Senior Counsel (Business and Legal Affairs) – Nickelodeon

Description:

The Senior Counsel, Business and Legal Affairs for Nickelodeon will provide day-to-day business and legal affairs services for animation and live action programming as well as licensed programming, with a focus on original animation development and production and acquisitions. This person will be expected to handle a heavy volume of development and production matters relating to both “in-house” and third party productions. The position reports to Senior Vice President, Nickelodeon.

• Structure, draft and negotiate, with minimal supervision, a high volume of development and production agreements for animated and live action projects, including development agreements, production services agreements, executive producer agreements, writer agreements, director agreements, co-production agreements, license agreements and rights acquisition agreements.
• Structure, draft and negotiate, with minimal supervision, a high volume of license agreements for acquired programming.
• Provide production legal for varied productions, working with a broad range of departments (Production Management, Labor & Employment/Production Risk Team, Risk Management, Litigation, Music & Media Licensing and Pre-Broadcast Content Review) to implement production legal policies and procedures.
• Advise various departments for the network (Programming, Production, Marketing and Promotion, Rights Management, etc.) in connection with complex business and legal matters.
• Review and analyze chain of title and other rights issues.
• Review scripts and programming for clearances and potential legal risks.
• Develop and create deal structures, parameters and templates and forms.
• Maintain relationships with key managers, agencies and attorneys in the entertainment community.

Qualifications:

• JD and must be a member of the New York Bar
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience
• Comprehensive knowledge of contract law and intellectual property rights, as well as a mastered capability for legal research, analysis and reasoning, is required.
• Desired candidate will have a thorough understanding of entertainment industry customs and practices and possess demonstrated ability to effectively negotiate and interact with agents, managers and outside attorneys.
• Working knowledge of television industry agreements, guild and union regulations (Animation Guild, Local 839 I.A.T.S.E, WGA, DGA, SAG-AFTRA) is beneficial.
• Must be able to multi-task under pressure, manage a varied, high-volume workload efficiently and smoothly and operate autonomously within corporate parameters.
• Must be able to build strong internal client relationships, effectively advise senior-level executives under conditions of uncertainty, high-pressure and/or high-risk and generate strong client satisfaction through quick turnaround and firm decision-making.
• The ideal candidate will be collaborative, positive and team-oriented.
• Excellent drafting, negotiation, communication (written and verbal), interpersonal, organizational and computer skills.

Other Info:

At Viacom, the spirit of inclusion feeds into everything that we do, on-screen and off. From the programming and movies we create to employee benefits/programs and social impact outreach initiatives, we believe that opportunity, access, resources and rewards should be available to and for the benefit of all. Viacom is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, gender expression, and Veteran status.

Application:

Candidates can apply online here.