Senior Counsel, Legal And Business Affairs

About BuzzFeed, Inc.

BuzzFeed, Inc. (Ticker: BZFD) is home to the best of the internet. Across food, news, pop culture and commerce, our brands drive conversation and inspire what audiences watch, read, buy, and obsess over next. Born on the internet in 2006, BuzzFeed, Inc. is committed to making it better: providing trusted, quality, brand-safe news and entertainment to hundreds of millions of people; making content on the internet more inclusive, empathetic, and creative; and inspiring our audience to live better lives. We'll continue to recruit the best founders and creators to join us in this mission, with more additions like Complex Networks and HuffPost to come.

Business Area: Administrative
Job Category: Legal
Salary: 170,000-195,000 USD
Union Status: Non Union
BuzzFeed Inc. is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. We reserve the ability to adjust the final compensation for this role based on the final candidate's experience, skillset, certifications, and geography.

The Role

BuzzFeed is looking for an experienced development and production attorney to join our business and legal affairs team. You will provide a full range of attorney functions relating to the negotiation, drafting, and execution of development, production and distribution agreements, and related advice and support to BuzzFeed Studios, Business Development, Video Production, Sales, Experiential/Events and other internal teams. You will report directly to the Senior Vice President, Commercial Transactions and Business Affairs. You know, and can evaluate, all matters in a way that balances needs and mitigates risk while achieving the business end-goal. You will be a trusted and knowledgeable point of contact for business leaders, and will maintain alignment between BuzzFeed's commercial objectives and its legal policies as reflected in the library of forms that have been developed, and you will update those forms and create new ones as necessary. You will work in the New York Metropolitan area or Los Angeles, and on a regularly recurring schedule.

You Will

• Analyze, review and interpret contracts (including complicated chain of title matters and availability of content for exploitation), and provide thoughtful and practical legal advice on potential risks and issues
• Negotiate and draft overall deals, first look agreements, partnership agreements, rights agreements (books, articles, podcasts, etc.), license and co-production agreements, production services agreements, and financing agreements
• Be a key member of the legal and business affairs team
• Partner with cross-functional teams (including Sales, Experiential/Events and Business Development) to support the execution of BuzzFeed's tentpole live events and key partnerships
• Interface on a day-to-day basis with various internal teams (Creative, Production, Finance, etc.) and production personnel, as needed
• Handle development through production business and legal affairs on projects and manage the day-to-day issues related to production, including negotiating deals for writers, talent, directors, executive producers, etc. and advise on union/guild collective bargaining issues and standards of film, television and digital exhibitors
• Structure, negotiate, and draft development, production and distribution deals for scripted and unscripted programming for all film, television and digital licensees/platforms
• Manage relationships with outside counsel

You have:

• Strong legal acumen with the ability to demonstrate sound judgment (in particular, the ability to develop creative solutions in areas with evolving legal guidance)
• Collaborative, positive and team-oriented style with a proven record of building strong relationships, both internally and externally at all levels
• 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
• Experience in managing, supervising and training personnel is a plus
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to respond to matters in a quick yet accurate manner
• English fluency is required
• 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
• Substantial experience in negotiating and drafting all manner of contracts for domestic and international development, production and distribution deals for film and television
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• 6+ years of legal experience (post-JD) working in a film or television business affairs department, legal affairs department and/or top-tier entertainment law firm
• Familiarity with employment, insurance and litigation matters, production clearance issues, entertainment guild rules & regulations, and copyright and trademark matters
• Experience managing a high-volume workload while operating autonomously within corporate parameters and deadlines.
• J.D. from an ABA accredited law school, and a valid license to practice law in California or New York State
• Past exposure to the strategic thinking that underpins the structures of complex film and television financing models
• Proficiency with standard office communication and work processing systems

Life at BuzzFeed, Inc.

We celebrate inclusion and are committed to equal opportunity employment. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on age, race, gender, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or any other protected category.

You can expect:

• A generous benefits program featuring paid time off, unlimited sick time, comprehensive medical benefits, a family leave policy, access to mental health platforms, retirement plans, gym and wellness discounts, and much more.
• 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 @ BuzzFeed team, our Employee Resource Groups, and more
• An attractive and equitable compensation package, including salary and stock options.

We want all employees to feel safe and comfortable when they engage in any in-person meetings, when visiting the office, or when working from an offsite production or meeting location. As part of this commitment to health and safety, BuzzFeed requires COVID-19 vaccines for current U.S. employees, including all newly hired employees. Requests for accommodation per applicable law for health and/or religious reasons will be considered. Union employees are subject to what is outlined in their applicable collective bargaining agreement.

Note: BuzzFeed, Inc. offers remote/flexible work (unless specified to be required to be in-person) and open to hiring remote candidates who are residents in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IL, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MS, MT, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, TX, VA, WA, and WV. For non sales roles, we can also hire in AK, AR, AZ, ID, KS, MO, ND, SC, and VT.