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Maria Medina Jackson didn’t come to Instacart because it would be easy. She’d been at Lyft for less than a year when she elected to come in-house at Instacart in 2020. The current senior director and associate general counsel of regulatory is part of a small team that has aided Instacart’s explosive growth through the pandemic years. Now, Jackson is operating on the cutting edge of the future of not just home grocery delivery but the in-person shopping experience.
Jackson says coming to Instacart gave her the chance to stoke innovation in a four-sided marketplace that services retailers, delivery drivers and shoppers, advertisers, and customers. Jackson has to consider and cater to regulators, brands, advertisers, and a whole host of onlookers who want to be prepared for every tech breakthrough Instacart rolls out.
“This was quite an environment to walk into in 2020,” Jackson says, laughing. “We were a small team, a scrappy team, and we were growing at an insane pace.”
Millions of people ordered groceries online for the first time during the pandemic, and Jackson’s legal team had to keep up. But the senior director says the temporary insanity of the moment, at least at work, was a thrill. In the chaos of lockdown, regardless of titles and job descriptions, everyone pitched in wherever they were needed.
“I believe in public education and the potential it offers all of us.”
Maria Medina Jackson
“Whenever you start a new job, the expression is it feels like you’re drinking from a firehose,” Jackson says. “In this case, it felt like three fire hoses. And we were all working from home.”
But it’s not just company growth that Jackson helps manage. It’s technological advancements that could fundamentally reshape the shopping experience. Consider the Caper Cart, a shopping cart equipped with sensors that recognize, itemize, and weigh items as shoppers place them inside. Instead of scanning groceries at checkout, shoppers simply grab what they need and head straight to their cars.
The senior director’s task is to consider every point of contention that accompanies this leap forward. What happens when a shopper scans a bottle of alcohol? Does an associate need to verify their ID or is a scannable ID enough? Every state has its own rules on these issues and, historically, federal and state legislation often lags at least a decade behind technological advances.
Jackson says her firm years at Latham & Watkins taught her how to learn the particulars of any given business quickly. At Campari Group, she learned how to balance the interests of alcohol companies while navigating Prohibition-era laws that still influence the industry today. These challenges, the bending and growing and evolution and relationship management, are what Jackson lives for.
“I’ve always wanted to be part of legal teams that are seen as partners by the business,” the senior director explains. “There are a lot of people and organizations that see the legal team as people who say yes or no, and that’s it. But my goal is always to help the business keep moving. You need to be pragmatic and creative. I believe that the best lawyers are the most creative lawyers.”
Jackson grew up in South Central Los Angeles, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who never had much but gave all they could to help others. Jackson says she’s grateful to have inherited her parents’ work ethic, which stressed that to get what you want, you need to be willing to work harder than anyone else.
At the same time, Jackson says her parents implored her to take advantage of all the opportunities they didn’t have growing up. They emphasized the value of education. Jackson would eventually graduate from Stanford with a degree in public policy before earning her JD from the University of California Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings).
Today, Jackson is a mother of four who spends a lot of her free time shepherding her kids to and from sports practices. The senior director has always stayed actively involved in her community. She got elected to her local school board immediately after college and now serves on her local parent-teacher organization.
“We raise funds to ensure that arts and sciences—these amazing programs that get pushed out the door when the funds become limited—are available to all of our children,” Jackson says. “I believe in public education and the potential it offers all of us.”
Jackson is proof of the power of public education, parents who seek the best for their children, and what one generational leap can look like for a family.
Maria Jackson is an exceptionally skilled, pragmatic, and solution-focused attorney, making collaboration with her a genuine pleasure. She works harmoniously with her business teams, in-house legal staff, and external counsel to effectively navigate the intricate and constantly evolving regulatory environment impacting Instacart’s industry. It is a distinct privilege to partner with Maria in supporting Instacart’s mission to provide its members with access to essential medicines, wellness products, and nutritious foods that significantly contribute to their health and quality of life. Hooper Lundy & Bookman is truly appreciative of this rewarding opportunity. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Maria on this well-deserved recognition.
