The legal career is diverse, and you need to have a clear picture of the direction you want to take yours. But before you choose a career path, you need to understand the requirements, the salary range, and what it entails.
If you want to pursue your legal career in the media and entertainment industry, the extensive guide we’ve prepared at The High Court will show you the different paths you can take.
You’ll learn all about various media law jobs you can pursue under the media and entertainment law. Additionally, you’ll find out the average salaries and job prospects for various digital media attorney jobs, whether as a contract law attorney, intellectual property lawyer, and so on.
Would you like to interact with the rich and famous while still practicing law? If this is your dream, you’ve come to the right place.
Let’s dive right in.
Popular Media Law Jobs in 2021
Media law is a broad church with multiple career options. You might be tempted to think that media law lawyer jobs involve just talent management in the industry. However, it touches on different fields, such as employment law, contracts, and intellectual property, among other media fields.
As a result, media law jobs cover all sorts of legal issues that arise in the various branches of the media and entertainment industry – the movie, TV, music, internet, theater, advertising, and sports sectors.
Here are some of the most popular jobs.
Entertainment and News Media Attorney
Job Description
Entertainment and media are among the biggest industries in the modern-day world. Therefore, taking up a career in entertainment and media law is one of the best choices you can make in your legal career. It is a lucrative and quite competitive undertaking.
The role of an Entertainment and New Media attorney is to represent clients in the entertainment and the media industry. Their clients are people doing business in the entertainment entertainers, directors and producers, and investors in the industry.
These entertainment law jobs will see you dealing with people in television, music, film, publishing, theater, and digital media. These legal media jobs draw from a pool of disciplines such as immigration, intellectual property rights, corporate law, and contract law.
Key Skills and Competencies
To become a successful attorney in the entertainment industry, you first need to have an undergraduate law degree and become a bar association member. Additionally, you should have a deep understanding of the industry.
The skills necessary to be successful in this entertainment law job are:
- Be knowledgeable of the entertainment and the media industry
- Detail-oriented
- Planning ahead
- Be respectful of both the client’s and the opponent’s perspectives
- Excellent listening skills
- Strong public speaking skills
- Excellent analytical skills
- Good communication skills
- Great research skills
- Great interpersonal skills
- Excellent problem-solving skills
- Outstanding writing skills
Job Responsibilities
Generally, the role of an Entertainment lawyer is either transactional or in litigation. In transactional, you’ll engage in negotiations, create contracts, and ensure the parties to the contract honor it. In most cases, transactional lawyers in the entertainment industry work with agencies representing the clients. They negotiate pay rates and proper working agreements and ensure the terms of the agreement are favorable for the clients.
The role of a litigation lawyer in the entertainment industry is to represent and defend the clients engaged in a lawsuit against a third party. Most lawsuits in this industry are for defamation, copyright infringement, intellectual property, breach of contractual agreements, or liability. Also, as an entertainment lawyer, you need to have a solid understanding of corporate law, as you will defend your clients who have been sued by corporate entities.
Salary & Job Outlook
Generally, most media legal jobs are well-paid. On average, the annual salary of an entertainment and news media lawyer is $76,300 on the lower scale and $136,260 on the higher scale. When it comes to hourly wages, media lawyers receive $27 on the lower scale and $66 on the higher scale.
Related Jobs
- Intellectual Property Lawyer
- Contract Lawyer
- Labor Lawyer
- Bankruptcy Lawyer
- Tax Lawyer
- Defamation Lawyer
Data Privacy Attorney
Job Description
Data privacy is essential as it allows you or businesses to have control of important and private information. Data privacy ensures the information is safe and only accessible to parties who are privy to it. Data handling in this digital age is such a complex affair, and it requires a good lawyer to deal with it.
In most cases, the data that most entities want to keep private and secure are the intellectual property, trade secrets, financial information of the clients, among other data.
As a Data Privacy Attorney, your role is to help your clients to develop necessary measures to keep the data secure and to provide legal solutions if such measures become ineffective. In this legal field, you can work as a litigation lawyer or take up in house media lawyer jobs to enforce the right of privacy.
Key Skill and Competencies
To become a private data attorney, you should have both educational qualifications and experience. In addition to your qualifications as a lawyer, you need:
- Deep interest in technology
- Creative thinking skills
- Ability to navigate uncertainty in the technology
- Ability to adapt to the ever-changing legal landscape
- Collaborative and practical
- Take up classes in data privacy and security for a better understanding of the career
- Intentionally interact with people who have a deeper knowledge of the technology
- Consider studying computer science
- Stay up to date with the current and future data privacy laws
- Basic technological competence as you focus on wider legal areas such as contract law, tort, intellectual property, and so on
Job Responsibilities
Generally, the focus of these media lawyer jobs is to understand the complex and evolving laws that surround data privacy. The role of a data privacy attorney is to:
- Conduct data risk assessments, such as privacy impact assessments
- Help clients develop administrative safeguards, such as policies, contracts, and procedures
- Assess, implement, and maintain privacy, and secure security programs
- Conduct client awareness training
- Defend and prosecute privacy data security claims on behalf of clients
- Respond to regulatory and criminal investigations against clients
- Deal with incidents and respond to data breach notifications
- Negotiate on behalf of client’s cyber insurance cover and follow up on cyber insurance claims
- Resolve transactional disputes
- Advise clients on Internet of Things matters
Salary & Job Outlook
The average salary of a Data Privacy Attorney is $174,600 per year or $89.54 per hour. These media law and policy jobs pay an average of $135,550 per year at the entry-level. Experienced attorneys can earn up to $235,000 per year.
Related Jobs
- Intellectual Property Attorney
- Criminal Law Attorney
- Cybersecurity Attorney
- Document Review Attorney
- Compliance & Privacy Attorney
Transactions Associate Attorney/Counsel
Job Description
A Transactions Associate Attorney/Counsel is simply known as a business lawyer. Unlike litigation attorneys, transactional lawyers are not involved in courtroom legal matters. Instead, transactional lawyers help business entities with legal issues that touch on their businesses. This includes drafting and negotiating contracts between parties, advising clients on various monetary transactions, sales, mergers, acquisitions, and other legal aspects of the business.
In addition to businesses, professionals in these media lawyer jobs can help in the management and administration of private estates. Other roles that a transactional attorney can undertake are drafting wills, negotiating leases, power of attorney, and filing tax returns and documents for their clients.
Key Skills and Competencies
To become a Transactional Associate Attorney, you need to have similar qualifications as a litigation lawyer. To build your experience and portfolio in the media and entertainment industry, you should consider taking up media law internships while in law school.
In addition, you can apply for media jobs for people with a law degree in different media and entertainment entities. By doing this, you will have enough work experience and knowledge to get you started in your career as soon as possible.
The specific requirements are:
- Law degree
- Admission to the Bar
- Excellent research skills
- Great interpersonal skills
- Good communication skills
Job Responsibilities
As a Transactional Associate Attorney, you’ll have to:
- Oversee agreements and contracts concerning your business
- Verify all business and financial documents
- Negotiate various legal instruments for the company
- Advise the business with regards to trademark and intellectual property
- Oversee real estate transactions
- Oversee mergers and acquisitions for businesses
- Offer estate planning services to individual clients
- Draft and negotiate contracts for individual clients, such as employment contracts, loan documents, or leases
Salary & Job Outlook
On average, the income of a transactional lawyer is $102,692 annually, which translates to $49.37 per hour. However, some transactional entertainment law jobs or business mediation attorney jobs come with an annual salary of as little as $37,000. In contrast, experienced lawyers can earn a high of up to $180,000 a year.
Related Jobs
- Contract Attorney
- Media, Technology, and Commercial Transactions Attorney (e.g., media law clerkship in tax law)
- Mergers and Acquisitions Attorney
- Corporate Associate Attorney
- Insurance Attorney
- Attorney Partner
Legal Fellow
Job Description
A legal fellowship is an opportunity presented to graduating law students to serve in the public interest practice for one or two years. These legal fellowships allow the students to pursue their passions and find their career paths.
If you intend to develop your career in the media and entertainment industry, look for firms that offer a media law fellowship. Since most of them operate under international law, you get global exposure to the industry.
Although most fellowships target fresh graduates, some may require you to have a bit of work experience. However, this should not discourage you. For instance, you can work as an Entertainment Law Paralegal while in law school or during your free time.
Key Skills and Competencies
To get a legal fellowship, you need to have a Bachelor’s degree in Human Rights, social sciences, International Relations, or other relevant qualifications depending on the role of the fellowship.
The specific skills are:
- Good interpersonal skills
- Commitment for the duration of the fellowship (most fellowships take one or two years)
- Strong communication skills
- Good public speaking skills
- Ability to deliver great quality work consistently
- High degree of accountability
- Great research skills
- Good analytical skills
- Excellent writing skills
- Knowledgeable of the activities of the fellowship
Salary & Job Outlook
Generally, legal fellowships do not pay well as other lawyer jobs. On average, the legal fellow earns $41,781 a year. However, depending on the fellowship, you can make as little as $14,000 a year or as much as $74,000 a year.
Related Jobs
- Media Law and Policy Jobs Fellowships
- Internships
- Organizational Fellowships
- Firm-sponsored Fellowships
- Education and Teaching Fellowships
Media Presenter
Job Description
A media presenter hosts programs and shows on television, web-based video platforms, or radio. The presenter can present news, weather bulletins, sports, interviews, and live talkbacks.
Key Skills and Competencies
To become a media presenter, you need to possess relevant academic qualifications, such as a degree or certificate in communication. In addition, to qualify to become a media presenter, you need to have a deep interest in the industry. You can take up media lawyer jobs in a junior position to become a media presenter, especially on topics that touch on insurance law, politics, and other legal matters.
To become a successful media presenter, you should possess the following skills:
- Self-confidence and an outgoing personality
- Excellent speaking voice
- Good presentation skills
- Excellent interviewing skills
- Good multi-tasking skills
- Great command of English
- Excellent research skills and knowledge of current affairs
- Ability to work under pressure
- Technical ability to operate the studio equipment
Job Responsibilities
The general role of media presenter is to:
- Meet with producers and the team to prep the program
- Announce guests, entertainment, and music
- Read commercials, both pre-recorded and live ones
- Read the news bulletin
- Introduce live shows and entertainment performances
- Provide station time identification, time, weather, and other announcements
- Prepare scripts and interview questions and get briefs from researchers
- Host talkback programs and interviews
- Take instructions from producers, floor managers, and directors and act on them
Salary & Job Outlook
The average salary of a media presenter in the US is $43,373 per year. However, on the higher side, a media presenter can earn an average salary of $216,192 per year.
What Is Media Law?
Media law is a legal field that regulates the media and entertainment industry, broadcasting, information technology, telecommunication, censorship, advertising, and internet and online services.
Entertainment attorneys deal with legal issues that revolve around the media industry, which can be both under criminal law and civil law. Media and entertainment lawyer jobs include elements such as labor laws, data protection, and torts. Other legal jobs in the media industry feature elements of bankruptcy laws, contract law, mergers and acquisition, and intellectual property law.
Media law covers the following:
Advertising
Advertising in the media industry requires a legal expert to manage the contracts and ensure adherence to advertising rules.
Broadcasting
The role of law in broadcasting is to ensure the platform is acting in consideration of the public interest and adheres to the set laws and regulations.
Censorship
A media attorney helps the industry to balance between freedom of speech and censorship. Censorship can be political, religious, economic, or self-censorship.
Confidentiality
The role of the attorney is to ensure the private information clients share with him is confidential. It should not be shared with a third party without the consent of the client.
Copyright
The role of a copyright attorney in the media industry is to protect and defend the client’s original creation from unauthorized use.
Defamation
Defamation involves spreading false information about an individual or an organization, which might result in damaging said person or entity. Today, defamation spreads far and wide thanks to the enabling technology. This makes it an area of great legal concern.
Defamation in print media such as newspapers and magazines is referred to as libel. If it’s broadcast on digital media, such as broadcast, television, and internet videos, it’s referred to as slander. Most American media lawyer jobs will see handling cases on defamation, cyberbullying, and cyberstalking, among other offenses.
Entertainment
As we mentioned earlier, the entertainment industry is large and requires a lot of legal representation. If you are interested in an entertainment law career, you have to keep up with the trends in the industry. Also, the entertainment and media law salary is among the best in the legal profession.
What Is Entertainment Law?
Entertainment law combines both the litigation and transactional aspects of the law. It regulates not only the talents in the industry but also the production aspects of the entertainment. It is not uncommon to confuse two types of media law job – media and entertainment law.
The difference between the two is:
Entertainment law is a branch of media law. As an entertainment lawyer, you’ll deal with certain types of legal issues and clients.
Entertainment lawyer encompasses negotiation of contracts, safety, privacy, intellectual property, and rights of speech or expression. On the other hand, the media law focuses on broadcasting, privacy and confidentiality matters, and advertising and marketing issues, among others.
Generally, entertainment legal jobs cover the following entertainment law areas:
Films
This covers aspects such as talent agreements for screenwriters, actors, film directors, producers, and composers, distribution, and trade union issues.
Multimedia
This includes software licensing issues, information technology, IP issues, and video game development and production.
Music
It includes talent management of musicians, producer agreements, and IP rights.
Internet
This includes managing deals with websites and online businesses as well as enforcing cybersecurity policies.
Publishing
It deals with issues such as IP infringement, adverts, and author agreements.
Television
It includes regulatory issues and broadcast licensing, general Intellectual Property licensing, as well as mechanical licenses in the entertainment industry.
Theater
This area involves representing producers, actors, authors, investors, and rights shareholders in drafting and negotiating agreements and managing stage properties.
Freedom of information
Freedom of speech and information is a right to access information. It is at the heart of democracy, even in the entertainment industry.
How to Become a Media & Entertainment Lawyer
Being an entertainment lawyer can be challenging yet fun-filled. The entertainment law career has so much to offer, in addition to a good media law salary. You can opt for drafting the necessary court documents, litigation, or handling transactions.
The process of becoming an entertainment lawyer is not much different from that of embarking on other legal careers. Here’s what you have to do:
1. Get a Bachelor’s Degree
Before becoming a lawyer, you need to get an undergraduate degree or a relevant degree, usually Political Science, International Relations, Economics, or History. The American Bar Association encourages people who would like to pursue the law to acquire writing, speaking, analytical, and research skills.
If you want to venture into the entertainment industry as a lawyer, you need to develop a keen interest and start learning about this industry. For instance, you can take a course in film, music, literature, communication, or cultural studies.
2. Pass the Law School Admission Test
The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) has five multiple-choice sections and a writing exercise. The test is designed to test your critical thinking skills, the ability to test other people’s reasoning and arguments, the ability to draw reasonable inferences, and reading comprehension.
You can take the LSAT up to four times a year. In order to pass the test, you’ll have to prepare well. Get familiar with the format of the test, the instructions, and the nature of the questions. LSAT prep courses are also widely available.
3. Get a Law Degree
Once you’ve been admitted to law school, you have to complete the Juris Doctor degree program, which takes approximately three years. During the first year of study, you’ll master basic legal topics such as torts, contract law, property law, and civil procedure. The subsequent years of study will see you take on elective topics depending on the student’s interest. If you’re eyeing the entertainment industry, you should select a legal topic in the industry sector.
To gain more exposure and experience in the entertainment industry, you should participate in out of classroom activities such as legal clinics, media law internships, and moot courts.
Consider taking a certificate qualification in entertainment in addition to your law degree. Specialization will enable you to get a deeper understanding of the industry, surrounding legal issues, and the types of clients you’ll eventually be working with.
Also, before qualifying for these jobs, you should consider working as an Entertainment Law Paralegal to gain experience and exposure to the industry.
4. Pass the Bar
To practice as a lawyer, you must first become a member of a State bar association. The bar exam is difficult and requires extensive preparation. To up your chances of passing the bar, you should consider taking a prep course.
5. Start Working in the Entertainment Sector
You can start your law practice as soon as you become a member of the bar. You can apply for entry level entertainment law jobs where you will advise entities and their clients on pertinent issues such as the right of privacy, contract negotiation, and enforcement, among others.
6. Advance Your Education
Most states require lawyers to further their studies in order to retain or acquire some licenses. In addition, you’ll broaden your knowledge and advance your career.
You can take up approved courses and/or attend conferences and seminars that touch on the entertainment industry. To become a successful entertainment lawyer, you need to keep up to date with professional publications as well as the latest business trends in the entertainment industry.
Conclusion
The law is broad, and you need to be sure of the direction you want to take. Media law jobs are a good option for those interested in media and entertainment law, criminal law, or transactional litigation.
The good news is:
If you want to work in the entertainment industry, there are numerous media law career options dealing with torts, contracts, criminal, among other fields. If you’re fresh out of law school, you can start by taking up entry media law graduate jobs in various media law areas to help you find where you truly want to practice.
Alternatively, you can take up remote media attorney positions from different media platforms or companies in various legal fields, such as securities law, media law, tax law, among other relevant areas.
Happy job hunting!
FAQ
Q: What is media and entertainment law?
Media and entertainment law deals with both litigation and transactional aspects in the entertainment industry in matters of intellectual property, informational technology, corporate law, telecommunications, and broadcasting.
Q: What do media lawyers do?
The work of a media lawyer involves handling defamation cases, copyright disputes, drafting and negotiating contracts, advertising agency agreements, and talent agreements, and appearing in court on behalf of the clients.
Q: How much do media lawyers make in the US?
On average, media lawyers in the US earn $44 per hour or $90,758 per year. However, some media law jobs can earn as much as $170,000 or as little as $21,000.