About

Team size: 50
Major law firms used: Covington & Burling, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, NautaDutilh

‘Matt Wilson at Uber is someone who has to deal with very thorny and constant legal issues,’ comments a fellow technology company’s GC. ‘You would go a long way to find someone who has a more difficult job.’

Wilson’s job, having risen from the ridesharing company’s first UK lawyer back in 2015 to associate GC for EMEA today, has involved a raft of high-profile legal and regulatory setbacks. He nearly resigned twice in his first six months.

But the well-regarded GC is credited with both helping Uber navigate those thorny legal issues, and with building a strong and cohesive team that has more than tripled its headcount in three years. There are 50 people working across 43 countries in the region, with lawyers from 18 nationalities, qualified in 15 jurisdictions, while half the team is female, including leadership.

Key Uber projects have included launching UberPool; obtaining regulatory change in countries across EMEA; launching Uber Eats; and working to achieve renewal of its private-hire operator licence in London after TfL initially refused to renew it in September 2017. More litigation looms after Uber’s case in a separate battle over the employment classification of its drivers was rejected by the Court of Appeal in December 2018.

But the team has managed to bring more work in-house, cutting the proportion of external legal spend from about 75% of budget to 58%. Wilson stresses the importance of recruiting the right people, whether that be with supplementary skills like coding, or someone with experience in a particular jurisdiction.

‘Our team has an important role in making sure we have the right internal culture. It matters a lot to me that we don’t just get English-qualified lawyers with the same background and experience, and plonk them into different parts of the region. We have a real melting pot and that’s not important for appearances, but it’s important for the debate we have as a team and, after that, for making the right decisions.’

Wilson stresses the importance of trust, and being honest with his team and the wider business. He is wary of ‘groupthink’ and wants his team to feel like they can bring their own opinion to the table without simply deferring to what senior people think. ‘We’ve reorganised the team and focus on getting people T-shaped experience. They might come to us as a specialist in employment law, but we make sure they’re getting a much broader experience, both from a legal and business point of view.’