What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have recently been involved in?

My current practice focuses on entertainment transactions, including our transformational deal with NBCU for Assembly Studios in Atlanta, the launch and syndication of our new sports betting show “Beat the Odds,” and our sports relationships with the Nashville SuperSpeedway, Falcons, Raiders, ACC, and NBA (among others). I led Gray’s investment in Triple B Media, the purchase of the GameTime television assets, and other confidential investments. In addition, I have been at the forefront of Gray’s expansion into Spanish-language media with the purchase of Telemundo Atlanta and the launch of dozens of new Telemundo affiliates and Spanish-language news cooperations.

As we enter the next decade, what skills will a corporate legal team need to succeed in the modern in-house industry?

It is going to sound like a broken record, but technology changes rapidly (including that records are not the primary way of listening to music anymore!). In-house counsel need to be comfortable with technology advances, and use it to our advantage in a mobile, work-anywhere environment. While we have been talking about AI in the law for a while, there’s simple things at work now. For example, I talk to Siri to dial my phone while I am typing emails so I can do two things at once. But as AI makes contracting easier and helps move some of the volume work to computers for the first pass, that will free up in-house counsel time for strategic endeavours. I generally say the practice of law is 20% of my day – the rest is being a trusted counsellor, a strategist, and a conscience of the organisation. Those are the roles that in-house counsel is uniquely positioned to fulfil as they are “under the hood” on the operations and strategic direction of the company they serve.

The unusual business environment created by the pandemic has been swiftly followed by other shocks. Are you now putting more emphasis on preparing for the unforeseen and, if so, what does this entail?

In every transaction, lawyers have to ask, “what if the worst-case scenario came to pass?” Lawyers are known for being risk-averse but laying out the worst case does not need to be the final say from a lawyer. Indeed, if you are always scared of risks, you will never do anything new. Especially for in-house lawyers who understand their business and their company’s personality, laying out the worst case, and then commenting on it is of great value to a company. We may recommend moving forward anyway because the worst-case scenario has a limited chance of occurring or the transaction makes sense even in the worst-case scenario. I find outside counsel often tell you all the bad things that could happen, and then “hard stop.” In-house counsel starts at the parade of horrible but have the opportunity to use their knowledge of the company, company culture, and other day-to-day operational information to help businesspeople make informed decisions on whether the risk is worth it or not.