny from US legislators and regulators who aim to curb Chinese influence. According to an anonymous source, the company plans to hire up to 60 lawyers globally this year.


The online job board at TikTok currently lists almost 100 in-house legal openings, including roles in regulatory affairs, privacy, product monetization, litigation, employment, compliance, and anti-money laundering. Yale Law School professor Jonathan Macey believes that this hiring spree signifies that TikTok is preparing for battle on multiple fronts.

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Lawmakers and regulators have raised concerns about privacy, data security, and TikTok's relationship with China's government. In Congress, there are proposed bills to ban the app in the US or force its sale. CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to testify before a House Committee on March 23. A bipartisan Senate bill would grant the Biden administration the power to mandate the sale of specific foreign-owned technologies, including TikTok.

In a change of direction, President Joe Biden has endorsed the bill, having previously revoked Trump-era bans on TikTok and WeChat, another Chinese-owned social media app. Additionally, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is leading a probe by 46 states into TikTok's impact on children's mental health. As a result, TikTok has imposed a 60-minute daily limit for users under 18.

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Over the past three years, TikTok has expanded its in-house legal team and recently made several additions. Emily Stubbs, formerly of ViacomCBS Inc., is now the global head of litigation and recently hired two senior litigators, Katie Sluss and Regina Schaffer-Goldman, who previously worked at Twitter Inc. Catherine Razzano, who served as ethics and compliance chief at Panasonic Avionics Corp, is now the head of global legal compliance for TikTok. Jenny Chung Savidge, former ethics, compliance, privacy, and risk chief at IHS Markit Ltd., is the head of legal compliance for US data security. Finally, Christina MacDonald, former director of legal and senior corporate counsel at Amazon.com Inc.'s Canadian business, joined TikTok in 2022 as the head of US product and trust and safety legal.

Approximately 26% of TikTok's US federal court cases have involved Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a law firm based in Silicon Valley. King & Spalding comes in second at almost 18%. During this time, Wilson Sonsini served as the primary outside litigation counsel for TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, while Keker, Van Nest & Peters also represented ByteDance.

ByteDance spent almost $10 million on lobbying in Washington over the past two years, with 13 people registered to lobby Congress on privacy, data security, and content moderation. In addition to its in-house lobbying efforts led by former congressional aide Michael Beckerman, ByteDance also outsourced lobbying work to Mehlman Castagnetti, LGL Partners LLC, K&L Gates, and Crossroads Strategies LLC. Barton Gordon, a former Democratic House member from Tennessee, has represented TikTok since 2019.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Gordon and three other K&L Gates advisers advocated for ByteDance on "internet companies," competition matters, and the National Defense Authorization Act. TikTok also paid $910,000 over the past two years to former Senate Republican Majority Leader Trent Lott's Crossroads Strategies LLC for lobbying on "internet technology and learning-enabled content platforms," according to public records.