Counsel, Business & Legal Affairs, MTV Entertainment Group

This is a Full Time Job

MTV is the leading global youth media brand in 180 countries, reaching 450 million households in nearly 30 different languages across every platform. MTV is the world's premier youth entertainment brand, the cultural home of the millennial generation and a pioneer in creating innovative programming for young people. MTV reflects pop culture with award-winning content built around compelling storytelling, music discovery and activism across TV, the internet and other platforms. A unit of Paramount Global, MTV operations span cable and mobile networks, live events, theatrical films and MTV Studios.

Overview and Responsibilities

We have a Counsel opening for MTV Entertainment Group and MTV Entertainment Studios providing day-to-day business and legal affairs services, with a focus on development and production matters for original scripted series.

• Structuring, drafting, and negotiating a high volume of development and production agreements such as executive producer, writer, director, talent, literary option-purchase, and day to day production and vendor agreements in connection with original scripted series.
• Performing day-to-day legal production work on scripted series.
• Working with a broad range of departments, including Creative, Production, Labor & Employment, Risk Management, Litigation, Music & Media Licensing and Pre-Broadcast Content Review to implement production legal policies and procedures.
• Participating in and contributing to strategic deal discussions and researching business and legal issues.
• Lead all aspects of and maintain department charts and templates on an as needed basis.
• Counseling internal clients on a wide variety of legal matters, including guild/union and labor issues, intellectual property rights, consumer products, marketing, and music issues, and providing risk assessment for production-related matters.
• Performing other day-to-day legal and business affairs-related tasks as needed and assigned by senior business and legal affairs executives, including development and production on unscripted series.

Basic Qualifications

• Must be member in good standing of the California Bar (or eligible for Registered In-House Counsel designation).
• At least 2 years of relevant experience (ideally with business/legal affairs experience in a network, studio, entertainment law firm or production company environment).

Additional Qualifications

• Should be well versed in entertainment industry customs and practices and possess proven ability to effectively negotiate and interact with agents, managers, and outside attorneys.
• Working knowledge of television industry agreements, guild, and union regulations (WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA), contract law and intellectual property rights (as applicable to the entertainment industry), along with demonstrated capability for legal research, analysis, and reasoning.
• Excellent drafting, negotiation, communication (written and verbal), interpersonal and organizational skills.
• The business and legal affairs department works as a team in a highly collaborative manner. The candidate will have a positive attitude.
• Strong ability to analyze fact patterns and devise creative solutions that allow network executives to complete their creative vision in compliance with corporate policies and guidelines, while minimizing overall legal and business risk.