A Quiet Search, A Perfect Fit: How The L Suite Connected OfferUp with Its Next General Counsel

Hiring for executive roles can be a delicate process, especially at high-growth companies. Public job postings invite an avalanche of applicants, many unqualified, while traditional recruiters often struggle to surface the right talent efficiently.

OfferUp’s Nathan Garnett was running a search that required careful handling. After seven and a half years as the company’s General Counsel, Garnett was stepping into the Chief Business Officer role—a major expansion of his responsibilities. That left a critical gap in OfferUp’s leadership team, and Garnett sought a successor who could oversee the company’s legal function as it continued scaling.

OfferUp operates in the competitive e-commerce industry, with millions of active users and a heavy volume of person-to-person transactions, and its continued growth depends on strong legal leadership. As one of the most widely used mobile marketplaces for local buying and selling, the company has built a reputation as a modern alternative to Craigslist—one that is more seamless, trusted, and mobile-friendly. In 2023, the company reported revenue between $100 million and $150 million, achieving profitability with three consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA.

With the company’s evolution, it was critical to find a General Counsel who could not only oversee legal operations but also navigate OfferUp’s expanding business landscape. Given his deep network within the Seattle General Counsel community, Garnett could have conducted an open search, but he knew that would generate an overwhelming level of interest. A quiet, highly curated process was the better path forward.

That’s where The L Suite came in.

A Curated Executive Match—Without the Noise

By working with The L Suite, Garnett was able to conduct a discreet search while maintaining control over the process. The platform provided a refined shortlist of pre-vetted candidates—professionals he wasn’t already connected to but who fit the role precisely.

One of those candidates was Brianna Humphreville, a seasoned legal executive with a background in marketplaces, e-commerce, and public company leadership. Most recently, she had served as Vice President of Legal at ThredUp, a leading secondhand apparel marketplace. She had started as Associate General Counsel and was later promoted to Vice President, playing a critical role in guiding ThredUp through its IPO. Prior to that, her career included senior legal positions at Amazon and Zillow, and she holds a BA degree from Columbia University and a JD from The George Washington University Law School.

Despite her impressive credentials, the legal job market in 2023 had been particularly challenging. After being affected by reductions at ThredUp, she had been on the market for nearly a year. Like many professionals in the current climate, she was running into the reality that even well-qualified candidates were struggling to break through.

That’s what made The L Suite’s role in this placement so impactful.

Rather than wading through a crowded application process or relying on recruiter-driven searches that often felt transactional, Humphreville was introduced directly to Garnett through a warm, insider-driven connection. With no job posting, no public competition, and no ATS filters to navigate, she was able to enter an efficient, transparent hiring process where both sides quickly determined fit.

The result was an ideal match—one that might not have happened through traditional channels.

The Advantage of Community-Driven Recruitment

For companies, high-profile executive searches can be unwieldy and disruptive to day-to-day operations. For candidates, the traditional job search is broken—too often, even well-credentialed professionals struggle to get noticed in a crowded market.

The OfferUp placement showcases why The L Suite is a powerful alternative for both sides. By enabling hiring managers to access pre-vetted talent without the distractions of an open search, the platform creates a more strategic hiring process. At the same time, it provides executive candidates with access to hidden market opportunities—jobs that are never posted publicly but that offer strong alignment with their career goals.

For OfferUp, The L Suite delivered exactly what it promised: a quiet search and an exceptionally skilled hire who aligned with the company’s long-term needs. For Humphreville, it meant the opportunity to step into a position that had once seemed just out of reach. And for the broader market, it’s a prime example of why private, referral-driven hiring is one of the most effective ways to make impactful placements for the roles that matter most.