Bird & Bird opened a San Francisco office in 2018 to foster closer relationships between the firm’s international network and US based clients, providing them with non-US legal advice in the same time zone. Bird & Bird advises the world’s most innovative companies on their international activities including global expansion and investments outside the US, intellectual property, disputes, data privacy, venture capital, M&A, HR issues, complex restructuring and transformational projects and coordinated multi-jurisdictional services. The firm advises more than half of the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500 – many of which are US based.

Prior to Bird & Bird, Maya was a Business Development Manager with Penningtons Manches LLP, where she was responsible for the creation, development and management of US business development and marketing initiatives and the go-to-market strategy for the firm’s first international office in San Francisco. With her own experience of being the first overseas employee tasked with scaling up a large UK business in the Bay Area, Maya enjoys helping fellow UK companies with their overseas expansion and working with innovative US businesses to set up and succeed in the UK .

Maya launched her transatlantic-focused career in San Francisco with London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s official promotional company and economic development office. She advised globally ambitious North American companies on doing business in London, helping them with their international expansion and growth.

Maya is an advocate for the advancement of women in corporate leadership and in the technology sector. She has served on the leadership committee since 2019 for How Women Lead’s #GetOnBoard week and work with 2020 Women on Boards, an initiative to increase the percentage and impact of women on US company boards. How Women Lead is one of the primary actors driving the change in corporate board composition in the US. Maya is a member of Tech Bay Area Advocates, where she launched the Women in Tech initiative in 2018. She leads the Association for Corporate Growth of San Francisco’s Women in Business POD. Maya is a members of ChIPs, a non-profit organization that advances and connects women in technology, law and policy, and leads Bird & Bird’s global partnership with ChIPs. She has spoken about the future of women in tech at large conferences and events including Women of Silicon Valley, as part of the Women in Technology World Series.

Maya grew up in the Bay Area in the town of Sonoma. She holds a BA in Humanities from the University of San Diego, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Summa Cum Laude highest honors, and was awarded by the University for attaining the highest academic standing in both the Humanities department and Italian department. She is the President of the Bay Area Alumni Association for the University of San Diego- one of the university’s most established and successful regional groups. While at university, Maya studied in Rome and in London, developing her love for the UK and disposition for working in the transatlantic British-American business world.

Maya has served on the board of the British American Business Council Northern California since 2016. She was elected President in June 2022, served as Senior Vice President from 2019 – 2022, and first served on the Executive Committee as the Vice President of Membership, chairing the Membership Committee.