Media / Production / Entertainment Business & Legal Professional

Full Time Job
Media / Production / Entertainment Business & Legal Professional - Middle East & North Africa

Read until the end for details of HOW TO APPLY

Netflix is changing the way more than 200 million subscribers around the world enjoy entertainment. As a company, we challenge industry norms by challenging one another to think creatively about difficult problems. Our business and legal affairs team is no exception. We think critically about the range of business and legal issues that face our productions, and we act in a manner consistent with our business culture of freedom and responsibility, one marked by a bias toward action, by leaning into smart risks and taking ownership of bold decisions.

The Opportunity:

The Business & Legal Affairs Counsel role on our team collaborates with the brightest industry minds in the creation, development, production, marketing and distribution of our cutting edge productions in scripted and non-fiction series, films and documentaries. Business & Legal Affairs Counsel at Netflix operate as public-facing representatives of the company in the structuring of business deals and the negotiation and drafting of entertainment agreements, specifically agreements for the acquisition of rights and the engagement of creative professionals such as actors, writers, directors and producers/production companies. The role is uniquely exciting and challenging in that it requires passion and curiosity with respect to Middle East & North Africa (MENA) business and creative matters, the wider global media industry issues, and the corresponding legal considerations that govern them. Counsel at Netflix tie business goals to strategy, extracting information from myriad sources, analyzing the various interests of the parties involved, proposing strategy, and collaborating with a wide variety of creative and business experts in order to achieve the desired results. As the MENA production industry is in an exciting growth period, this role includes a unique opportunity of on-the-job training at the start, in the form of the Production Legal Lab (see below).

Job Requirements:
• Cultural Awareness: Whether through current or previous professional work or personal lived/cultural experience, a good understanding of one or multiple Middle East territories' (e.g. any Gulf, North Africa or Levant territories) culture, as well as the culture of doing business in the Middle East is essential to this role.
• Whether an introvert, extrovert or somewhere in between, you thrive in a fast-paced collaborative environment, possess an abundance of intellectual curiosity, focus on generating results, and exhibit the highest personal and professional standards of integrity and ethics.
• Be self-motivated, disciplined, highly organized and able to prioritize multiple tasks.
• Understand and align with our unique business culture.
• Possess strong written communication skills, with a passion for drafting language that is clear, precise, thoughtful, direct and refined.
• Exhibit strong analytical capabilities and judgment, even when the rules are unclear and the issues are of first impression.
• Experience: Proven years of professional relevant experience is required. Preference will be given to candidates with experience in transactional work, intellectual property, media and entertainment.
• Education: Preference will be given to candidates possessing a legal qualification.
• Language Fluency: Conversational Arabic is required (there will be no requirement to draft in Arabic), along with verbal and written fluency in English.

Training - The Production Legal Lab:

Netflix has developed the Legal Lab, a full-time paid immersive and comprehensive practical training program designed to help qualified individuals transition to careers as business and legal affairs Counsel at Netflix. Following the completion of the Lab (approximately 3 months), the participant will transition into their full-time Business and Legal Affairs Counsel role, with a seasoned EMEA business and legal affairs team.

The curriculum will include but not be limited to:
• A detailed introduction to the filmed content landscape and its key players, including content producers, content distributors, talent representatives, record labels and music publishers.
• A deep dive into the chronology of filmed content production, including development, pre-production, principal photography, post-production, marketing and distribution.
• A thorough exploration of entertainment industry fundamentals, including copyright law, trademark law, production finance, production tax, labor relations, and contract administration.
• Advanced instruction and Q&A sessions with subject matter experts across a variety of disciplines, including creative development, physical production, music, security and safety, immigration, technology, and a host of others.
• Advanced instruction in the nuts and bolts of negotiating and drafting a wide variety of entertainment agreements, including rights acquisition, writing, directing, producing, acting, intellectual property, and others.
• Hands-on drafting assignments, simulations, workshops and quizzes based on both real-world deals and hypothetical business and legal scenarios.

Important Details:
• Application deadline: 31 December 2021.
• Early application is strongly encouraged due to limited program capacity.
• Lab will be for a period of approximately three months. Travel may be required, subject to Covid restrictions.
• Full-time position upon completion of the Lab, role will be based in Amsterdam, with the rest of the MENA team, including some frequent work travel to MENA territories (Covid restrictions permitting).
• Netflix will cover and facilitate any work permit/visa requirements for the Lab, Counsel position and work travel.

Application Requirements:
• All applicants must submit, in English, a CV, along with a brief explanation (no more than 300 words) of why they are interested in the role. You can include the explanation on a separate page and combine it with your CV into a single PDF document for uploading. Yalla!

Find out more about Recruiting at Netflix here.