About

Chris Kim currently leads an eight-strong team which he built up himself, overseeing Facebook’s international legal function. ‘I love being ringside for the Facebook story. I love the variety. You never know what your day is going to look like’. Beginning his legal career in the US, Kim left private practice to work for Yahoo!, and then Google, with a stint in between at his own start-up company. At Google, Kim’s remit included support for YouTube and the GoogleX project. In 2007, Kim joined Facebook in San Francisco, and seven years later, he is the legal team’s longest-serving member. The appeal, he says, lay in being part of a fast growing organisation, and seeing the ‘impact’ of what he was doing. Three years ago Kim moved over to Singapore to develop Facebook’s international legal function. ‘One of the biggest challenges in building a strong legal department is finding lawyers that are a fit from a corporate culture, skill and attitude perspective,’ he says, adding: ‘When you deal with multiple countries it gets even more challenging.’ Maintaining the culture of the legal team as it expands is very important to Facebook. ‘It’s a move-fast culture. We value a “hacker” mentally in trying to solve problems very quickly.’ One of the biggest challenges he faces is keeping pace not only with the internet’s rapidly-evolving industry and regulatory framework, but also with developments at Facebook itself.