When Geoff Brigham joined the Wikimedia Foundation three years ago this month, he became responsible for all the legal issues that whirl around Wikipedia—the world’s fifth most visited website. He not only manages the small group of lawyers employed by the San Francisco–based nonprofit, but also the huge community of editors, writers, photographers and other contributors to Wikipedia and all Wikimedia projects. Google Inc. general counsel Kent Walker, who knows Brigham from their days at eBay Inc., says Brigham’s job is comparable to that of the mayor of a large, dysfunctional town: “There’s this amorphous, passionate group, and Geoff is the level-headed guy calmly giving advice amidst the chaos.”
Brigham doesn’t describe it as chaos, but even the most important decisions at Wikimedia are made by consensus involving the entire Wikimedia “community.” And in that unconventional environment, it’s fitting that Brigham, whose background is arguably one of the most nontraditional of any general counsel in corporate America, was tapped for the job.
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