Senior Legal Counsel

Provides expert legal support on complex, high-impact and strategically significant intellectual property and content protection matters, including patent strategy and portfolio management, anti-piracy enforcement, IP licensing and IP litigation. It acts as a trusted advisor to senior management, technology, product, commercial and rights teams on IP and content protection strategy, influencing business and operational decisions. The position delivers high-quality, pragmatic legal advice, proactively identifies opportunities to protect and commercialise the organisation's rights, manages external counsel effectively, and supports the wider Legal Team.

• Lead on complex intellectual property matters, including patent drafting, filing and prosecution strategy across jurisdictions, patent portfolio management, third-party portfolio assessment, patent licensing and commercialisation, anti-piracy enforcement, content protection and trademark oversight
• And independently manage high-value and strategically significant IP matters with minimal supervision.
• Identify and manage IP and content protection risks, including patent portfolio exposure, third-party claims, piracy threats, content protection requirements (including those of rightsholders) and enforcement challenges across jurisdictions
• And develop and implement practical strategies for portfolio defence, domain blocking, evidence gathering and escalation aligned with the organisation's risk profile.
• Mentor junior legal counsel and paralegals, foster knowledge sharing on patents, anti-piracy, licensing, litigation and content protection, and act as a role model in embedding a culture of accountability, continuous improvement and cross-functional collaboration across teams
• Geographies and practice areas.
• Coordinate and manage external patent, litigation, trademark and specialist anti-piracy counsel, including on patent litigation in the UK, Europe and the US, and content disputes, DNS blocking proceedings, UPC proceedings and blocking injunctions, overseeing strategy, privileged communications
• Scope, cost management and performance, and maintain effective relationships with relevant industry bodies, including Unified Patents, as well as vendors and rights holders.
• Lead and contribute to structured anti-piracy and content protection governance, including weekly updates, membership of the ACE forum, enforcement actions, domain-blocking processes, registrar engagement and evidence-gathering frameworks, and help develop and apply consistent policies
• Templates and enforcement strategies across jurisdictions, including in relation to German CUII and Indian blocking proceedings.
• Provide strategic and commercially focused legal advice on patent licensing and commercialisation, content rights structures, co-exclusive licensing, DRM and authentication requirements, device limits and streaming constraints, and partner with technology, product
• Commercial and rights teams to balance IP protection, business opportunity and operational delivery.

• Advanced legal drafting, negotiation and advisory skills with specialist knowledge of intellectual property.
• Strong understanding of patent drafting, prosecution, filing strategy and portfolio management; anti-piracy enforcement and content protection; IP licensing and commercialisation; and trademark portfolio management.
• Ability to coordinate and work productively with technical teams, rights holders and external counsel.
• Strong communication, stakeholder management and problem-solving abilities, with the ability to balance legal precision with commercial pragmatism.
• Confidence to articulate complex IP risks, articulate and defend IP strategies, and manage relationships with external specialists.
• Ability to mentor and guide junior team members and to lead cross-departmental or functional workstreams of projects to successful completion.
• Significant experience in intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, anti-piracy and content protection, in the media, entertainment or technology sector.
• Experience with patent prosecution and litigation, anti-piracy enforcement programmes, content protection strategies and multi-jurisdictional IP matters.
• 5+ years PQE is likely required, though not an absolute requirement.
• Professionally qualified England & Wales solicitor (or equivalent in another jurisdiction).
• Training or experience at a recognised IP or media team in private practice, or within a strong in-house IP function in a relevant sector.

• Experience in managing and transacting with SEP licensors and patent pools.
• Familiarity with DRM, watermarking, authentication, access controls, content delivery, OTT platforms and/or streaming technology from an IP and contractual perspective.

• Access to DAZN
• 25 days' annual leave, increasing by 3 days after 3 years
• Private medical insurance
• Life assurance
• Pension contributions up to 5%
• Family friendly community including enhanced parental leave
• Electric vehicle benefit option
• Learning and development resources
• Opportunity for flexible working
• Access to internal speaker series and events