iPhone maker Apple Inc. has brought on former Meta Platform’s Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead as General Counsel, as incumbent Katherine (or Kate) Adams is set to depart from March 1, the company confirmed in a statement on 4 December.

Besides changes with the legal head, Apple’s governmental affairs executive Lisa Jackson, vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, is also set to retire next month in January 2026, it added.

Notably, Adams will take over Government Affairs till her retirement in 2026, after which it will be led by Newstead. And Newstead’s title will become senior vice president, General Counsel and Government Affairs, reflecting the combining of the two organisations.

Meanwhile, the Environment and Social Initiatives teams will report to Apple chief operating officer Sabih Khan.

Apple leadership in flux: Talent drain continues?

Notably, Adams’ departure comes amid an executive shake-up at Apple as its chief operating officer Jeff Williams retired last month — he was second in line to CEO Tim Cook.

On 3 December, Apple confirmed longtime designer Stephen Lemay will replace chief designer Alan Dye, who departed for Meta this week. He was behind some of the company’s most iconic rollouts since the Steve Jobs era, including the Apple Watch UI, iOS7, and Liquid Glass UI.

Prior to that, on 1 December, Apple announced that its John Giannandrea, its senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI Strategy, is stepping down, but will continue to serve as an advisor till spring 2026, before retiring.

In 2019, legendary executive Jony Ive, exited the company and is now working with Sam Altman at OpenAI.

Besides this, CEO Tim Cook is nearing retirement age, while another prominent name Johny Srouji (Apple’s silicon chief) is “evaluating future at the company”, an earlier Bloomberg report said.

Who is Jennifer Newstead?

Newstead joined Meta (then Facebook) in 2019, from the United States Department of State, where she was legal advisor overseeing legal issues affecting the conduct of US foreign relations.

As per the Apple statement, Newstead held a range of other positions in government earlier in her career as well, including as general counsel of the White House Office of Management and Budget, as a principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice, as associate White House counsel, and as a law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer of the US Supreme Court.

Prior to that, she also spent a dozen years as partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, where she advised global corporations on a wide variety of issues. Newstead holds an AB from Harvard University and a JD from Yale Law School.

As per a Bloomberg report, Newstead is fresh off a major win for Meta, which beat the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allegation over violation of antitrust law, centered on its social apps Instagram and WhatsApp.

(With inputs from Agencies)