Senior Legal Counsel

DAZN Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 48,000 - 73,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading media organization is seeking a Senior Legal Counsel to oversee legal support for its operations in Japan. This role requires a qualified lawyer with at least 6 years of experience and fluency in Japanese and English. The successful candidate will handle contracts, manage a team, and navigate legal challenges across the media and sports industry. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in DAZN's growth in the region and offer significant legal insights to the business.

Benefits

Health care insurance

Employee pension scheme

Annual paid leave of 15 days

Free subscription on DAZN

Access to free tickets for sports events

Qualifications

• Minimum 6 years post-qualification experience desirable.
• Experience in private practice or a strong in-house legal team.
• Experience with copyright licensing and technology contracts.

Responsibilities

• Head the legal support function in Japan.
• Provide support to all commercial aspects of DAZN Japan.
• Negotiate high-value sports rights deals and contracts.

Skills

Fluent Japanese

Fluent English

Legal drafting skills

Team management

Consumer law expertise

Media law knowledge

Excellent research abilities

Negotiation skills

Education

Qualified lawyer in Japan (Bengoshi)

Job description

Senior Legal Counsel

Department: 85-884 - Legal - Commercial - Distribution & Regulatory

Employment Type: Fixed Term - Full Time

Location: UK - London

Reporting To: Ben Haskey

Description

This is a unique opportunity for a senior media or commercial lawyer to be involved in the rapid growth of our DAZN business in Japan as it moves to the next level!

Senior Legal Counsel, Japan is a key appointment within the wider DAZN Legal function and an important leadership role in the Japan business in particular. Reporting into SVP Legal in London with a strong dotted line to DAZN Japan’s CEO, you will be responsible for heading up and growing the legal team on the ground in Japan, providing legal support to all parts of the DAZN business in the Asia region and managing a small team of lawyers.

The role represents a fantastic opportunity to move into one of the most exciting businesses in the sports industry! This is a high profile role for the DAZN business in Japan offering you the opportunity to raise your profile in the domestic sports market and to head up your own team in territory.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Head up the legal support function in Japan and work with senior business stakeholders in the region as well as the central legal function.
• Provide support to all commercial aspects of the DAZN business in Japan, which includes supporting the rights, commercial, partnerships, marketing, product, operations and production teams (with assistance from outside counsel, where necessary).
• Be primarily responsible for all consumer, regulatory, labour, piracy and lobbying matters affecting the business from a legal point of view, including management of high profile litigation and other legal proceedings affecting the business from time to time.
• Negotiate, draft and oversee a wide and exciting variety of work, including the negotiation of high value sports rights deals; distribution, sponsorship and advertising agreements with third parties; important contracts with technology service providers.

What You'll Bring:

• Qualified lawyer in Japan (Bengoshi) with minimum 6 years post-qualification experience. Fluent Japanese and English, both verbal and written to legal drafting standard.
• Extensive post-qualification work experience having trained at and subsequently worked in private practice, or a strong in-house team in the media sector.
• Experience of Japanese consumer, media and competition law.
• Experience of copyright licensing, whether relating to the acquisition and/or distribution of content. Experience with a wide range of commercial and/or technology services contracts.
• Technical legal skills, especially first-class drafting and interpretative abilities. Ability to conduct research and draft reports related to Japanese law.
• Track record of recruiting and managing a team of lawyers.

【Even better if you have】

• Strong expertise in Japanese corporate law and M&A.
• Experience working in an international, high growth company.

Benefits

• Social security included (Health care insurance, Employee pension scheme, Employment insurance, Labour personal accident insurance)
• Annual Health Exams
• Defined Contributions Plan (DC)
• Annual paid leave of 15 days (pro-rated depending on the start date)
• Company doctor (monthly inspection of office as well as stress check)
• Free subscription on DAZN
• Access to free tickets for every J-league game and occasionally for other sports
• Paid commuting allowance up to 30,000 yen a month