Matthew Wilson
Associate GC for EMEA and APAC
Uber
Uber’s EMEA legal team has gone from zero to 70 in five years and teams broadly have been growing – when will that peak?
Not until legal tech can take over repeatable tasks. There is a cost, of course, but frankly, we continue to see how highly legal teams are valued. What’s driven that is corporate governance and the quality of in-house teams because more good people want to go in-house. I had eight interviews for various roles recently and at least two-thirds of them have said that they look around their law firms and at partnership and think: ‘That’s not what I want.’
Do you have to start building on career progression and more structure to your team, then?
That’s an increasingly large part of my job, thinking about what people’s motivations are, and looking at the broader organisation and how to structure the team. We’ve made sure that people have not just their next move but the one after that lined up as well. At any time we also know who in the team might be mobile; who wants to experience different types of law: we have a great lawyer in Kenya who we brought to Amsterdam for six months to do central hub work and that was a roaring success. We also run a career exchange programme, which allows lawyers – wherever they may be – short-term secondments in other teams. That keeps it fresh and helps with retention.
How does your role now need to change?
The lines are becoming much more blurred between the role as a lawyer and role as a leader of the business. I’m becoming increasingly integrated with the business and the role is naturally evolving beyond legal to risk management and where the legal advice is a subset of my job but by no means a majority anymore. We’re factoring in ethics and reputation, and need a good understanding of all those different facets that go into decision-making. We’re being asked to make more judgements about what we should do, not just what we can do.
How do you measure whether these changes are working?
We have a very comprehensive review system. You get feedback from your line manager, peers and colleagues, and feedback on culture and management style from across the team. We look at how happy people are, what’s important to their happiness and what introduces the wrong kind of stress.
Are external advisers improving?
The last few years, there’s been a lot of change. One of the big ones is the desire to really understand and go deep on our business, and how our business works. Law firms are much more willing to invest time in getting to intimately know the business, which is something we value and appreciate. That translates into more accurate advice, more considered advice and more usable advice, frankly.
Are they willing to invest more because of what Uber is now?
I definitely think it helps we’re Uber.
What other trends are you noticing?
I’ve been doing a lot of travel around Asia – all of those economies are starting to catch up. That will have a big impact on all our lives in the western world.
Uber’s EMEA legal team has gone from zero to 70 in five years and teams broadly have been growing – when will that peak?
Not until legal tech can take over repeatable tasks. There is a cost, of course, but frankly, we continue to see how highly legal teams are valued. What’s driven that is corporate governance and the quality of in-house teams because more good people want to go in-house. I had eight interviews for various roles recently and at least two-thirds of them have said that they look around their law firms and at partnership and think: ‘That’s not what I want.’
Do you have to start building on career progression and more structure to your team, then?
That’s an increasingly large part of my job, thinking about what people’s motivations are, and looking at the broader organisation and how to structure the team. We’ve made sure that people have not just their next move but the one after that lined up as well. At any time we also know who in the team might be mobile; who wants to experience different types of law: we have a great lawyer in Kenya who we brought to Amsterdam for six months to do central hub work and that was a roaring success. We also run a career exchange programme, which allows lawyers – wherever they may be – short-term secondments in other teams. That keeps it fresh and helps with retention.
How does your role now need to change?
The lines are becoming much more blurred between the role as a lawyer and role as a leader of the business. I’m becoming increasingly integrated with the business and the role is naturally evolving beyond legal to risk management and where the legal advice is a subset of my job but by no means a majority anymore. We’re factoring in ethics and reputation, and need a good understanding of all those different facets that go into decision-making. We’re being asked to make more judgements about what we should do, not just what we can do.
How do you measure whether these changes are working?
We have a very comprehensive review system. You get feedback from your line manager, peers and colleagues, and feedback on culture and management style from across the team. We look at how happy people are, what’s important to their happiness and what introduces the wrong kind of stress.
Are external advisers improving?
The last few years, there’s been a lot of change. One of the big ones is the desire to really understand and go deep on our business, and how our business works. Law firms are much more willing to invest time in getting to intimately know the business, which is something we value and appreciate. That translates into more accurate advice, more considered advice and more usable advice, frankly.
Are they willing to invest more because of what Uber is now?
I definitely think it helps we’re Uber.
What other trends are you noticing?
I’ve been doing a lot of travel around Asia – all of those economies are starting to catch up. That will have a big impact on all our lives in the western world.