Senior Counsel for News Group

This is a Full Time Job

NBCUniversal News Legal Group

The News Group legal team provides editorial, transactional and production legal support to News Group businesses and newsrooms, including NBC News, NBCU Local, and Telemundo Network. The team is primarily located in Rockefeller Center in New York City, with some lawyers based in Miami.

Position Overview:

The Senior Counsel will primarily focus on transactions in support of Dateline NBC and NBC News Studios. The Senior Counsel will also support longform and a range of commercial transactions across all News Group properties.

Responsibilities:
• Support NBC News Studios, Dateline NBC and other News Group longform programming at all stages, from development/pitch, production and post-production to sale and distribution. Content types include unscripted and documentary series, specials, films, podcasts, scripted adaptations and events, across platforms including television, streaming, audio, and theatrical.
• Negotiate and draft deals for NBC News Studios and Dateline NBC (as the production company) and our news businesses (acquiring content from or co-developing content with a third-party production company). Deal types include shopping/development/attachment, production services, co-production, co-finance, director, executive producer, talent, consultant, vendor, theatrical distribution, licensing, and rights acquisition.
• Advise on related intellectual property, production, distribution, and marketing issues. In close collaboration with News Legal’s media law team, which provides editorial legal support to News Group journalists, advise on how to navigate potential rights, content liability, and similar issues that could affect production and distribution.
• Serve as a general legal and strategic advisor to NBC News Studios and Dateline executive teams on a range of legal issues, e.g., guild obligations, backend participation, intellectual property rights and protection, legal deliverables, artificial intelligence, security, compliance and other production-related issues.
• Negotiate and draft other general commercial agreements to support NBC News Group, such as events, content license, affiliate, sponsor, vendor, and partnership contracts. Substantive deal areas cover digital, streaming, audio, e-commerce, subscription, events, and editorial collaboration.
• Advise on strategy, deal structure, risk and dispute resolution.
• Improve and streamline contract templates and related processes to drive speed, efficiencies, and revenue.
• Partner and collaborate with colleagues in Legal, Finance, Tax, Risk Management, Content Distribution and other departments across the company. Work with IP Legal to register News Group content with the U.S. Copyright Office.  Collaborate with lawyers supporting NBCU film and entertainment businesses to ensure consistency of terms and approach and best practices.
• Contribute to an inclusive, collaborative team culture; take initiative to deliver value; and support the production and distribution of the highest quality news content in the industry.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:
• 7 years of business and legal affairs experience at a television network, streaming service, production company, or major law firm. Legal experience in unscripted series, specials and/or news documentaries strongly preferred.
• Excellent understanding of all legal issues related to production and distribution of news and documentary (preferred) or entertainment content, including copyright and intellectual property law.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, drafting, problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to develop strong working relationships; exercise sound, practical judgment; prioritize a high-volume workload; work independently and part of a team in a fast-paced environment; proactively identify legal issues and resolve them quickly; embrace new or creative legal models and accept reasonable levels of risk; and master new areas of expertise.
• Demonstrated passion for news and documentary/non-fiction storytelling.
• High level of integrity and professionalism.
• Law degree from an ABA-accredited law school or comparable law school outside of the United States.
• Member in good standing of the State Bar of New York or another State Bar and registered as in-house counsel or comparable registration in a jurisdiction outside of the United States.

This position has been designated as hybrid, generally contributing from the New York, NY office a minimum of three days per week

This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks. Learn more about the benefits offered by NBCUniversal by visiting the Benefits page of the Careers website. This position is bonus and long-term incentive eligible.

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