Leadership · Chief Legal Officer
Brian Israel
Spent a decade in public service, including as a NASA lawyer for international law, before becoming one of Anthropic's earliest executives.
“Sometimes the right answer for Anthropic would be things that 99% of tech companies wouldn't even consider. You have to be appropriately open to weirdness—not weirdness for the sake of weirdness, but tied to what we're trying to achieve in the world.”
- Role
- Chief Legal Officer
- Joined Anthropic
- 2022
- Before Anthropic
- Domaine Labs
Career
- Anthropic
- Chief Legal OfficerJul 2025 – present
- General CounselOct 2022 – Jul 2025
- Domaine Labs
- FounderDec 2021 – Dec 2022
- NASA
- Associate General Counsel for International LawSep 2020 – Sep 2022
- University of California, Berkeley
- LecturerJan 2019 – Apr 2022
- ConsenSys
- Co-Founder, ConsenSys SpaceOct 2018 – May 2020
- Planetary Resources
- General Counsel & Corporate SecretaryMay 2017 – Oct 2018
Show 4 earlier employers
- U.S. Department of State
- Attorney-Adviser for East Asia and Pacific AffairsJan 2017 – May 2017
- Attorney-Adviser for Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific AffairsOct 2011 – Jan 2017
- George Mason University - Antonin Scalia Law School
- Adjunct ProfessorAug 2010 – Jan 2014
- U.S. Department of State
- Attorney-Adviser for International Claims and Investment DisputesOct 2009 – Oct 2011
- AAA Travel
- Product Strategy AnalystAug 2005 – Jul 2006
Sources1linkedin.com
Education
- BA, University of California, San Diego
- JD, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
Sources1anthropic.com
Lesser-known facts
- Headed the US delegation to the UN COPUOS Legal Subcommittee from 2012 to 2016.
- Grew Anthropic's legal team from one person to 27 in two years.
- Joined ConsenSys Space in October 2018, when ConsenSys acquired Planetary Resources.
- Taught space law at Berkeley Law from 2019 to 2022, after teaching as an adjunct at George Mason's law school.
- Says the right answer for Anthropic is sometimes something "99% of tech companies wouldn't even consider."
- During OpenAI's November 2023 board crisis, fielded investor questions on whether it could happen at Anthropic. His answer: it can't happen to us.
Interviews and talks
- "Open to weirdness" podcast episode on leading legal at Anthropic (2024)sites.libsyn.com
- Berkeley Law conversation on the frontiers of AI, law and technology (2023)executive.law.berkeley.edu
- Humans to Mars Summit speaker (2022)exploremars.org
