Brad Auerbach has been around the proverbial block, having practiced law for nearly four decades, with 30 of those years spent in-house with media and technology companies, including Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Philips Media, Qualcomm and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. "As in-house counsel, you work closely with your clients developing a deep understanding of the business," said Brad. "Over the years, I've been exposed to a variety of issues and business models, but the one thing they've all had in common was innovation." This is why early stage businesses and cutting-edge technologies are especially of interest to Brad.
Helping bring new innovations to market has been incredibly rewarding for Brad, especially those involving media and technology. "I've always been fascinated by these industries, and the fact that a lot of this business happened in California only heightened the allure for this guy from Western New York," jokes Brad. As just one example, while serving as GC at Philips Media, Brad experienced a career high moment when he helped to launch a new technology that would literally change the media industry – the DVD.
Perhaps even more memorable was the work Brad did while at Starz, a division of Liberty Media. "We were renegotiating a film output deal with Disney (my former employer)," explained Brad. The usual the negotiation in these deals revolved around the number of times and when Starz would have the right to put Disney films into its schedule. "For this negotiation, we practically exploded the minds at Disney when we said we wanted Starz subscribers to have unlimited access, whenever they wanted, to the films within the stated license period." This transaction was literally the first subscription on-demand deal ever negotiated, and years later, became the basis for how much of the industry now operates. "When you think about Netflix, Spotify, and other models of media consumption, it all traces back to this Starz deal."
Brad's bragging rights also include having negotiated many groundbreaking deals with a diverse range of rights holders, including NFL, NBA, NHL, HBO, MTV, ESPN, Live Nation, Marvel Entertainment, International Olympic Committee, English Premier League, Screen Actors Guild, every significant Hollywood studio, each of the major record labels, Sesame Workshop, The Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic and Getty Images, among numerous others.
Today, as an OGC, Brad advises both early stage and growth companies, ranging from Daily Wire and Portland Thorns (of the National Women's Soccer League) to film production companies. While it may not be as glamorous as previous gigs, Brad is crystal clear on why he is sold on OGC. "The ability to work on intellectually stimulating work, while leveraging my in-house experience, alongside extremely experienced colleagues and without being tied to a specific location is truly ideal. And to know that this firm is over 20 years old is a measure to the group's astute foresight about the value of in-house lawyering."
More about Brad Auerbach
Brad's passion for media and technology are boundless. In
addition to being a frequent speaker at numerous industry
conferences across the globe, he co-owns a patent relating to
mobile phone media technology. Brad also teaches college and
graduate level courses in media, technology and law, many of which
he created, and is a regular contributor to the firm's
blog.
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