Adekunle with WVU
President Gordon Gee.
Adekunle with WVU College of
Law students Jeremy Cook and
MacKenzie Milam, 2018 Google
Legal Summer Institute scholars.
best-kept secrets and that Google can
really benefit from its talent pool.”
Adekunle aspires to forge partnerships
between Google and WVU to create pro-
fessional experiences for WVU students
and alumni.
“I truly believe there are a lot of sim-
ilarities between Google and WVU,” he
says. “We talk a lot at Google about the
traits we look for in job candidates. It so
happens those same traits are embedded
in the WVU culture—traits like thriving
in ambiguity, challenging the status quo,
doing the right thing and caring about
others and putting them first. WVU seeks
to educate students who are largely under-
served, to introduce technology to rural
places in West Virginia and to move the
economy of West Virginia forward. All
of these are things Google seeks to do all
over the world on a global scale. I can’t
think of any two institutions with such
similar visions and passions.”
One way in which Adekunle is working
to make this vision a reality is through
Google’s Legal Summer Institute, a program
to improve the pipeline of underrepre-
sented individuals in the legal profession.
The institute’s scholars spend a week at
Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley
for training and then complete paid in-
ternships with Google’s partner law firms
around the U.S. In 2018, WVU was one
of the only participating universities to
have two students selected from a pool
of more than 350 applicants.
“The Legal Summer Institute aims to
improve access to careers at tech com-
panies by expanding opportunities and
removing barriers for underrepresented
talent in the legal industry,” says Adekunle.
“I am proud to have been one of the orig-
inal committee members to birth this
vision.”
As a graduate of three colleges at
WVU—the Statler College of Engineering
and Mineral Resources, John Chambers
College of Business and Economics and
College of Law—Adekunle is also team-
ing up with faculty and administrators
to develop career placement opportuni-
ties and create new business models in
the state.
“I am trying to connect faculty and
leaders at WVU with the right people at
Google to find synergies and ways I can
help promote WVU’s goals and shine
some light on WVU as a fertile place
for recruiting top talent and investing in
West Virginia’s economy,” he says. “We
are just starting to brainstorm, so more
to come on that.”
In addition, Adekunle served on the law
school’s visiting committee from 2012-
2016 and was appointed to the WVU
Foundation’s board of directors in 2019.
“The opportunity to serve WVU and
the great state of West Virginia means
the most to me by far,” he says.
Through these platforms and others,
he also seeks opportunities to mentor
young and aspiring lawyers and address
diversity issues in the legal profession.
“Mentoring is an opportunity for me
to give back and help positively shape
the life of someone else just like mine has
been shaped by others,” says Adekunle.
“I feel someone can gain from my life
story and experiences.”
Through the Google Street Law pro-
gram, Adekunle mentors and teaches high
schoolers from diverse backgrounds about
the practice of law and exposes them to
careers in the legal profession, including
non-attorney positions. The program
seeks to increase the pipeline of diverse
students by providing opportunities that
may not otherwise be available to them.
“I believe the greatest impact I have lies
outside of my day-to-day job for Google
but is tied to it because Google has given
me the platform and the opportunities to
do those things,” he says. “As a member
of Google’s patent strategy team, I’ve
played a key part in building Google’s
ideal patent portfolio, which will enhance
our business and engineering teams’ free-
dom to operate and build great products
for our users. But my greater societal
impact comes through my work on di-
versity, equity and inclusion initiatives
like co-leading Google’s Street Law pro-
gram, being a core member of the Google
Legal Summer Institute and serving as a
mentor for the outside counsel diversity
mentorship program. All of these initia-
tives help address the lack of diversity in
the legal profession.”
Every day Adekunle is paying forward
the kindness he received at WVU. De-
spite a busy career and raising two sets
of twins with his wife, he is committed to
helping others and making a difference.
“Giving back has become a way of life
for me, just like breathing,” he says. “Per-
sonally, I owe a debt of gratitude to the
people and institutions that have made it
possible for me to achieve my goals and
for me to be where I am today. Necessity
is laid upon me to give back and help
others who need it. I’m passionate about
diversity, equity and inclusion issues and
giving back in service, money or deeds to
people who are less privileged. I choose
causes that affect meaningful impact and
change, not necessarily in the short term
but in the long term.”
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