Team size: Over 20

Did the pandemic lead to a lasting increase in the interaction your legal team has with the strategic plans of the company?

The pandemic required us to be much more coordinated with the many different parts of the company in aligning our work and priorities. We have simplified this by having a single road map based on the strategic initiatives of the company. This however is somewhat complicated by new emerging issues which compete for priorities and resources.

While we have simplified what we work on, we have had to be a lot more thoughtful on how we coordinate this work across the legal department so that there is much tighter coordination. In a remote environment, silos can develop if there is insufficient communication and coordination. We have had to mitigate this risk by building stronger relationships within the department, ensuring that there is clarity on roles and responsibilities, and over-communicating so that relevant information is cascaded to give legal team members sufficient context to undertake their work.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

Airbnb is deeply committed to making our company, our community and the technology industry more diverse and accessible for everyone. The legal team has set goals for itself to increase diversity at the senior levels of the department, increase the sense of belonging, focus on growth and development of its lawyers and legal professionals.

We are also focused on looking at external law firms which have similar focus on diversity and inclusion. In choosing our law firms, we conduct surveys on the state of diversity in each firm, and consider these metrics when appointing external law firms.

By the end of 2023, we are looking to roll out a Law Firm Diversity Partner Program in APAC. Law firms in this programme will have preferential priority when being considered for new legal matters.

If you have worked in other countries, what are the main challenges unique to operating as an in-house counsel in your current location?

There is a great amount of change in various areas of the law, including privacy, digital platform and competition. New regulations usually lack clarity and certainty in scope and timelines, which can be challenging in trying to comply with these new regulations. Two things can help in-house counsels navigate through these uncertainties:(i) Better intelligence from external counsel which can be built through direct interaction between external law firms and the regulators, so that the external lawyers understand the policy intent, pressure points and how enforcement will look like; (ii) industry associations or informal associations organised by law firms to present the industry voice to the regulators.