Many people think that open source projects are sort of chaotic and and anarchistic. They think that developers randomly throw code at the code base and see what sticks.

From January 1990 until October 1993 Mitchell Baker worked as a Corporate and Intellectual Property Associate at Fenwick & West LLP a law practice that specialises in providing legal services to high technology companies. She was responsible for intellectual property protection and legal issues relating to product development reporting to the General Counsel. In addition Mitchell Baker joined the Mozilla Corporation's Board of Directors though Mitchell Baker also kept her seat on the Mozilla Foundation's board as well as her role as Chairperson.

She coordinates business and policy issues and sits on both the Mozilla Foundation Board of Directors and the Mozilla Corporation Board of Directors. Baker was trained as a lawyer.