Nicole Alston

Nicole Alston is a Vice President of Legal at Google and has led YouTube Legal for 9 years. In this role, Nicole faces many of YouTube’s toughest legal challenges, from copyright conundrums to tough freedom of expression calls. Early on, Nicole was commercial counsel for many of Google’s strategic advertising syndication agreements and led the early legal negotiations of Google’s contracts for Google Maps and Earth. She managed the commercial teams handling content agreements for Google Maps, Earth, Finance, Book Search, Product Search and YouTube and helped to negotiate Google’s landmark copyright settlement agreement for Google Books. Prior to Google, Nicole was Director, Business and Legal Affairs at Guru Worldwide, and before that was an attorney in the Corporate and Securities Group at the law firm of Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP (now DLA Piper). She is an executive sponsor of YouTube’s Black Affinity Group and a member of Google’s Black Leadership Advisory Group. She previously served on the Board of Trustees of The Carey School. Nicole received her J.D. and B.A. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.