Senior Counsel - Production

About Us

Thank you for considering the Senior Counsel - Production role with Moonbug Entertainment, an award-winning global entertainment company inspiring kids everywhere to laugh, learn and grow.  The company is behind some of the biggest kids’ entertainment brands in the world including CoComelon and Blippi. Moonbug believes every child should have access to our entertaining and enriching content, which is why our shows are available on more than 150 video platforms globally including Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer and YouTube Kids. Moonbug is also a global leader in pre-school music and audio experiences, available on 100+ audio platforms globally. Moonbug brands extend far beyond the screen to include streaming music, toys, games, books, live events, and even theme park exhibits.  

Moonbug is part of Candle Media, an independent, creator-friendly home for cutting-edge, high-quality, category-defining brands and franchises. By bringing together elite talent operating at the intersection of content, community, and commerce, it helps to position leading entertainment businesses for accelerated, sustainable growth in the current market and beyond. 

This role reports onsite in our London office. 

📍London, Camden | Office based | Benefits including Free Private Healthcare, Enhanced Maternity and Paternity leave, matched 5% pension scheme, free yoga/fitness wellbeing classes, free weekly lunch and Friday drinks @ 4pm ✨

About The Opportunity

Moonbug is seeking an experienced and ambitious lawyer to join an expanding legal department in a very exciting and growing global kids entertainment business. This role  supports the creative, development, and production teams based in London. This position involves working closely and collaborating with other departments to ensure delivery of content that Moonbug can exploit and promote worldwide. As part of a legal team of over twenty (20) people in London, Los Angeles and Singapore, this role provides a creative, challenging and collaborative environment where your ideas will be every bit as valued as your legal expertise.

Responsibilities:

Reporting to our Global Head of Legal and Business Affairs – Production (based in Los Angeles) and working closely with the rest of the Production Legal and Business Affairs Team as well as the wider Moonbug legal team, you will support our large and growing development and production team in London in their day-to-day legal work, including drafting and negotiating a varied and ever-evolving spectrum of transactional entertainment agreements in connection with the development and production of Moonbug content (primarily animated), including: production services; localisation and dubbing, crew members/contributors/artists; talent; writers; location agreements and various releases; and designer agreements.

You will need to:

• Establish, maintain and develop close working relationships with key internal clients, including but not limited to the creative, development, content and production teams.
• Provide ongoing general business and legal advice to internal clients concerning production, clearance, standards and practices, use of AI and various content-related issues .
• Troubleshoot various programming business and legal issues, including drafting termination agreements, assisting with pre-publication review and legal compliance content review, and liaising internally and externally as appropriate regarding high exposure rights clearances.
• Keep updated the department’s template agreements.

Qualifications and Desired Experience:

• A UK qualified lawyer with 6-10 years PQE, with excellent academics and having trained at a leading UK law firm.
• Deep experience and an excellent understanding of media and content production (ideally including animated) having worked in either the media department at a law firm or in a media company of content development, creation and production is essential.
• Strong drafting, negotiation, communication (written and verbal), interpersonal, organisational skills.
• Ability to work autonomously on complex deals and build and own key internal relationships.
• Calm under pressure, clear thinker, quick learner.
• Excellent time management and organisational skills and able to, and enjoy, working concurrently on a variety of projects, effectively prioritising and working under demanding deadlines whilst remaining “cool and calm". A “can do” attitude is essential.
• You enjoy providing timely, pragmatic, and business-focused advice to your business colleagues, across several functions, often in ambiguous situations.
• Able to work across any production-related situation, unfazed by the last-minute surprises that inevitably arise during production, and prepared to respond in a timely and pragmatic manner.
• Possess a clear understanding of the dynamics among showrunners, executive producers, line producers, production departments, marketing and creative, and know when and how to align the appropriate teams when issues inevitably arise.