MoForever Alumni News Winter 2021

MoForever Winter 2021 | 6 HR compliance matters. I also work closely with the finance team on investor relations, tax and banking issues, and opening new entities. That work is comprised of a lot of tricky but fun global mobility issues involving the creation of bank accounts, payroll, and sometimes new entities. I also have the privilege of working with our stellar engineering team on a wide array of issues ranging from open-source and software issues to advising on new IP development or building an IP protection strategy. We manufacture our own drones, recovery systems, and launchers, so I also work with our supply chain team on contracts for sourcing our components responsibly from global suppliers. What is your team’s approach to the wide variety of legal concerns Zipline faces? We aim to not be the last door at the end of the hall that says, “No.” Nor do we rubberstamp things. Our goal is to get complicated and loaded questions that boil down to “can we do this” to “Yes if...” To do that, we often need to analyze risk to make high-integrity legal decisions, which involves crafting creative legal solutions and practical measures to mitigate that risk. My internal stakeholders often times don’t want to or can’t afford to hear the answer, “No.” They want to hear, “Well, maybe, if we did it this way or that way.” Tessa Schwartz, my mentor at MoFo, taught me the value of giving clients options. Rather than saying “You can’t do X,” explain the risk doing X carries. Lay out not only the problem but also tangible, “EACH ZIPLINE DISTRIBUTION CENTER CAN MAKE HUNDREDS OF DELIVERIES PER DAY ACROSS AN 80 SQUARE MILE AREA TO PROVIDE INSTANT MEDICAL ACCESS TO MILLIONS.”