The Curtis Brown Group (CBG) is a talent and literary representation agency. The group’s talent representation activities span across the entertainment industry, including television, film and theatre.
CBG offers a unique, fun and supportive environment to work on a very broad range of media and entertainment agreements. The primary purpose of this role is to support CBG talent agents in the Talent (actors/presenters) and TFTV (theatre, film and television) departments. The candidate would have the opportunity to work across a range of acting, writing, directing and producing deals for television, film and theatre, as well as branding and endorsement deals.
CBG focuses heavily on training and knowledge development. Our legal team here are expected to be proactive with their knowledge development, be keen to broaden their skills and share know how with others. CBG as an organisation is open to new ideas and changing environments, and fresh information being brought in.
The candidate would work as part of an established legal team with several other lawyers.
Responsibilities:
* To support the Head of Business Affairs and Senior Legal and Business Affairs Counsel in reviewing a wide range of commercial contracts.
* To support the provision of high quality legal and business affairs advice and contract drafting and commercial advice to agents within the Talent and TFTV departments, and the wider group of companies within CBG.
* Assist the legal team in working with agents and assistants on negotiating commercial deal terms
* Supporting the legal team with the training and teaching regularly provided to agents and assistants about deals and legal points, using CBG materials and know how.
Key Areas:
Talent (Actors/Presenters)
* Support the legal team with TV/Film/Theatre acting, presenting, commercial/ branding agreements with agents and assistants and the commercials division.
Theatre, Film and Television
* Support the legal team with TV format, TV/film director, screenwriter, book to film/tv deals with agents and assistants.
* Work with the legal team to support agents on the negotiation of complex media contracts.
* Working on template agreements and industry wide issues.
Commercial/Procurement
* Negotiating agreements with suppliers to the group (e.g. IT service providers).
What we’re looking for:
* Experienced paralegal, contracts manager or NQ+ with significant experience of reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts preferred. Having relevant previous in-house legal experience or having completed a commercial seat is preferable.
* Ability to demonstrate experience of contract drafting and the ability to deviate from templates and adjust commercial terms preferred.
* Ability and desire to learn new kinds of deals is essential. Prior media experience is desirable, but not essential provided the candidate has a willingness and ability to learn about the industry and is able to transfer and apply general contract skills/knowledge to media-specific work.
* The successful candidate will need to be:
* Pro-active, hard-working and have a strong commercial mindset;
* Able to demonstrate a high attention to detail.
* Able to work independently;
* Capable of progressing small tasks on their own and flagging to/checking in with the legal team where more assistance is required;
* A proactive problem-solver, or inquisitive about ways in which to problem-solve;
* A natural communicator with a personable and accessible style;
* Able to understand the commercial terms of a contract and adjust accordingly and act as a creative sounding board;
* A supportive colleague enabling agents and assistants to feel more confident in negotiations;
* Comfortable with negotiating on the phone/in meetings;
* Able to work quickly and give accessible, coherent and speedy advice/guidance;
* Someone who would enjoy working with and responding to different teams and people working at all levels of the organisation; and
* Highly motivated and keen to build Curtis Brown’s reputation for Legal and Business Affairs.