Paul Cappuccio has broad experience as a public company general counsel and senior executive, as a public company director, and a senior executive in emerging private companies. For nearly two decades, he was general counsel first at AOL and then at Time Warner, which at the time was one of the largest media companies in the world. He has also overseen the legal work for hundreds of billions of dollars of mergers, acquisitions, sales and spin offs of companies. His prior public company board service includes Chipotle Mexican Grille, where he was Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee at a key time, as well as Rumble, Inc., where he is currently Chairman of the Compensation Committee of the board.
Paul Cappuccio graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University, and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he won a Sears Prize (awarded yearly to top two GPAs) and was a member of the Harvard Law Review. He began his legal career with three federal court clerkships – first for Judge Alex Kozinski on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, then Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States, and finally for Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court.
After a brief stint in private practice, he was appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr in 1991 as an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. Following his service at the Justice Department, he became a partner in the D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis, where he remained until he was appointed general counsel of AOL in 1999.
At AOL, he shepherded through the merger of AOL and Time Warner, which at the time was the largest corporate merger in history. As part of that process, he personally argued the hearing on the transaction at the European Union, which led to EU approval. He then remained at Time Warner as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for nearly two decades, until Time Warner was sold to AT&T, a deal which he negotiated personally and for which he led as general counsel Time Warner’s successful defense against the Justice Department’s attempt to block the deal in federal court.
He also has extensive experience in emerging growth companies. In 2019-20, he served as Vice Chairman of the dtx company, the latest venture of entrepreneur Tim Armstrong, which is now branded as Flowcode. From 2020-23, he was general counsel of NJOY, one of the first and only companies to receive regulatory clearance from the FDA to market a harm-reduction electronic cigarette to adult smokers, and subsequently led the in-house legal support of the sale of the company.
In addition to his boardroom experience participating as a senior member of management in well over 100 public company board meetings, he has also served himself as a board member for three public companies: Central European Media Enterprises, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Rumble, Inc.
Clerkships
• The Honorable Alex Kozinski, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• The Honorable Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court of the United States
• The Honorable Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court of the United States
Education
• Harvard Law School, J.D., magna cum laude
Member, Harvard Law Review
• Georgetown University, B.A., summa cum laude
Bar Admissions
• District of Columbia
• New York
Contact
T: 202.249.6900
pcappuccio@torridonlaw.com