The Sr. Specialist for Contracts & Rights will review, analyze, and draft various contracts across the Society The position will assist in house counsel and will provide first review or drafting duties, working with the attorneys only on any exceptions to the standard terms and conditions. This position will also have the responsibility of managing rights research requests and clearing rights for all visual and audio media, including text, photos, videos, and audio clips for all NGS products/services with minimal supervision. They will work with all product-producing groups to establish lines of communication regarding upcoming projects and deadlines for clearance. This position will also work with another member of LBA to jointly review legal binders and to provide assistance in locating legal binders or other legal documents for urgent rights research requests. The person must have strong organizational skills, written and oral communication skills, and knowledge of copyright law and contract law.
Areas of Responsibility:
- Contract Drafting and Review (40%). Assumes initiative in drafting from form contracts, agreements, amendments, releases, and permission letters for all of the attorney client groups with very minimal supervision. Review internal agreements including IC agreements, work orders, change orders, releases, MOUs, and various other documents, only bringing to attorney’s attention unique exceptions to standard terms. Trains new employees in various groups on how to draft IC Agreements and Amendments. First review of third party agreements and non-standard agreements and present attorney with edits and comments for their approval.
- Legal Affairs (5%). At direction of attorney, provide assistance and guidance to business units on form for deals, flag general business or legal-related issues, provide drafting assistance and legal coordination between attorney and any individuals in business units responsible for negotiating and drafting agreements. Assist Employment Attorney and HR with Independent Contracts by recording into shared spreadsheet. Research cases, statutes, and international law on specific questions related to business unit operations and initiatives.
- Rights Clearance (50%). Work with all NGS divisions and product producing and disseminating groups (Impact Video, Education, Brand Marketing, Explorer Magazine, Pristine Seas, Okavango, Exploration, etc.) to manage and provide rights clearance services for assets from the NGS Collection in accordance with NGS Policy (i.e. rights are cleared prior to publication/dissemination of any product or service). Locate the necessary NGS legal binders and/or other legal documents in order to review the contracts and determine rights with minimal supervision, only bringing to attorney’s attention unique questions regarding rights language (or the lack thereof). Work with another member of LBA to review submitted legal binders in accordance with LBA standards. This will ensure that the Society has all of the required rights information for future use requests of that particular binder’s program.Work with another member of LBA to jointly work through rights clearance requests. This will ensure that LBA is always equipped to handle urgent rights research requests. Assist groups with obtaining rights to third party material by drafting, reviewing, and if necessary, negotiating, various materials releases and permission letters. Provide updates to clients regarding progress and proactively inform clients of any rights clearance issues. Work with clients to establish rate cards for use. NGP will train the position as to specific uses of applicable databases and record-keeping processes. Position will communicate with NGP Creative regarding trends in pricing.
- Rights Clearance Negotiation with Third Parties to Use NGS Materials (5%). Negotiate licenses with third parties for educational use of our assets under the minimal supervision of VP & Senior Associate General Counsel. Provide rights clearance research for the requested asset with minimal supervision, only bringing to attorney’s attention unique questions regarding rights language (or the lack thereof), and if we are able to grant a fee free license, draft the appropriate Permission Letter and order a copy of the asset from the appropriate group.
Educational Background:
Bachelor's Degree or higher (Legal training or paralegal certificate preferred).
Skills/Experience:
- At least 5 years of experience working in a law firm corporate department or a corporate legal department with legal contracts.
- Strong contract review and analytical skills. Ability to interpret contract language pertaining to rights requests.
- Above-average knowledge and competence in MS Word – track changes, compare documents, tables, formatting, etc. Competence in Excel. Facility and experience with PowerPoint. Comfortable learning new software and working with databases.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills.
- Ability to ensure that details are handled timely and accurately.
- Detail-oriented, organized, self-motivated and strong analytical and problem solving skills.
- Telephone presence and the ability to work well with others and interact directly with clients.
- Must maintain a high degree of confidentiality in all matters of proprietary Society business and legal affairs.
Job Function:
Organization Info
Listing Stats
Post Date:
Nov 10 2019
Active Until:
Dec 10 2019
Hiring Organization:
National Geographic Society
industry:
Nonprofit