A Look At Disney's International Legal Team

For Peter Wiley, the Walt Disney Co.'s European head of legal, these are interesting times. His employer, one of the most iconic companies in the world, is engaged in a drive to expand internationally and take the House of Mouse into the digital age.

Not that there is any shortage of lawyers to help. Disney maintains one of the largest legal teams in the world with 350 lawyers company-wide. The team is overseen in the U.S. by Alan Braverman, one of the country's most high-profile and best-paid general counsel.

Wiley's part of the empire is also significant: He oversees a 32-lawyer team, 20 of whom are based in London. He certainly retains his enthusiasm for the job, commenting: “I was attracted to the in-house scene from my early days in private practice. There is a more holistic view; when you understand the business through from start to finish, you can really add value to the company.”

Continued Growth

Since Wiley's arrival at Disney, the legal function has enjoyed measured growth internationally, keeping pace with the progress of the entertainment company as a whole. After a period of stability in Disney's UK legal team, the company is moving to expand its team abroad. “We are particularly focused on emerging markets, such as Russia, India and China, and recently recruited our first in-house lawyer in Moscow,” Wiley says.

Further testament to Disney's expansion was the development of the Hong Kong Disneyland resort ' a joint venture with the nation's government ' that opened in 2005, making it the third major Disney resort outside the U.S. and the second in the emerging Asian market. However, the company's growth is not confined to emerging market expansion. Disney completed the acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in 2006 and online game site Club Penguin in 2007.

Wiley explains that his team had to embrace different forms of content delivery, such as video-on-demand, as part of its continued growth and its changing role as a legal function. Given this backdrop of digital revolution, Disney has been trying to uphold its intellectual property rights in the battle against piracy. Wiley says the company is keen to avoid recent troubles that have plagued the music industry. “One of the major challenges to the business is Internet-based piracy. It has hit the music industry very hard and is obviously a big issue for the film industry,” he says. “However, anti-piracy initiatives are often controversial; not least in the relationship between data protection and copyright enforcement.”

Practice Lines

The company has so far focused its large legal team mainly within its business divisions rather than building a big, centralized team. “Seventy-five percent of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) legal team sit with specific lines of business and are defacto dedicated. There is a small central group, but the vast majority are responsible for specific business units regionally,” Wiley says. “The lawyers for areas of the business, such as the Disney Channel for example, are physically located with business units. We deliberately avoid using a large, centralized legal function. It destroys the essential closeness to the business.”

Along with the legal function working closely with the business, the worldwide lawyers form a coordinated network so that they can work together on common issues. “Worldwide business functions have close business relationships with lawyers in similar functions across the world,” Wiley explains. “It is important that information and knowledge is shared on a worldwide basis and not just in EMEA, and that there is a high degree of coordination in the legal function.

“Some specialist functions are run globally, for example trademark issues ' because trademark registrations are determined on a global basis ' and also antitrust where we need a worldwide perspective.”

With Disney requiring its lawyers to interact closely with the commercial side of the company as well as being able to offer assistance to their legal colleagues, it is essential that recruitment for the team is carried out carefully. “We place a high value on strong technical ability,” Wiley says.

Career Development

However, like other general counsel, one of Wiley's main concerns is meeting the ambitions of his team. “Career development is always a challenge for in-housers, so we try to move people around,” he says. “We are in the process of transferring a lawyer in our Madrid office to London and we recently transferred an American lawyer from Japan to London.”

Alongside the in-house team, the company uses a range of law firms to conduct more specialist business. Although Disney operates no formal panel, Clifford Chance, Bird & Bird, Olswang Bevan Brittan and SJ Berwin are among the firms regularly used in the UK and Europe. “In our UK legal function we tend to only outsource specialized work,” Wiley says. “Bread-and-butter business advice, we do in-house. We act very much like a small firm. We outsource more outside of the UK across the European Union and use a relatively large number of firms for special tasks. We spread our instructions around. I would describe it as horses for courses.”

The entertainment company continues to perform well despite the economic downturn: The company reported a 9% hike in current third-quarter profit.

For Peter Wiley, the Walt Disney Co.'s European head of legal, these are interesting times. His employer, one of the most iconic companies in the world, is engaged in a drive to expand internationally and take the House of Mouse into the digital age.

Not that there is any shortage of lawyers to help. Disney maintains one of the largest legal teams in the world with 350 lawyers company-wide. The team is overseen in the U.S. by Alan Braverman, one of the country's most high-profile and best-paid general counsel.

Wiley's part of the empire is also significant: He oversees a 32-lawyer team, 20 of whom are based in London. He certainly retains his enthusiasm for the job, commenting: “I was attracted to the in-house scene from my early days in private practice. There is a more holistic view; when you understand the business through from start to finish, you can really add value to the company.”

Continued Growth

Since Wiley's arrival at Disney, the legal function has enjoyed measured growth internationally, keeping pace with the progress of the entertainment company as a whole. After a period of stability in Disney's UK legal team, the company is moving to expand its team abroad. “We are particularly focused on emerging markets, such as Russia, India and China, and recently recruited our first in-house lawyer in Moscow,” Wiley says.

Further testament to Disney's expansion was the development of the Hong Kong Disneyland resort ' a joint venture with the nation's government ' that opened in 2005, making it the third major Disney resort outside the U.S. and the second in the emerging Asian market. However, the company's growth is not confined to emerging market expansion. Disney completed the acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in 2006 and online game site Club Penguin in 2007.

Wiley explains that his team had to embrace different forms of content delivery, such as video-on-demand, as part of its continued growth and its changing role as a legal function. Given this backdrop of digital revolution, Disney has been trying to uphold its intellectual property rights in the battle against piracy. Wiley says the company is keen to avoid recent troubles that have plagued the music industry. “One of the major challenges to the business is Internet-based piracy. It has hit the music industry very hard and is obviously a big issue for the film industry,” he says. “However, anti-piracy initiatives are often controversial; not least in the relationship between data protection and copyright enforcement.”

Practice Lines

The company has so far focused its large legal team mainly within its business divisions rather than building a big, centralized team. “Seventy-five percent of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) legal team sit with specific lines of business and are defacto dedicated. There is a small central group, but the vast majority are responsible for specific business units regionally,” Wiley says. “The lawyers for areas of the business, such as the Disney Channel for example, are physically located with business units. We deliberately avoid using a large, centralized legal function. It destroys the essential closeness to the business.”

Along with the legal function working closely with the business, the worldwide lawyers form a coordinated network so that they can work together on common issues. “Worldwide business functions have close business relationships with lawyers in similar functions across the world,” Wiley explains. “It is important that information and knowledge is shared on a worldwide basis and not just in EMEA, and that there is a high degree of coordination in the legal function.

“Some specialist functions are run globally, for example trademark issues ' because trademark registrations are determined on a global basis ' and also antitrust where we need a worldwide perspective.”

With Disney requiring its lawyers to interact closely with the commercial side of the company as well as being able to offer assistance to their legal colleagues, it is essential that recruitment for the team is carried out carefully. “We place a high value on strong technical ability,” Wiley says.

Career Development

However, like other general counsel, one of Wiley's main concerns is meeting the ambitions of his team. “Career development is always a challenge for in-housers, so we try to move people around,” he says. “We are in the process of transferring a lawyer in our Madrid office to London and we recently transferred an American lawyer from Japan to London.”

Alongside the in-house team, the company uses a range of law firms to conduct more specialist business. Although Disney operates no formal panel, Clifford Chance, Bird & Bird, Olswang Bevan Brittan and SJ Berwin are among the firms regularly used in the UK and Europe. “In our UK legal function we tend to only outsource specialized work,” Wiley says. “Bread-and-butter business advice, we do in-house. We act very much like a small firm. We outsource more outside of the UK across the European Union and use a relatively large number of firms for special tasks. We spread our instructions around. I would describe it as horses for courses.”

The entertainment company continues to perform well despite the economic downturn: The company reported a 9% hike in current third-quarter profit.