Pinterest Legal, Compliance and Public Policy team educates and empowers youth

A blog by Pinterest’s Legal, Compliance and Public Policy (LCPP) team 

On a day-to-day basis, the LCPP team helps Pinterest achieve its mission to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love in a way that’s consistent with our values and the law. We support Pinterest in a variety of areas including corporate, product, commercial, employment, privacy, sustainability, public affairs, community operations and more. 

In addition to helping Pinterest achieve its mission, the LCPP team is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal, compliance and public policy realms. One part of our work in that space is grounded in supporting and developing pipeline programs that serve youth, including those in underrepresented or marginalized groups, in their pursuit of careers in these fields. To this end, we partnered with Street Law to launch the first ever legal, compliance and public policy diversity pipeline program at Pinterest. Street Law is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, with a mission to advance civic and law-related education to empower all people to positively transform their world.

Our team was matched with Oakland Technical High School, a multicultural and multilingual public high school in Oakland that expedites students’ preparation for future careers through its unique pathways programs, including the Race, Policy and Law (RPL) pathway. With the support of Oakland Tech and Street Law, Pinterest LCPP team members taught three lessons on dispute resolution and the legislative process over the past several months to two tenth grade classes belonging to the RPL pathway. 

Jenna Bigham, Erin Crum and Wendy Matheny teach a lesson on conflict resolution at Oakland Tech.

Last week, we completed the program with a one-day conference at Pinterest Headquarters in San Francisco, where students participated in a mock arbitration and hearing, and discussed careers with an LCPP team member over lunch. Pinterest’s Chief Legal Officer, Wanji Walcott, closed the day with powerful advice to students to be kind to yourself and others, work hard and practice discipline, as well as expand your horizons through reading, exploring new places and meeting new people.

We were inspired and energized by the students’ engagement and thoughtful contributions throughout the program, and see many qualities and skills of incredible lawyers and policy makers already, among this group. We’re so thankful to Street Law and Oakland Tech for their partnership!

Charlie Hale kicks off the May conference with an overview of our product and the LCPP team.

Amira Dallafior and Wendy Matheny review the legislative process.

LCPP team members and Oakland Tech students discuss careers over lunch.

Wanji Walcott offers valuable advice to close the conference.