Innovation in-house: tech start-up
Julio Avalos, GC at open source software platform and hosting service GitHub, is a lawyer who has truly embraced the culture of his company. Now he is using this knowledge to question the way legal functions, with interesting results for his relationship with the business.
As with a number of start-ups, there’s an anarchistic bent to GitHub – flirting as it does between open-source hosting, building a community among software engineers and generating profits. This nonconformity is given a playful outlet in its office reception which is a recreation of the Oval Office. Otherwise, the company’s spacious headquarters in San Francisco ticks a lot of the boxes for a Hollywood (California’s other iconic industry) imagining of a tech start-up.
Large play area with pool table – check; communal working – check; everyone in denim – check. When Avalos comes to greet me he’s clad in jeans, a casual shirt and a beanie. But beyond adopting their fashion sense, Avalos feels he has learned a lot from the software engineers who make up the bulk of GitHub’s staff. What he has learned has caused him to fundamentally question the way he delivers legal services, to begin to look through an engineer’s eyes and question macro assumptions around what being a company lawyer means.
