Job Description
Job Title: Business Affairs Specialist
Type: Contract Assignment
Start Date: ASAP
End Date: 5/23/26 - strong possibility of extension
Location: Glendale CA
Hybrid role: In-Office Mon.-Thurs., Remote on Fridays
Pay Rate: $40/hour
Keys to the role:
- This is a process-based role and will be analyzing images, documents, etc. and will be summarizing and drafting.
- Some IP experience in copyright or trademark work is helpful but not required.
- Must be strong at reading/writing and be detail-oriented
- Understanding of clearance-related legal and contractual issues, such as intellectual property rights including copyright, trademark, and right of publicity, production-related agreements including for film and/or television, third-party rights acquisition and licensing, and applicable guild obligations.
Job Description:
Act as the point of contact for clearances on a variety of assets, working with various legal and business entities. This role will also have a primary responsibility to manage and provide guidance around clearance requests, property and talent rights inquiries, and permission and approval obligations for the various businesses. Partner with various groups to facilitate clearances for all assets in all global territories for merchandise use.
Types of Clearances include:
- Merchandise clearance of assets sourced from TV series and film properties
- Business Affairs clearance of assets that require talent approval or risk analysis
- Legal clearance of assets from a rights perspective
- IP clearance of assets that contain third party IP, including names, logos, and images
Assets include:
- Raw or loose assets such as unit photography, final frames, design elements, posters, concept art, social media posts and sweepstakes, marketing/publicity images, and artwork
- Images submitted as part of a Publishing product (book, magazine, calendar, etc.)
- Externally sourced assets such as artwork and photos from a private or 3rd party collection
- Review talent agreements and succinctly summarize terms for executive and business partners
- Present analysis and written work product to lawyers and clients, including executives.
- Work in rights management systems, processes, and databases
- Analyze submissions as they are received to determine if they need legal clearance
- Refer to legal restrictions charts and previous legal guidance to conduct an initial clearance review and, where possible, flag anything that is questionable for legal teams to further review
- Track all clearance requests, questions, and comments in Airtable
- Act as a consultant in the early stages of product development, working with Operations and Commercialization to advise on the best way to collect assets and meta data for a smoother legal review and to provide insight into complexity and possible turn-around times
- Communicate comments and restrictions to the requestor(s), which sometimes requires re-wording language provided by Legal
- Gather agenda items and lead weekly Legal/Business meeting, capturing notes and sending summaries to the participants
- Manage clearance deadline priorities and schedule with Legal and Business Affairs to ensure they can meet the requested dates
- Identify clearance roadblocks and efficiencies to streamline processes and implement solutions where possible
- Problem solving and issue spotting for legal issues as well as talent, brand, and financial concerns, always with a keen eye for the broader picture and precedent for both DCP and The Walt Disney Company overall.
- Assist with review and management of collectibles and other releases by the DCP Commercialization team, including reviewing marketing materials.
Required Education
- Four-year undergraduate degree (required)
- Legal coursework or certification preferred or law firm / in-house experience handling contract administration issues and related matters.
- Legal clearance experience or paralegal certificate
Basic Qualifications
- Ability to work independently in a trustworthy manner, including strong instincts regarding when and how to appropriately elevate issues to your leader or other members of the Business Affairs team
- Exceptional organizational, prioritization and time management skills with the ability to execute against multiple, high-priority projects in a fast-paced environment with a high-level attention to detail
- Strong interpersonal skills, analytical skills and verbal and writing skills
Job Tags
Contract work, Work at office, Immediate start, Remote work,