VP, Legal (New York)

About Us

Powered by one of the largest global newsrooms in sports media, The Athletic brings sports fans the most comprehensive stories about the teams, sports and athletes they love. The Athletic's newsroom of 500+ full-time staff delivers in-depth coverage of hundreds of professional and college teams across more than 47 North American markets and all 20 football clubs in the English Premier League, as well as many Championship clubs.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior legal leader for The Athletic, assessing risk on a broad range of business and legal matters, making executive recommendations and driving matters to resolution, escalating to the General Counsel as appropriate.
• Provide legal support to The Athletic's digital product organization, including teams across product, design, data and engineering, on compliance with laws, assessing issues and crafting risk-based solutions that balance legal requirements with business objectives.

• Act as the primary legal partner for the product development team on AI and generative AI legal issues offering risk mitigation strategies across multiple jurisdictions, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to align technology use with company strategy.

• Work closely with The Athletic leadership in coordinating and advising on major legal and regulatory matters, handling special projects and initiatives, developing and implementing team operations and budgeting improvements, identifying efficiency opportunities, helping coordinate on compliance activities, policy development, risk assessment processes and training programs.
• Collaborate with subject matter experts across technical and non-technical teams, New York Times Company lawyers and stakeholders to consolidate multiple legal and business considerations into clear guidance in service of company strategy and product goals.
• Provide oversight on commercial transactions and directly manage the team that provides commercial legal support and legal operations for The Athletic's business.
• Stay informed about legal decisions, statutory changes, and market and industry trends, and, in coordination with the team, advise clients and recommend proactive action when necessary.

Requirements

• Undergraduate and J.D. degrees, and a member of good standing of the New York bar or the equivalent.
• 10+ years of relevant work experience that includes experience with product counseling and the handling of a broad range of intellectual property, technology, data privacy and commercial transactions, with increasing levels of responsibility.
• Experience advising product and other teams through complex matters, with diverse stakeholders and competing interests.
• Experience managing a team and achieving results in a high pressure environment.
• Ability to contribute to discussions of general business issues, to work well with a wide range of clients from senior management to operating personnel, and to work independently as well as to lead a project from conception to completion.
• Ability to analyze complex legal material and communicate implications in clear and simple language, along with a clear recommendation for an appropriate course of action.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to balance competing demands.
• Experience in generative AI and AI counseling and compliance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience acting as a member of a senior leadership team
• Experience working on a fast-paced in-house legal team
• Experience advising engineering, design or other technical teams
• Experience in news, media and/or journalism

For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.

For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

We are excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process. If you are a candidate for a technical role, we will let you know what specific tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.

The Athletic Media Company is an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically encourages people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply. The Athletic will consider all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

Click here to review our Applicant Privacy Notice, which describes how and when The Athletic Media Company collects, uses, and shares certain personal information of job applicants and prospective employees.

Beware of fraudulent job recruiting schemes! Our recruiters use [email protected] exclusively, and our team members will use an email address with @theathletic.com domain. We do not conduct interviews via text or instant message and we do not ask candidates to download software, to purchase equipment through us, or to provide sensitive personally identifiable information, such as bank accounts or social security numbers. If you have been contacted by someone claiming to be a member of the recruiting/HR team at The Athletic but operating from a different email address about a job offer, please report it as potential job fraud to the law enforcement and to [email protected].