VP, Corporate, Business Affairs Legal Affairs (BALA)

Purpose:

The purpose of this senior attorney role is to oversee business and legal affairs for the US-based corporate business. Reporting to the General Counsel in New York, this position will assume day to day responsibility for the provision of corporate and commercial legal support and services to the US business revenue teams.

The Vice President will counsel senior management and business staff on commercial agreements, acquisitions, divestitures, investments, joint ventures and other corporate and strategic transactions through all stages of a transaction lifecycle (including assessment of potential targets, deal structuring, due diligence, negotiation and deal execution), as well as assisting with tax and corporate governance matters. The Vice President will serve as a key strategic partner providing legal advice and transactional support to our business development, procurement, finance and operations teams, advising business leaders on contracting provisions, risks and recommendations. The Vice President will negotiate, draft and review a wide variety of agreements related to those businesses including master service agreements, vendor and supplier agreements, license agreements, amendments, and statements, and create contract summaries for business executives to articulate key provisions of negotiated contracts; advise business leaders on contracting provisions, risks and recommendations. The Vice President will assume responsibility for the line management of lawyers supporting the advertising and revenue teams, evolving and aligning them to the global approach in a cost effective way and supporting the rollout of standardized contract processes templates across the organization, while ensuring local US needs and sensitivities are met including with respect to regulations and compliance.

The Vice President will also liaise regularly with other members of BALA including VP International, Publishing, Entertainment, Content, Employment and Technology & Data to ensure effective cross-collaboration in delivery of support by BALA to the wider business.

Finance & Operations:

Lead BALA’s support to the F&O organisation in the US, ensuring that BALA provides appropriate levels of service to Finance, including Strategy, Tax & Treasury, and Procurement. The Vice President will develop a close working partnership with Advance Legal on the provision of legal support regarding all corporate, governance and M&A opportunities, bringing in other BALA colleagues as needed.

Revenue and Consumer:

Lead BALA’s support on corporate, revenue and consumer law matters in the US. Develop a regionally based but globally consistent commercial legal service capable of supporting the needs of these teams, including Ad Sales, Consumer Sales, Licensing, Events and Social. Liaise regularly with other members of BALA including VP International, Publishing, Entertainment, Content and Technology & Data. Build out appropriate workflows and processes using Legal Ops and smart location strategy to ensure timely, consistent and cost effective support is provided. Take responsibility for the Advertising Guidelines, ensuring teams are maintaining and enhancing these.

US Legal (including Advance Publications)

Work with the General Counsel and liaise with US peers in BALA including Publishing, Entertainment, Content and Technology & Data to ensure legal support in international markets is aligned with the US market. For global projects and developments, agree on a plan with US peers in BALA that appropriately combines US based resource, international resource, Advance Legal support and expertise and outside counsel.

Skills, Experience and Requirements:

• Significant commercial contract, M&A, content licensing and other corporate transactional experience at a top law firm and in-house legal department
• Strong technical expertise in corporate legal matters and related practice areas including securities and disclosure, antitrust, accounting and tax
• A combination of legal expertise, understanding of AI technologies, and experience in corporate or tech-focused legal strategies
• ​​Demonstrate superior oral and written communication and interpersonal skills, excellent drafting and negotiation abilities, and a keen attention to detail
• Possess the competence, professionalism, and maturity to effectively advise and interact with senior executives and business leaders and have a demonstrated ability to earn their confidence and serve as a trusted advisor
• Strong work ethic and ability to make decisions, multi-task, prioritize, and follow through on numerous projects simultaneously
• Experience in delivering legal services in a major multinational corporation
• Experience of working in a matrix reporting environment
• Experience in legal team management, budgeting and reporting

About Business & Legal Affairs:

The Business & Legal Affairs team is led by the General Counsel based in our New York HQ Office and is comprised of colleagues in London and across various markets around the world (USA, China, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, UK, Mexico, India, Japan and Taiwan). We are also supported by a network of outside counsel where necessary and work closely with colleagues at our parent company, Advance Publications.

The Purpose of the Business & Legal Affairs is to help our business, shareholder and colleagues:

• Deliver on our company’s strategic goals
• Create the world’s best content
• Solve and prevent business problems through informed decision making
• Operate a globally aware and integrated business
• Protect our business, assets, brands and people by conducting business in the right way

We achieve our Purpose by:

• Providing advice and training
• Resolving issues and disputes
• Developing legal systems, processes, policies, documents and tools that enable proactive legal risk management
• Creating and managing, policy analysis, public affairs approaches, legal documents and record records
• Tracking and monitoring the external legal and policy trends that will shape the Digital, Publishing and Luxury marketplace of the future.

Condé Nast and its publications set the standard and our Business & Legal Affairs Department is no exception. This means all members of the team are:

• Technically excellent and continuously improving in the disciplines which will determine our future (particularly in the space where media, digital, data, consumer and adtech law meet);
• Passionate about and committed to the value of creativity to the economy and society;
• Trustworthy, ethical and have absolute integrity;
• Pragmatic and business-minded in our approach, always seeking solutions, open to change and embracing best practice in legal tech and legal ops; and
• Global in outlook and curious about the world around us.