About

Team size: 80
Major law firms used: Taylor Wessing

If you are not unashamedly customer focused, a career working at Amazon might not be for you. As John Stone, Amazon’s vice president and UK legal director, says: ‘One of the biggest changes in my role, and many roles across the company, has been an increased focus on helping people understand our business and learning from others about how we can do better. Amazon has taught me many things, but most importantly, what it means to be customer obsessed.’

The multinational online technology company is supported by a team of 80 in the UK, working across transactions, intellectual property, marketing campaigns, competition, product regulation, as well as employment and tax.

The New Year saw Amazon launch a cosmetics range and its own pet food brand; a month later, it broke into the interiors market in the UK with two furniture brands. ‘The pace of innovation and growth remains high at Amazon so the legal team’s biggest challenge is keeping up with the pace of the business,’ Stone says.

Stone has been legal director since March 2018. He started his 15 year-long career at Amazon as corporate counsel for M&A and securities, then associate GC for digital media and Amazon’s e-reading device Kindle, before becoming vice president for digital media. For management style, he says he tries to help his team operate as independently as possible: ‘My role is to be transparent in setting expectations, providing feedback and helping with their development.’

But for external legal advice, he says the best lawyers appreciate the differences between traditional law firm culture and Amazon’s ‘peculiar’ culture: ‘The best firms work hard to tailor their approach to working with us, but unfortunately many law firms are entrenched in their own ways of working and struggle here.’

Taylor Wessing partner Niri Shan comments: ‘He has a huge legal team, and is strong at managing that and prioritising the most important issues. He’s also good at managing outside counsel.’