With the hiring of former Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber Technologies Inc. has taken an important first step in engineering a turnaround. Critical next moves for Khosrowshahi seem to be managing his relationship with the company's board of directors—which still includes ex-CEO Travis Kalanick—and filling vacancies in the executive ranks, including the general counsel spot.

But it isn't just Khosrowshahi who needs to think about how to interact with the board. The relationships between board members and the company's in-house attorneys, particularly Salle Yoo, Uber's chief legal officer, as well as the company's yet-to-be-named general counsel, will become all the more relevant as the company works on repairing recent damage, according to attorneys who do not have direct knowledge about Uber.

One area where the board will likely play a role is in the search for a new general counsel at Uber. The company, which has been without a GC since Yoo was promoted to CLO in May, did not respond to a request for comment about the legal department's interactions with the board.