Uber General Counsel Alyssa Allen Is on Everyone’s Speed Dial

As one of the top lawyers for the world’s biggest ride-share platform, Alyssa Allen no longer has to recruit clients to earn her keep. But she still has an eat-what-you-kill mindset taken from her law firm days.

This means taking on projects outside of her practice area, prioritizing adding value to the company. Allen, Uber Technologies Inc.‘s associate general counsel for global labor and employment, worked at two law firms—Latham & Wakins LLP and California-based Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP, which she helped found as an original associate—in the 1990s after graduating from law school.

“She’s on everyone’s speed dial,” said Alexis Sohrakoff, Uber’s director of employment in the general counsel’s office and Allen’s direct report.

“There’s a lot of emergencies,” Allen said during a late August Zoom call from her San Francisco home. “People want to work with people they like, they trust, they respect.”

Allen has been with Uber since 2019. Her previous litigation roles were pivotal to her development. But being in-house counsel is the best fit, she said.

She was born and raised in Southern California, which she says gave her a relaxed—even casual—way of interacting with others. Getting to act as more of a company partner and strategist, as opposed to an outside expert hired to say “no” to things, resonates with her, she says.

“You don’t want to be the blocker; you want to be the facilitator,” Allen said.

Allen talks fondly about her love of nature, skiing, and her three children and spouse. But she’s also a shrewd attorney: She manages legal issues resulting from 30,000 employees across 70 countries.

She knows how to get in early on business conversations to avoid cleanup later. She’s also gutsy—one of her former colleagues at Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger, David Faustman, said he had to rein her in a couple times when she argued her position passionately to judges as a young litigator.

Allen is in the throes of a new era for Uber, whose goals include lowering rider costs, harnessing AI, and advancing sustainability goals. The platform has had its fair share of legal troubles in the 2010s and early 2020s. The tech platform has been accused in lawsuits of misclassifying its drivers as independent contractors, ignoring local regulations, and violating antitrust laws. More recently, a New York Times investigation from August also found Uber failed to disclose the total number of sexual assault and sexual misconduct reports it received.

Allen’s job is a constant triage. She keeps a daily calendar with all her meetings, but it always blows up by about 11 a.m. Pacific Time, she says.

“I think Uber is the most exciting place to work,” Allen said. “And with that comes legal challenges that you couldn’t imagine.”

Uber has given her plenty of chances to use her talents—especially since the Trump administration took over, Allen said. Issues that were previously part of standard compliance practices, but perhaps not front and center, are now in the spotlight.

Take immigration. Uber classifies its drivers as independent contractors, so they don’t have to submit I-9 forms verifying their identity and employment authorization. Many companies, not just Uber, are strategizing on how to retain their workforce and avoid liability as President Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants increasingly targets gig economy workers.

“The good thing about drivers is they need driver’s licenses, they have to show us their driver’s license, and we do background checks on people. So I feel like we’re in a pretty good place on that,” but shifting immigration enforcement and liability still presents risks, Allen said.

The Trump administration is also slapping new costs on H-1B visas, which allow companies to bring on highly skilled foreign workers. Uber is one of that program’s top sponsors.

“We try to hire the greatest minds from around the globe, so the H-1B issue’s a concern,” Allen said.

Adjusting to Change

Navigating Trump’s curbs on diversity, equity, and inclusion—or DEI—is also top of mind for Uber, Allen says. The stakes are high: Trump directed his Justice Department earlier in the year to investigate public companies over “illegal DEI.”

Allen says the administration’s DEI crackdown has kept her busy. For a company as big as Uber, policy uniformity is the goal, Allen says. But as the US undergoes political whiplash, protecting all of that uniformity is challenging or impossible—which means Allen must explain procedural or policy changes to employees in both the US and abroad.

A massive overhaul of DEI policies hasn’t materialized, Allen said.

“Our values have not changed. I just think we have to go about it a different way,” she said. “We’re complying with the law, and people are educated now on the new way that the law’s being applied—but it took some time.”

Allen has a gift for communicating complex matters in an accessible and direct way, Sohrakoff said. The attorneys met when Sohrakoff was preparing for maternity leave and Allen was prepping to fill in for her. The company ended up liking Allen so much that they brought her on full-time, Sohrakoff said.

Attorneys can get tunnel vision about specific legal issues and compliance, but Allen takes time to understand the downstream impacts of whatever she’s suggesting, Sohrakoff said.

“Alyssa makes you forget she’s a lawyer—until you realize she’s the best one you could ever have,” Oona King, Uber’s chief economic opportunity officer, said over email. “She’s the person you call when you need a path to yes, even if everyone else swears it’s a hard no.”

Allen could have succeeded anywhere, but she’s especially well-suited for in-house life, former colleague Faustman said.

“There are people who fit into the bureaucracy but lose sight of the mission, and she manages to navigate the corporate structure” without forgetting what she’s there for,” he said.