About

Having gone ‘from business facilitator to business catalyst’, according to the director of legal and business affairs, Tiago da Mota – The Fox Networks legal team is fully hands-on and applies a ‘global mind-set and a local execution’, in order to achieve this. The team is composed by one legal director, da Mota and one legal counsel in Inês Nogueira, who partake in a 360 degree range of activity. In addition to overseeing the operations of the legal department, da Mota acts mainly on business affairs and external relations involving regulatory, corporate and commercial matters. ‘[He] came in as legal director and quickly displayed remarkable legal reasoning as well as a commercial approach to the issues at hand, never losing sight of the key objectives’, says a nominator. Nogueira acts predominantly on digital media, intellectual property, litigation, data protection and privacy, corporate and commercial and content acquisitions. ‘During the last two years, everything and every step, process and procedure is about how the legal team can be perceived as a business facilitator and a business catalyst’, says da Mota. The legal team has striven to be a provider of clear legal services, while at the same time being a business partner, enabler and strategist. It has accomplished this by applying solid business sense, the right amount of versatility and constantly updating their legal knowledge while implementing new processes and new approaches. Due to this approach the legal team not only identifies risks and ensures compliance with applicable law and policies but also identifies the business opportunities that may be hidden in regulation, law and negotiations, aiming to align the strategy and find competitive advantages. This change in perception has allowed Fox to promote cutting-edge and innovative business decisions, marketing stunts and to develop new businesses. ‘The organisation and diversified background of the team encourages the adaptability, innovation, versatility and flawless and constantly updated legal knowledge. This power-combo enables the team to be extremely proactive and effective in finding new ways to frame issues and anticipating needs during business activities, quickly finding a common ground and solving critical deadlocks in negotiations’, explains da Mota.