Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs, BET Media Group

Overview & Responsibilities

The BET Media Group Business and Legal Affairs team supports the business and legal needs across all BET-branded and VH1-branded platforms and businesses, including, but not limited to, the development and production of scripted, unscripted, music, digital, news, documentary and live event/tentpole programming and all related advertising, sponsorship, marketing and promotion. All executives in the department work hand-in-hand with the creative, development, programming, production, talent, finance, publicity, ad sales and marketing teams, as well as many other departments across BET and Paramount Global.

We are seeking a Vice President to join our team. This Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs is an experienced mid-to-senior level attorney role currently intended to provide day-to-day support across all of the group’s platforms and businesses, with a primary focus on the development and production of unscripted programming.

• Drafting and negotiating development, talent and production-related agreements (e.g., producer, production services, high-level host and on-camera talent agreements; appearance, venue and location releases; music and clip licenses; co-production deals and rights acquisitions; format licenses; program licenses, etc.).
• Counseling in-house client groups on a wide variety of legal issues and corporate policies that may arise in connection with content development, production, music, marketing, promotion, advertising, integrations and sponsorships and managing corporate compliance with Paramount Global and BET Media Group policies and procedures.
• Handling day-to-day production legal work for original programming (unscripted episodic series and specials as well as marketing/promotion/digital content).
• Reviewing and approving legal contracts for execution by production and/or management.
• Leading and/or engaging in complex and strategic deal discussions and researching business and legal issues.
• Providing complex risk assessment for production-related matters; assessing, devising and advising risk management practices for the businesses and implementing corporate policies.
• Performing other day-to-day business and legal affairs-related tasks as needed and assigned by senior business/legal affairs executives in the department.

Basic Qualifications

• At least 7-10 years of equivalent experience (ideally in a network, studio, streaming, entertainment law firm or production company environment) with good standing of New York and/or California Bar.
• Desired candidate will have a detailed understanding of entertainment industry customs and practices and possess demonstrated ability to effectively negotiate and interact with agents, managers and outside attorneys and lead internal teams.

Additional Qualifications

• Detailed understanding and comprehensive 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).
• Significant unscripted deal-making experience.
• Ability to analyze complex fact patterns and devise creative solutions that allow executives to implement their creative vision while minimizing overall legal and business risk.
• Substantive experience running production legal for unscripted programming.
• Ability to independently manage transactions from inception through completion.
• Must be able to multi-task under pressure, manage a varied, high-volume workload efficiently and operate autonomously within corporate parameters.
• Experience assuming a leadership role in client relationships and decision making.
• Ability to build strong internal relationships, effectively advise internal teams under conditions of uncertainty, pressure and/or high risk and generate strong client satisfaction through critical thinking and firm decision-making.
• Management experience desired, as this role may be charged with supervising and/or training junior executives, contract managers and/or legal assistants.
• Excellent communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills.