The Role

BuzzFeed is looking for a production and advertising attorney to join our legal team in Los Angeles. You will report directly to the Associate General Counsel - Corporate and Commercial Transactions and will provide advice and support to the BuzzFeed Studio team and BuzzFeed Content teams for editorial and commercial content production and exploitation. You are an entertainment law expert who evaluates all matters in a way that honors business imperatives while mitigating risk, and who is experienced at creating creative solutions to seemingly intractable issues.

You Will

• Advise across the organization (e.g. Content, Communications, Studios, Finance, Ad Sales) on a range of legal matters relating to development, production and exploitation of television and digital entertainment programming
• Structure, draft and negotiate several domestic and international media and entertainment-related agreements for the development, production and distribution of BuzzFeed properties, including rights, writer, director, producer, actor and other talent agreements, and agreements for production services, clearances, locations, vendors, and other production matters
• Support BuzzFeed’s teams in drafting and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements, including licensing, advertising, business development, marketing, events and other commercial and operational contracts.
• Advise regarding questions that arise under applicable union/guild collective bargaining agreements and standards of television and digital exhibitors
• Handle complicated chain of title matters to ensure underlying rights are understood and conduct rights research to determine the availability of content for television/digital exploitation
• Perform daily legal work for television programs, which shall include: vetting creative summaries/pitches/potential characters for legal and risk; overseeing and providing on- and off-set advice to third-party production companies, producers, and creative executives on development- and production-related matters and legal analysis
• Manage relationships with outside counsel
• Develop form agreements and policies for use by internal client groups.
• Provide transactional legal support for general commercial agreements associated with the operations of BuzzFeed (e.g., Ad Sales, News, Studios, etc.)

You Have

• Juris Doctor degree (J.D.) from an accredited law school
• Qualified to practice law in California or New York.
• 4+ years post-JD experience, including 3+ years of related entertainment and transactional legal experience preferably in top-tier law firms or as in-house counsel in a company within the media and entertainment industry.
• Excellent negotiating, drafting and transaction structuring skills (in particular, the ability to manage negotiations with a multiplicity of parts), and strong analytical and organizational skills
• Refined and well-practiced drafting skills (in particular, the ability to develop creative solutions in areas with evolving legal guidance)
• Experience drafting and negotiating a broad variety of television production-related documents and agreements including:
  • Rights agreements (option agreements, life-rights, etc.)
  • Production Agreements
  • Talent Agreements
  • Director Agreements
  • Financing Agreements
  • Shopping Agreements 
• Practical knowledge of the digital, TV and film industries
• Ability to process a large volume of matters
• Ability to creatively accomplish our goals while managing legal risk
• Collaborative, positive and team-oriented
• Willingness to tackle matters in and outside areas of expertise with a can-do attitude, understanding that no job is too big or too small
• Comfortable working and communicating with all levels of business professionals, including senior management and sales professionals
• Proficiency with: MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook) and Internet research

Life at BuzzFeed

At BuzzFeed, we believe our work benefits from the diverse perspectives of our employees. As such, BuzzFeed celebrates inclusion and is committed to equal opportunity employment. As a BuzzFeed employee, you can expect:

• A supportive, inclusive atmosphere on a team that values your contributions
• Opportunities for personal and professional growth through work experience, offerings from our in-house Learning Team, Employee Resource Groups, and more
• An attractive compensation package, including salary and equity
• A benefits program featuring PTO and unlimited sick time, comprehensive medical benefits, a family leave policy, access to mental health platforms, retirement plans, gym and wellness discounts, and much more
• No shortage of snacks, catered lunches, beverages, birthday treats... even leftovers from the Tasty kitchens in LA and NYC!

BuzzFeed is the leading independent digital media and tech company, delivering news and entertainment content to a global audience. We value experimentation, inclusion and humble confidence. At BuzzFeed, you’ll collaborate with inspiring colleagues to create tools, technology, and content that helps connect people all over the world.