In-House Counsel

From Cal, To Counsel, To Changing The World: Lessons From Former Pinterest GC Mike Yang

Yang reveals several insights for navigating an impactful legal career in a chat with Berkeley Law students.

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Mike Yang has had an exciting legal career, with positions at the California State Senate, Google, and, most recently, as former general counsel of Pinterest. Yang recently returned to Cal to join Berkeley Law students for a Leadership Lunch Talk, co-organized by the Berkeley Center for Law, Business, and the Economy and the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Yang’s talk, which focused on the “Future of Business,” revealed several insights for navigating an impactful legal career.

Policy and law careers are complimentary

Policy and law careers go hand in hand according to Yang, who started his post-law school career in D.C. and Sacramento. “The best part about state policy is that it directly impacts people’s lives,” Yang explained. “You can see an idea become a law in one year, whereas on the national level it takes decades.”

Working in policy is Yang’s way of reacting to his concerns about the future. “Generally speaking, when I am concerned for the state of affairs in the world, I choose to make an impact and more actively engage in policy,” he said. In fact, one reason Yang decided to leave Pinterest is because he wanted to focus more of his efforts on influencing policy.

Policy opportunities are abundant in all sectors, both public and private

Yang cleared up a common misconception: that policy opportunities are limited to the public sector. Yang’s career shows that an attorney can influence policy from the private sector as well. After working in D.C. and Sacramento, Yang joined Google’s policy and legal team. “My work was exciting and impactful. At the time I was dealing with many important questions of first impression and had thrilling assignments all over the world,” Yang explained. “I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it.”

Yang also noted the interesting dynamic of socially-conscious corporations. He reflected, “Technology companies generally were once more willing to take a policy stand on various issues. Now, however, many tech companies that are either public or may go public, must balance their passions and morals with corporate realities and pressures.” He further observed, “Ironically, employees now pressure their companies to take a stand on policy issues. It is increasingly important for many employees that they work for socially responsible companies. Therefore, the companies are pressured to balance employee reactions with corporate pressures.” This delicate balancing act can make for an exciting policy career in the private sector.

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Managing is not for everyone

After seven years at Google, Yang found himself managing 200 legal professionals. Although many others would welcome the promotion, for Yang, dealing with performance reviews, budgeting, and political disputes among his reports was not his cup of tea. Yang explained, “I happened to be at a company that grew. The way companies reward top performers is by making them managers, often without little or no training. But this is not a reward for everyone.”

Yang was honest with himself and realized that management at that scale just wasn’t for him. And he isn’t alone. “In fact, there is a very good argument that the best use of a top performers’ time is not a management role,” said Yang. “Rather, top performers should be allowed to engage in more challenging and interesting assignments.” Yang also focused on the importance of intentional management. “Learning management on the fly is not recommended,” he explained. “Building teams, focusing on creating the right culture, and developing management capabilities are all tasks that must be intentionally cultivated and learned by all business professionals, including lawyers.”

Learning to question traditions is an important skill

Law schools actively teach law students to follow precedent. Yang, however, argued that it is important to have difficult conversations about legal and business traditions. “For example, does it still make sense to have four year vesting for all employees, just because it is standard — even though it takes much longer for companies to go public and many companies would rather stay private?” Yang questioned. He continued, “We need to keep asking ourselves why we do what we do, and continue having these important conversations. We can’t accept ‘tradition’ as a sufficient answer anymore.”

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Follow your passions and stay around the best people

Although Yang insists that career planning is important, he also stressed that many of our career predictions are flawed and inaccurate. According to him, legal professionals and law students should stop agonizing over which law firm to join or what practice to choose. “At the end, two things are very important: passion and being around the best people,” Yang declared. “This strategy worked very well for me in my professional life and has given me access to amazing experiences and opportunities.”

As we enter the “future of business,” legal and business professionals alike should strive for Yang’s honesty and inquisitiveness. Yang’s dynamic career, driven by passion, policy, and people, is a stellar example for any law student or legal professional seeking an impactful career.

Olga V. Mack is an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor at Berkeley Law, and entrepreneur. Olga founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to serve on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. Olga also co-founded SunLaw to prepare women in-house attorneys become general counsel and legal leaders and WISE to help women law firm partners become rainmakers. She embraces the current disruption to the legal profession. Olga loves this change and is dedicated to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and inclusive than before. You can email Olga at olga@olgamack.com or follow her on Twitter @olgavmack.

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