From OCOB to Director of Legal at Tunein: A Law Career Fueled by Business and Passion

April 26, 2023 By Ava Kalinske

Chandani Patel Thompson, an alumnus of the Orfalea College of Business (OCOB), is a successful lawyer who credits her education at OCOB for much of her success. She was first introduced to the idea of pursuing law while taking a class with business professor Chris Carr, and after graduating from Cal Poly and working at iTunes, she decided to pursue law school to continue moving up in her career.

Chandani’s legal career was further prefaced with a non-profit organization called Strive to Provide which she started during her sophomore year at Cal Poly. Starting a non-profit aimed at helping less fortunate individuals taught her valuable project management skills that she has been able to apply to her legal career; furthermore, it speaks to the level of learn-by-doing that OCOB ingrains in its students. 

Chandani Patel Thompson, from LinkedIn

But her project management skills were not limited to her non-profit; after graduating from law school, Chandani landed jobs with Pandora and PopSugar, where her background in business was extremely valuable. Her marketing classes at OCOB taught her how to create effective marketing campaigns, a skill she uses as an in-house lawyer where she must market herself and her ideas to the rest of the company and make visual and user-friendly presentations to her team.  She now works as the Director of Legal at Tuneln Inc.

Chandani Patel Thompson's workday as Director of Legal at Tuneln Inc. is quite varied and involves many tasks, all of which she feels OCOB’s learn-by-doing strategy prepared her for. One of her primary roles is to provide legal advice and guidance to her team and other departments within the company. This could include reviewing contracts, negotiating indemnity, or providing guidance on intellectual property or privacy matters. She also manages the legalities of licensing content and distributing it across the platform, which can involve working with partners such as the NFL and dealing with royalty aspects of content.

In addition, Chandani is involved in monetizing TuneIn's platform, which could involve deciding between a free ad-based model or a subscription-based model. To make these decisions, she needs to use her business background and calculate the revenue generated by advertising deals. Chandani also needs to ensure that Tuneln is complying with relevant regulations and laws when it comes to advertising.

Research and writing skills are also crucial for Chandani's role, as she needs to stay up to date with legal developments and write contracts, memos and other legal documents. Chandani said her workday is quite dynamic and requires her to be able to handle a range of different tasks and responsibilities.

When asked what advice she has for OCOB students, Chandani said, “Don’t be afraid of not knowing where you will end up.” She encourages current OCOB students to embrace the unknown and to have confidence in their ability to adapt and thrive in any situation. You never know where your path may lead you, and that's part of the excitement of life.