MAY 2015
36
INHOUSE
JOHN
HRYNIUK
Handling the affairs
of Ashley Madison
Serving as general counsel for the controversial
dating site brings the thrill of working for
a startup with an international scope.
BY VAWN HIMMELSBACH
LIFE IS SHORT. HAVE AN AFFAIR.
That's the slogan of highly successful
— and highly controversial — online
dating site Ashley Madison. The
site, owned by Avid Life Media, is
designed for "discreet encounters"
for people seeking an affair.
Avid Life Media also owns a
few other properties, including Es-
tablished Men (a dating service that
connects "young, ambitious women
with successful, established men");
Cougar Life (a dating site for wom-
en who want to share their real age
and personal situation); and The
Big and The Beautiful (a dating site
for women "with curves who don't
like to play games").
For Avi Weisman, vice president
and general counsel for Avid Life
Media, it's not exactly a typical job.
But Weisman never really wanted a
typical job.
"I knew I didn't want to have the
normal or typical career path," he
says. "By that I mean working on Bay
Street, working up to partnership
level, that path. I moved in-house
fairly quickly."
Weisman, who has an MBA from
York University's Schulich School of
Business, is a one-man legal depart-
ment at the company's headquarters in
Toronto. He's responsible for everything
from business development and strategy to
legal issues related to international launches
and digital marketing, as well as managing
external lawyers across 46 countries where
the company operates.
It's a big job, considering how fast the
