Njeri Mutura’s journey to become a top legal executive for Microsoft Corp. in its Irvine hub began in Kenya and included stints at startups and an entrepreneurial consulting venture.
“I grew up in Kenya and attended the latter part of high school in Canada,” Mutura told the Business Journal.
In Canada, she received an undergraduate degree in administration and commercial studies from Western University in London, Ontario, and her law degree from the University of Windsor in the same Canadian province.
Following her time at a leading Canadian full-service firm, she worked with startups and once had her own consulting practice.
“I moved back to Kenya for a while,” she added, where she was part of a team that built up the tech, media and entertainment practice at Bowmans international law firm in Nairobi in 2011 and 2012. She then went on to be the first member of the Microsoft legal team in East and Southern Africa, supporting the rollout of transformational technology in over 50 countries.
She eventually headed back over the Atlantic, settled in California, having passed the state bar examination several years prior and continued her work at the intersection of law and technology.
Today, Mutura is the assistant general counsel of strategic pursuits and complex technology transactions for the Americas at Microsoft.
She was honored at the Business Journal General Counsel Awards in the Special Counsel category on Nov. 10 at the Irvine Marriott.
Supports $20 Billion
From Mutura’s office in the Jamboree Center complex, she leads a team that is dispersed throughout North America to support the tech giant’s legal functions across the Americas.
“I was the first person based in Southern California from Microsoft’s legal team,” the Irvine resident says. That team in this region has since grown to over 10 legal professionals. She joined Microsoft in 2012 and was promoted to her current post last year.
The business team Mutura supports closed upward of $20 billion in revenue last fiscal year, she said.
Some of those efforts include “a strategic deal with Disney Studios to engage in co-innovation projects that would digitally transform how their content migrates from scene to screen,” as well as a deal with ESPN.
Her team has also been on the “frontlines of strategic deals” with companies including local firms Edwards Lifesciences, Ingram Micro and Yum Brands, whose Taco Bell unit is based in Irvine.
Her other work includes providing advice on privacy laws and regulations, intellectual property rights, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
“The world of tech is constantly changing,” Mutura said, which provides headwinds along with opportunities, specifically for those in legal practice as the laws can hardly keep up with the pace of innovation. “We are often providing counsel in a vacuum as the legal environment that impacts us is constantly in flux.”
UN Conference
Mutura works with the executive committee for the United Nations Artificial Intelligence for Good conference, touching on the legal, regulatory and ethical questions surrounding artificial intelligence.
Tech was “really my interest from very early on,” she says of the law-tech combination.
“There were few attorneys who were doing it at the time.”
She encourages high school girls and young women to go into the technology-legal field, and currently leads the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) internship program in Southern California.
“There are opportunities within technology companies for people who aren’t necessarily technologists or engineers,” Mutura said.
