Senior Director, Business & Legal Affairs

Job Description

Entertainment One Ltd. (LSE:ETO) is a global independent studio that specialises in the development, acquisition, production, financing, distribution and sales of entertainment content. The Company's diversified expertise spans across film, television and music production and sales; family programming, merchandising and licensing; digital content; and live entertainment. Through its global reach and expansive scale, powered by deep local market knowledge, the Company delivers the best content to the world.

Entertainment One's Family & Brands Division is an exciting, fast growing entertainment company that specialises in the development, production, distribution and brand management of kid's TV content. Key properties in the brand portfolio include international pre-school TV phenomenon Peppa Pig and superhero hit PJ Masks. Alongside these popular television properties, eOne Family & Brands' portfolio also boasts acclaimed kids content including Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom, Winston Steinburger and Sir Dudley Ding Dong and Cupcake & Dino: General Services.

Entertainment One's Family & Brands Division is now gearing up for the launch of its newest property, Ricky Zoom, a brand new animated pre-school TV series from the producers of PJ Masks.

Entertainment One's Family and Brands has close to 200 employees based in London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sao Paolo. It is part of the wider Entertainment One Group, a leading international entertainment company with film, TV and music operations across the world. The Entertainment One Group has over 1,300 employees worldwide, with offices in LA, Toronto, London, New York, Madrid, Amsterdam and Sydney.

Role Purpose…

The Senior Director will be responsible for the drafting and negotiation of deals for the development and production and co-production of mainly animated children's television series but also some live action children's television series and seeing those deals through to the conclusion including, amongst others: writer/creator, underlying rights, talent, composers and arrangers, co-production, production services, and broadcaster pre-sales and for providing day-to-day legal advice for the department's creative, production, sales, and finance teams with respect thereof.

The focus will be North America based projects.

The ideal candidate must be able to advise or contribute to the advice on the best legal structure of the production taking into account tax credits or other subsidies, function mostly independently and to handle a high volume of matters across multiple productions to support the Family Brands business.

In this role, your accountabilities and responsibilities are…
• Advising on the structuring of the development and production to maximize available funding from third parties and partners; liaising with external producer(s) and the finance team in respect of budget and finance plans and ensuring these are accurately captured in the relevant agreements; this in particular includes:
• Review and perfect chain of title for the projects;
• Coordinate insurance coverage for all productions (to include E&O and productions insurance);
• Review clearance reports and provide clearance advice and risk assessment to production team;
• Summarize and track: third party residual payment obligations; option expiry dates; precedents; name, likeness and biography obligations; credit, publicity and promotion obligations; marketing restrictions; and all other contractual obligations;
• Deal and negotiate with talent agencies;
• A specific emphasis is placed on you:
• ensuring compliance with the following funding guidelines (as applicable): Telefilm Treaty Guidelines, Canada Media Fund (CMF), Shaw Rocket Fund, Bell New Media Fund, Canadian content guidelines, and federal and provincial tax credit applications;
• ensuring compliance with ACTRA and WGC guidelines and providing advice to production teams in relation thereto;

You may be asked to:
• Assist France-based studio and foreign legal counsel with Canadian production services needs.
• Drafting and negotiating options agreements, development, production and co-production agreements for new and existing properties and pre sales with financing broadcasters;
• Drafting and negotiating all relevant agreements during development and production (including pre and post production), including agreements with writers, script editors, designers, illustrators, animation, post and dubbing houses/facilities, composers, arrangers; but also agreements for live action productions, e.g. location agreements, day player agreements etc.
• Liaising with internal and external executives during the development and production phases, e.g. on clearance issues in respect of all aspects of the series including character names, key locations and scripts, liaising with the brand protection team on trade mark strategy and registrations and dealing with chain of title issues, during optioning, greenlighting and production process;
• Providing general development, production and co-production related legal advice to creative executives; analyzing contracts in response to executive's questions across various departments including distribution, marketing, brands and onward accounting to partners and talent;
• Ongoing liaison with presale broadcasters in respect of the broadcast and distribution of the series;
• Liaising with outside counsel on development, production and co-production legal matters.

To do this role, you will have…
• Consummate years' experience/PQE, with proven in-house television production experience.
• Qualified lawyer with the ability and demonstratable experience of seeing through a production from concept to delivery and exploitation.
• Well organized, with strict attention to detail.
• Outstanding analytic, organizational, negotiation and legal drafting skills.
• Excellent communication skills - written, verbal, presentation and interpersonal.
• A great deal of initiative and ability to work well under pressure.
• Highly responsible, self-motivated, and able to thrive in an energetic, fast pace, high growth, entrepreneurial environment.
• Sound knowledge of the content production industry, including funding environment and all union and guild agreements and regulations and issues, and related legal trends and business.
• Strong negotiation skills and an ability to handle commercial as well as legal negotiations.

What you'll be a part of:
• Break time: free snacks, winter holiday office closures, reduced hours in summer
• Party time: office bar carts, after work drinks, holiday and summer parties, and sometimes just because
• Be inspired: regular film screenings, concerts, and opportunity to get involved in industry events
• The office: modern facilities, in house screening rooms, more snacks, and swag
• Build a better world: transcend entertainment to our corporate social responsibility activities. Plan a social event.
• Promote healthy lifestyles. Go green. Give back.
• Grow: develop your career and shape your future

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-d27677-18-191-135-224-42 in your application.