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United Kingdom 2018: The Team Elite

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United Kingdom 2018: The Team Elite

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One day it is a ride-hailing service, the next a food delivery company. Soon it could be dealing with flying cars. When you work for the inhouse legal team at Uber, anything can come through the door. This is why the company’s associate GC for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Matthew Wilson, cites the attitude and ability of every one of his 40-lawyer team, covering 45 countries in the region, to roll their sleeves up as the legal function’s key asset. ‘While Uber has revolutionised the way people move in cities around the world, it’s equally true that we made mistakes along the way. The work our team does is helping to continue to change the way we do business, putting integrity at the core of every decision we make and working hard to earn the trust of the cities in which we operate,’ he summates. Uber has grown to revenues in excess of $7bn but has come in for a bumpy ride in various regions as the service does not always fit with existing laws and regulations. The most high-profile example of this came when Transport for London said it would not renew Uber’s private-hire operator licence in September last year, citing public safety and security implications. Uber is appealing the decision, in a case set for June, while another battle over the employment classification of Uber drivers is headed for the Court of Appeal in October. Wilson points to both cases as highlight work, led by UK legal director Helen Hayes and supported by the entire team, including employment counsel Jonathan Ollivent. He also lauds litigation wins in South Africa and France over the classification of drivers. In France, a change to licence types also affected tens of thousands of drivers, but Wilson says the company managed that transition in a successful and effective way: Western and Southern Europe legal director Riccardo Falconi and employment legal director Jean-Baptiste Chavialle are noted for their work on the French issues, and Robert Kayihura, Middle East and Africa legal director, for the South Africa win. Other standout matters the team has been involved in include the launch of its food-delivery arm, Uber Eats, in the summer of 2016, and working with teams in San Francisco to close the merger with the ride-hailing business of Russia’s largest technology company, Yandex, effectively creating a $3bn joint venture. Wilson comments: ‘Everyone in the team is handling something that’s either material or potentially existential to a country or a region, which is really unique among legal teams. Some of the material issues that we handle maybe happen once or twice a year in other teams I’ve been in, but here it’s across the team every single day. That’s challenging, but it’s also hugely exciting and very energising.’ The team has introduced technological initiatives, such as self-service contracts that the business teams can generate contracts from, as well as the use of Google Docs, allowing for faster-paced document creation and review, which most of Uber’s external counsel now use as well. Otherwise, Uber is headed for a likely initial public offering. ‘If and when it happens, that’s going to be a lot of work for everyone around the globe, especially the legal team.’ Wilson and his team draw plaudits for having an in-depth understanding of the broader business and looking at problems in different ways. Hogan Lovells partner Charles Brasted comments: ‘The most notable feature of their work is that there is no such thing as business as usual. They have to be on top of their game all the time. The Uber business obviously has had a challenging time, but this shows the value of a legal team that is trusted by the business and guides it through difficult times.’

 

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