August 2023 - present
Los Angeles, CA

• Oversee the Business & Legal Affairs (BALA) function of SMKEA; serve as a subject matter expert providing executive-level guidance to C-suite colleagues in the U.S. and Asia and support other team members at all levels on a wide range of legal and business affairs, including day-to-day matters and our most complex transactions and regulatory issues.

• Draft, review, negotiate, and track a wide variety of standard and bespoke music industry agreements, commercial contracts, and corporate agreements, including: record deals, talent management agreements, music publishing contracts, distribution agreements, digital and OOH marketing agreements, live and virtual tour/concert deals, talent agency agreements, technology licenses, public relations agreements, joint venture deals, music producer deals, master-use sync licenses, side artist agreements, film/TV production and talent agreements, consulting agreements, and more; maintain the company’s legal templates.

• Engage proactively in partner relations management efforts in the U.S. and abroad; counselling C-Level team on ways to create win-win relationships and advance SMKEA’s business goals with partners such as CAA, Warner Music Group, Marvel, Moon & Back Media UK, BBC, BMG, Capitol Records, Virgin, Sony Music/RCA Records, Roblox, Netflix, Billboard, etc.

• Supervise one direct report and one law student intern; providing both with valuable direct exposure to key legal issues in the music industry and a variety of one-to-one legal educational opportunities; delegating suitable work assignments.

• Manage all legal affairs in connection with the first non-Korean music act to be launched by SM Entertainment, a British boyband to soon be introduced to the public via a prime time television show on the BBC and globally distributed by ITV; negotiated the shareholder’s agreement, the TV production agreement, global record label partner agreements, and all music production and songwriter agreements; developed the proposals for label partners and pitched them, oversaw the visa application process for the band members to train in Seoul under SM’s renowned K-Pop system, collaborate with CFO and operational team to manage multi-million-dollar budget for a project with many moving parts across multiple territories.

• Negotiated, drafted, and closed a record deal with RCA Records for our newest K-Pop boyband RIIZE within only 5 days from receipt of interest in order to meet release schedule; secured a multi-million-dollar investment from RCA.

• Closely advise A&R, Marketing, Global Partnerships, Royalty Operations, Global Distribution, Finance, and other departments regarding our key contractual rights, obligations, restrictions.

• Proactively identify, analyze, and raise necessary awareness of financial, legal, contractual and reputational risks of certain business activities, launching new lines of business, collaborating with various partners, seeking/allowing early contract termination, and dispute resolution; continuously mediating and managing cultural differences impacting partnerships.

• Participate in continuing legal and business education regarding legal and technological developments impacting the global music industry, such as A.I., Web3, blockchain tech, deep fakes, NFTs, etc.

• Propose and justify annual legal budget; delegate work to and supervise the work and billing practices of multiple external global, national, and local law firms; actively manage outside counsel spend and negotiate rates.

• Perform candidate searches for our legal job openings, instruct and supervise search firms, interview candidates.

• Identify and implement contract lifecycle management system; draft, review, and revise corporate policies and procedures.

• Maintain legal templates; oversee implementation of contract lifecycle management system; prepare policies and procedures.

February 2023 – present
Los Angeles, CA

• While on a semi-sabbatical to care for a family member and pursue personal goals, provided legal consultation on matters at the intersection of entertainment and technology to large and small organizations and individual creative clients.

• Selected and featured on Billboard’s 2023 Top Music Lawyers list for cutting-edge work in the Web3 music and fashion space plus cross-border work representing emerging and established K-Pop artists.

• Supported major Korean music company in the setup of operations for a global music publishing company subsidiary; conducting multi-territory market research to uncover business opportunity, risks, and legal landscape for the subsidiary; assisting the company in post-M&A integration efforts and establishment of foreign subsidiary in the U.S. and other territories.

• Engaged as Outside General Counsel to a company that produced a television series akin to “Shark Tank” for Web3 entrepreneurs for a major television network; primarily developed and advised on securities law regulatory compliance strategy; interfaced with casting, finance, production legal, background check partner, and production team; drafted best practices guidelines for the production company and the talent; performed due diligence on each contestant project; reviewed multiple legal opinions from law firms in multiple territories and advised on the substantive findings.

• Brainstormed with leading companies in the Japanese music industry (e.g., Avex Music, Amuse) to expand their music, film, and other cultural contents into the global market; carefully explored the globalization of the Japanese music industry.

• Represented an independent music labels and artists on a variety of standard music industry transactions and partnership strategy development.

• Sharing my knowledge in the Web3 space as a speaker at a variety of domestic and international Web3 and music conferences plus private Web3 symposiums, podcasts, and the like such as NFT.NYC, Outer Edge LA, WebX Asia in Tokyo, etc.

July 2022 – February 2023
Los Angeles, CA

• Led the Gala Music business and legal affairs team as General Counsel before being promoted to the role of Vice-President and Global Head of Music; drafting, structuring, and negotiating deals across multiple emerging and established artist music  and film NFT projects plus researched relevant laws and remained abreast of rapid developments in the Web3 industry for compliance and risk assessment purposes; nurturing strong team spirit based on trust and collaboration.

• As Global Head of Music, structured, organized, collaborated with, and led a team of twenty members managing artist acquisition, user acquisition and engagement, creative and digital marketing strategy for digital music collectibles campaigns, emerging and established artist relations, revenue modelling, data-driven market research, and international expansion strategy.

• Introduced and actively negotiated and/or secured NFT campaign deals with established artists such as Snoop Dogg, Kings of Leon, Bone Thugs N Harmony, the Tupac Shakur Estate, Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, Fana Hues, the Bassjackers, Anderson .Paak, CeeLo Green, the Black Eyed Peas, WSTRN, Jaz Karis, K-Pop acts and more.

• Developed and launched the live emerging artist showcase event brand “Gala Music Live” plus coordinating and (in some cases) personally hosting events in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and London with plans for other international and U.S. cities; the events have resulted in signing deals with dozens of artists whose NFT sales on the Gala Music platform represent 60% of all emerging artist revenues on the platform and over 50% of artists signed to date.

• Developed key domestic and global commercial partnerships within the music industry with partners such as EMPIRE, SoundCloud, SM Entertainment, Live Nation, NFT Records, KLEIO, CoinPost, HoneyCon, Supersphere, AWAL, Cygnus Music, Amuse, Avex Music, etc.; acted as the public face of Gala Music to artist and B2B partners globally.

• Lead Gala Music’s business strategy, setting the vision, developing processes, deciding tentpole artist activations, advising the CEO on the most impactful opportunities for artist and user acquisition and engagement.

• Negotiating and implementing Gala Music’s sponsorship of the EMPIRE 2023 Grammys event.

June 2021 – July 2022
Los Angeles, California

• Led the Business and Legal Affairs functions for Repost by SoundCloud (“Repost”), the recently acquired fastest-growing business vertical within SoundCloud’s fast-paced, highly agile environment.

• Provided expert legal counsel and strategic business advice in connection with Repost’s emerging label services business, including the signing of 70+ independent artists, Billboard-charting producers, talent management companies, and successful independent label partners to global digital music distribution agreements, joint venture agreements, music publishing agreements, sponsorship agreements, and artist marketing and promotional services agreements.

• Led the legal effort to stand up the Repost Publishing business vertical by drafting our key publishing agreement templates, advising the engineering team on royalty accounting, negotiating publishing administration services agreement with established global publishing royalty collection entity; drove roll-out strategy in close coordination with the publishing and finance teams.

• Negotiated agreement with Take Two/2K for the synchronization of music by 20 SoundCloud artists into 2K’s title game franchise NBA2K via a SoundCloud-managed contest; researching and summarizing contest laws for project team.

• Engaged as a member of the Web 3.0 taskforce at SoundCloud and developed strategies for how to position SoundCloud in the Web 3.0 space, including exploring key partnerships and networking with Web 3.0 industry leaders.

• Advised on Art. 17 of the EU Copyright Directive (and DMCA) regarding how to handle UGC, including Fair Use.

• Drafted, negotiated, and closed the largest artist deal in SoundCloud’s history with its first label roster artist (a multi-million-dollar capital investment) plus additional roster artist deals as SoundCloud rapidly develops its new label-like business.

• Trained and managed Repost’s first junior legal counsel as my direct report; conducting performance reviews and creating career development plans; providing challenging projects and consistent guidance and oversight.

• Oversaw the work of multiple leading external law firms; providing instruction to outside counsel; reviewing billings.

• Supported the DSP business vertical in renewal negotiations of our major record label catalog licensing deals.

• Developed policies and procedures for effective contract review, template development, and contract playbook development; leading the sourcing, internal buy-in, and implementation of new contract management system.

September 2019 – June 2021
Los Angeles, California

• Managed the Business and Legal Affairs functions of the U.S. subsidiary of the largest South Korean entertainment conglomerate and record label, including playing an integral role in the development and implementation of strategic and tactical objectives for North American/LATAM /U.K./E.U. markets.

• Collaborated closely with our Head of Business Development in aggressive market penetration by overseeing a broad range of partnership agreements on behalf of SM and its highest-profile artists. Such agreements include agency deals, major label record distribution deals, sponsorship agreements, music licensing agreements across a variety of media, major TV/Film studio deals, technology partnerships, visual media licenses, product placement deals, PR services agreements, distribution agreements, etc. with partners such as Universal Music Group, CAA, Ubisoft, LG, Marvel, LEGO, Intel, and more.

• Negotiated the deal between SME, Dubit Limited, and Roblox for NCT 127’s virtual concert on Roblox.

• Drafted and negotiated multiple film and TV project co-development agreements with successful U.S. film and TV industry producers (e.g., MGM); drafting and negotiating a feature-length movie deal and a TV series deal with Netflix.

• Brokered multi-city tour agreements that have generated tens of millions of dollars with promoters such as Live Nation.

• Negotiated retail capsule collection fashion deal with Marvel for collaboration with SM Entertainment supergroup, Super M.

• Spearheaded agreements between SME, PAPER, and Dematerialised for an NFT fashion line drop featuring leading K-Pop girlband “aespa”.

• Drafted and negotiated plethora of master music licenses for various audiovisual projects and live performances, e.g., MTV VMAs, The Ellen Show live, Good Morning America, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Major League Baseball, Trolls 2, Tetris, Fraggle Rock, etc.

• Negotiated a multi-year marketing partnership agreement with Ubisoft for “Just Dance”, a global top-selling game title.

• Secured key SaaS agreement with an industry-leading data intelligence platform provider that fundamentally altered and enhanced our ability to identify and monetize millions of target customers across our digital channels.

• Strategized and implemented fundamental change in the way the Compliance/Legal team at headquarters integrates the Business & Legal Affairs team at SM USA as a rapidly growing subsidiary in a primary market for future revenue growth, thereby creating better project management, enhanced workflow efficiency, and greater trust between cross-border teams.

• Managed the legal affairs for SuperM’s participation in the Global Citizen “Together at Home” campaign, a global broadcast to support frontline healthcare workers and the WHO during COVID-19, viewed by 21 million people & raised $128 million.

• As the first ever Black employee of SM Entertainment, pioneering the effort for greater diversity & inclusion while we are at the forefront of expanding K-Pop music and Korean “HallyU” to the Western Hemisphere.

September 2016 – September 2019
Tokyo, Japan

• Foreign legal counsel at “Big Four” international law firm in Japan; TMT/Data Privacy/IP and general corporate focus.

• Drafted a large volume of commercial and technology agreements (including Waterfall, Agile, and EULA structured agreements) for large international clients, such as BPO and ITO outsourcing agreements, joint research and development agreements, complex software licenses, enterprise SaaS agreements, NDAs, professional services agreements, creative content license agreements, joint venture agreements, online terms and conditions, and more.

• Drafted a multi-billion-yen cross-border MMORPG mobile video game licensing and marketing agreement between a leading Japanese client in the electronic gaming industry and a U.S.-based company for a global top-selling title.

• Key member of the Data Privacy practice providing counsel regarding Act of the Protection of Personal Information, related Japanese data privacy regulations, and the GDPR to dozens of multi-national entities conducting business involving domestic and international data transactions with the personal information of data subjects; drafted and revised a large volume of privacy policies relating to customer and employee data privacy, online data privacy, cookies, e-commerce and more;  prepared many data transfer agreements, including intra-group agreements for multi-national clients.

• Advised cloud SaaS provider in the negotiation of a master services agreement for the cross-border provision of a SaaS solution to one of the largest global car manufacturers; counselled client on commercial and data privacy provisions.

• Negotiated complex software licensing and integration agreement involving complex Point of Sales system roll-out essential to global client’s operations in Japan; closely advised on all data privacy issues related to the implementation to help client ensure strong protection of customer personal data which would be transferred extraterritorially.

• Prepared and presented in-depth training to Japan office of "Big Four" U.S. tech company on the topic of risk allocation in its international contracts (particularly tech transactions, such as hardware sale and software licensing agreements).

April 2016 – August 2016
Santa Monica, California

• Provided legal counsel in a demanding environment regarding contract negotiation strategies, contract drafting, contractual risk management/mitigation, and contractual obligations to executive management, marketing, sales, and other internal clients of Red Bull’s beverage, distribution, music, marketing, media, and sports businesses.

• Prepared content licensing and distribution agreements for the exploitation of various high-value Red Bull intellectual properties, including for multi-faceted, one-of-a-kind live events held in multiple territories.

• Structured, drafted, and negotiated a range of commercial contracts, including vendor services agreements, professional consulting contracts, marketing agreements, IP licenses, IT software and systems agreements, live music and sporting event production agreements, supplier agreements, NDAs, sponsorship and advertising agreements, sweepstakes, etc.

• Delivered timely counsel to the innovative marketing teams well-known for their effective and creative marketing efforts, provided counsel to executives on unique marketing strategies, particularly in the sporting and music-related ventures.

March 2015 – April 2016
March 2011 – July 2013
Long Beach, CA

• Primary counsel providing legal services to Procurement and IT Departments of Molina, a Fortune 300 company; drafted and successfully negotiated hundreds of complex and business critical commercial contracts (e.g., consulting agreements, sales agreements, business associate agreements, professional services agreements, etc.) and a broad base of IT agreements affecting operations for 15 health plans and representing many millions of dollars in annual spend.

• Collaborated with Privacy and Security officials on essential corporate risk management policies, including policies governing data privacy and HIPAA, disaster recovery, IT risk management audits, and more.

• Spearheaded sophisticated technology contract negotiations with a plethora of domestic and global IT vendors, including agreements for software licensing, SaaS, enterprise cloud services, service level agreements, IT outsourcing, technology consultancy, software maintenance, data privacy/security, NDAs, and more.

• Key member of the project management team for Data Loss Prevention implementation, guided large multi-departmental team in complex DLP software integration and nationwide testing and roll-out.

• Reduced response time of Legal Department to Procurement and IT Department requests for contract review by greater than 50% and, thus, contributed to substantial reduction in contract execution schedule through rapid response and efficient contract review and negotiation; continuously improved and strengthened standard contract templates.

• Drafted social media policies, Guest Wireless Network Policy, and Bring Your Own Mobile Device Policy; advised on National Labor Relations Board social media policy guidance and FTC consumer protection in marketing regulations.

• Provided primary legal support to Marketing Department concerning matters of copyright and trademark, and counselled with regard to developing compliant TV, radio, and print marketing campaigns in our fifteen states of operation.

April 2009 – March 2011
Los Angeles, California

• Guided start-up entertainment enterprise in its business development by advising on corporate governance and IP strategy and protection, and by negotiating partnerships with online distributors and branded entertainment companies.

• Advised CEO on copyright and trademark matters relating to music and television content, digital media, music publishing, synchronization and other content licensing, IP registration, and contentious IP protection.

• Drafted appearance consent releases, personal appearance agreements, recording artist contracts, music production agreements, music management agreements, and other essential music industry agreements.

March 2008 – March 2009
Los Angeles, California

• Associate attorney at prestigious global law firm undertaking assignments involving contentious and non-contentious IP matters (including trademark and copyright), music entertainment and film finance, and financial restructuring.

• Prepared memoranda in a trademark infringement case where the firm organized a raid against a counterfeit goods operation on behalf of a client who produces well-known designer clothing.

• Supported partners in the Financial Restructuring Dept. by summarizing the terms of complex asset purchase agreements for record label client entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.