General Counsel & Secretary, Maplebear
Search every verified Morgan Fong interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Morgan Fong, General Counsel and Secretary at Maplebear (Instacart), discussed his career path and current role in a September 2024 interview. Fong said he attended law school because he enjoyed college and wanted to delay entering the workforce, and he initially worked at a law firm before moving in-house. He noted that his first summer in law school included an externship with a federal judge in the Northern District of California. Fong stated that he was more interested in deal making than litigation, and he described his experience at Wilson Sonsini in 1999 during the first internet boom. Fong said that when he joined Trulia, the company had just become public, which he described as a bridge between law firm work and the in-house role. He noted that at Instacart, the early legal team faced "three years of legal debt" and had to rebuild structures. Fong emphasized that a general counsel must ensure the business receives the best legal advice and that hiring people who are better than oneself is key. He also expressed interest in teaching about law as a tool in entrepreneurship and in mentoring, particularly through Asian-American and LGBTQ legal organizations.
“I thought that it would present a lot of options for me after graduation from law school. Not surprisingly, with like 90% of my fellow classmates, I decided to go into big law straight away.”
“My first summer I was an extern for a federal judge in the Northern District in the Oakland offices. That was a lot of work assisting clerks with writing memos and helping draft preliminary versions of orders.”
“I was more interested in deal making than I was in litigation and lawsuits. I liked the idea of collaboration that can come from deal making, even though you're at opposite sides of the table. Ideally, it's a bit of a win-win situation.”
“At Wilson Sonsini in 1999, during the height of the first internet boom, Silicon Valley had really established itself globally. Yahoo was famously the most valuable company in the entire world at that time.”
“When I joined Trulia, they had just become a public company. It was a good bridge between law firm work focused on excellence in drafting and negotiation and the in-house role where speed of execution and cross-functional understanding are critical.”
“If you're going to go in-house, you really have to like the business of the company you're at. There's nothing usually different behind door number two. For example, at Instacart, you have to be interested in groceries, food, and logistics because that's what we do.”
“The early Instacart legal team found ourselves buried under three years of legal debt, having to re-architect and rebuild things, set up structures and scaffolding. It was a wild west compared to my previous experience at Trulia.”
“As general counsel, you have to develop the art versus science of delegating work. Sometimes you do things yourself, sometimes you push stuff down. The key is to hire people who are better than you and provide strategic guidance to ensure the best legal advice for the business.”
“The most important thing for a general counsel is to make sure your business has the best legal advice it possibly can, and how you get that is by being nimble in how you go about achieving that.”
“I do want to start getting more involved with teaching, particularly about how law can be a tool in entrepreneurship to build very successful and durable businesses. I also love mentoring and advisory work, which might be my third or fourth act.”
An interview with Morgan Fong, General Counsel of Instacart by Richard Hsu (@HsuUntied). More at https://hsuuntied.com/mfong.
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