Kristy Young Coleman, Class of ’08

Kristy Young Coleman ’08 is Lead Counsel at Airbnb. Previously, she was Counsel at Goodwin Procter’s San Francisco office, specializing in real estate with a focus on hospitality assets. She began her legal career at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, where she focused on commercial finance and bankruptcy. Kristy has an extensive background in politics, beginning before law school and continuing today. She currently serves on the UC Davis School of Law Alumni Association Board of Directors.

What drew you to real estate and hospitality law?

I started my career in corporate finance. I was doing transactional finance deals on the lender side, but wanted to engage in deals more broadly. I really enjoyed the opportunities that I had in real estate and liked the tangible aspect of working on real estate assets — being able to see the buildings that you’re working on. Coincidentally, there was a real estate and hospitality position that opened up in San Francisco at Goodwin Procter. It’s a great firm. I had done one hospitality deal, and I thought it was super interesting. So I said, why not give this a shot and see what happens? I can see if this is an interesting path to take.

The real estate practice I had at Goodwin allowed me to work on all aspects of a deal: financing, acquisitions, dispositions, development and joint ventures. And since most of my work was in hospitality, I also got to work on the operating aspects of those assets, such as hotel management agreements, food and beverage arrangements, liquor licensing and labor issues, and even spa and golf agreements. The deals could be very complex and you could really get involved in the business of your clients.

So that’s why I decided to go that way. I wanted to be involved in more aspects of the transaction, more of the business. Then when I decided to go in-house to Airbnb, that provided an even bigger platform to become involved in business strategy and legal counseling on those decisions. That’s really what drove that transition to move in-house.

You also have a background in politics. What kind of political work have you done?

Prior to going to law school, I worked in politics. I had interned on the Hill, where I worked in the Senate Judiciary Committee with Senator Ted Kennedy for a summer. After college, I also worked on political campaigns. I worked in Iowa in 2004 for about nine months on the Presidential campaign for John Edwards. I worked on the primary in Iowa and Oklahoma, and then I came back to California. Then in the general election, I worked in San Francisco as the California field person for the eventual nominee, John Kerry, doing “get out the vote” and those types of initiatives.

Ever since then, I’ve been super involved in politics. During law school, I was statewide voter protection coordinator for a gubernatorial race in 2006. I still remain involved in politics. During my first few years of practicing, I was the finance committee chair of a friend who ran for mayor in San Francisco. Just recently, I helped a friend who was running for a judicial position in Alameda County. I do volunteer campaign work here and there whenever time allows.

Working in politics was a lot of fun and it has informed many aspects of my personal and professional career. Professionally, my political experience has become relevant as some of my work at Airbnb now encompasses policy. Personally, I think it is so important to remain civically engaged. My interests in policy have also led me to other community roles, including my work as a founding board member of the California Asian Pacific American Bar Association where I led the Policy Committee and organized several statewide lobbying days for our members to lobby California legislators on issues important to the Asian Pacific American community. Because of where politics is these days, I think it’s really important for as many of us as possible to be involved. So I try to be involved in any way that I can, whether that’s donating money to causes and candidates that I believe in or being on the ground, knocking on doors, making phone calls, writing postcards.

What else do you do when you aren’t at work?

I have two little boys with my husband, who I met in law school. We have a three-year-old and an almost eight-year-old. They keep us very busy, particularly with their current baseball obsession. We live in Oakland where we have a wonderful community of family and friends and spend as much time together as possible

Why did you choose to attend King Hall?

I’m from the Bay Area originally and had gone back east to Boston for undergrad. I had stayed outside of California after graduating from Wellesley and really wanted to make my way back home. I am definitely a California girl at heart so that’s what initially drew me to King Hall. But, what really drew me to King Hall was the close-knit community that King Hall provided. I think that when you’re in San Francisco — and especially for me, having so many connections in those cities — you can get very distracted. Being at King Hall, being in Davis, you develop a community of law school friends and classmates that you study with, hang out with, play softball with. That was something that I wanted out of my law school experience, and I was really pleased to have actually found that to be the case.

What is your favorite King Hall memory?

I oftentimes studied in what was then the computer lab, which I don’t think exists anymore. It had these giant conference tables. One night, right before the holidays, my friends and I were chatting and one said that she had never had a Christmas tree. A few nights later, one of our friends brought a Christmas tree into the computer lab to share with all of us. The person who brought it ended up being my husband. That is one of my favorite memories of King Hall because of the community and friendships that we formed in law school — how much we went through together. How much we supported each other and, to this day, support each other. That’s just one of my favorite things.

How have you stayed involved with King Hall?

For quite some time, I have mentored, both informally and formally, students at King Hall. I have been a panelist for Professor Donna Shestowsky’s 1L class, talking about what it means to be a lawyer, what you do as a lawyer day-to-day. Just this year, I became a board member of the Alumni Association. I’m actively remaining involved and getting more engaged as time goes on, which has been really fun.

Of what are you proudest?

On the personal side, I’m most proud of my family. My amazing husband, my two boys, and developing this really supportive community that we have. We live in Oakland and have had a wonderful time raising these two amazing kids, who are fun and silly and courageous and brave. Our first son was almost four at the start of the pandemic, and then I found out that I was pregnant with my second child on the day that a federal emergency was declared for COVID. That was a lot to deal with. Building this incredible family has been my proudest achievement and I’ve been lucky to watch them grow into these wonderful little characters.

Professionally, finding some semblance of work-life balance and finding a groove that works for me has been a source of pride. My time at Airbnb has been incredibly rewarding. I helped launch a new product, unlocking the opportunity for more renters to benefit from hosting. Working on product, partnership, and policy matters for that initiative has been a really interesting meld of all of my professional experiences, from the political world and the policy world and my real estate background and my transactional and hospitality experience. All of that has come together magically into this position that I found, and I’m incredibly lucky to do work that I find challenging, enjoyable, and rewarding.

Do you have any advice for current law students?

I think that my biggest piece of advice is that your career isn’t going to be linear, so you have to be comfortable with that. I think oftentimes we view law as a career where your path, while challenging, is set to lead from one thing to another in lock step. I think that’s an old school way of looking at a legal career path. Especially today, there are so many opportunities to pursue that you have to be comfortable taking different paths and embracing risk throughout. There are also personal things that will happen, whether family or health or otherwise.

It is OK. Your personal and professional life may have ebbs and flows where your priorities may shift. I went part-time when my kids were born because being full-time at a Big Law firm was just too much to handle. Law firms are adapting and embracing attorneys who want different paths and still providing opportunities for a very rewarding professional career. Don’t be afraid of those twists and turns. Realize that might actually reveal something that’s even more rewarding than you thought.