Kent Walker, vice president and general counsel with Google Inc., from right, Colin Stretch, general counsel with Facebook Inc., and Sean Edgett, acting general counsel with Twitter Inc., listen during a House Intelligence Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017.

Facebook's top lawyer, Colin Stretch, is leaving the company at the end of the year, marking a loss for the company as it recovers from privacy scandals and widespread reports of bad content and abuse of the platform.

"There is never a 'right time' for a transition like this, but the team and the company boast incredible talent and will navigate this well," Stretch wrote in a Facebook post announcing his departure.