Uber's latest hire is another sign the company is trying to grow up

Michael Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

• Uber has hired former US Department of Justice official Scott Schools as its first chief compliance and ethics officer.
• Schools stepped down from his post as aide to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week.
• He told the Wall Street Journal that Uber began courting him in February.

Uber has hired its very first chief compliance and ethics officer Scott Schools, formerly of the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

Schools stepped down from his post as associate deputy attorney general and adviser to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last Thursday. While at the DOJ, Schools is reported to have been influential in probe into the Trump campaign and its connections to Russia.

Schools told the Wall Street Journal that Uber started courting him in February.  "The opportunity at Uber was so exciting to me and was something new and incredibly challenging," he told the Journal. "I felt like the department had gotten to the place where they could continue to address the issues they are dealing with effectively without me."

Schools will report to Uber's chief legal officer Tony West, who is also an alumnus of the Department of Justice.

Uber has frequently come under fire for its ethic with a series of scandals, including ignoring sexual assault and dangerous driving, deliberately using special software Greyball to evade authorities, and in March of this year one of its first self-driving cars struck and killed a woman.

The appointment of a designated compliance and ethics officer could indicate an increased willingness to cooperate with authorities and regulators.

Recently Uber has shown signs of introducing more oversight to the company, such appointing non-executive directors to its UK board. It also admitted numerous failings to London's travel regulator Transport for London (TfL) in a bid to win its licence back in the capital, including issuing medical tests which drivers could easily cheat.