Legal Counsel, China

Requisition Number: 151659

Position Title: Attorney 2

External Description:

We are looking for a talented lawyer to be based in our Shanghai (Jingan District) office to support our business in China, which includes development, licensing and publication of video games.  

You will work closely with our business teams and must be comfortable with negotiating and drafting content licensing contracts with top tier publishers, as well as building and maintaining relationships with the inhouse counsel of our key partners.

This is a generalist role, and you will be expected to take day-to-day responsibility for all legal needs of our business in China, and you may be tasked to support our businesses in other parts of Asia.  Therefore, you must have the technical skill, experience and business acumen to handle a wide range of issues including IP, employment, e-commerce, data protection, compliance and other issues that may arise from time to time.

To succeed in this role, you will need to be comfortable with working in an ever-changing, yet very fast-paced, environment and be able to solve complex problems using creativity and practicality.

 

Key Responsibilities

The key responsibilities of this role can be grouped into the following 4 areas: (1) advisory, (2) contracts, (3) disputes, and (4) general.

1. Advisory: As a generalist, you will provide frontline support for our China-based functions – including Publishing, Studio, HR, Finance and Facilities.  You will advise on issues relating to commercial and contract law, interactive entertainment creation and exploitation, IP, employment, e-commerce, esports, consumer law, data protection, and compliance.  Over time, you will be expected to become intimately familiar with common and recurring issues in these areas.  For more complex issues, you will work closely with our legal specialists based around the world.

Additionally, as the China specialist, you need to understand and advise on the local regulatory environment and ensure compliance with Chinese laws and regulations.  You will stay up to date on relevant legal developments, and proactively advise our business and specialists.

You must demonstrate problem-solving skills and your advice must be complete with solution-oriented recommendations, which will require exercising good judgement and risk management, as well as anticipating follow up questions.

You need to be able to grasp the key issues and communicate clearly, concisely and persuasively, both in English and Chinese.

1. Contracts: This position requires strong contract drafting and interpretation skills, and your primary responsibility in this area includes negotiating, drafting and reviewing a wide range of commercial agreements, some involving novel and unique business models and arrangements. 

Some of the more common types of agreements include marketing, merchandising, development outsourcing, licensing, distribution, esports, facilities and third party vendor agreements.  While we have template agreements, you should be able to properly and accurately reflect the business objectives in the agreements. You should be able to review and draft all the agreements in both English and Chinese languages. You should proactively and continuously make improvements to our existing agreements and processes. We work closely with other stakeholders, and therefore you need to manage wide range of projects involving multiple teams at multiple levels.

3.Disputes, Investigations & Gov’t Inquiries: As a generalist, you will work closely with external counsel and internal litigation specialists to manage litigation and disputes (usually involving consumers and employees).  You will also be tasked to assist with government inquiries/audits and internal investigations, working closely with our specialists and external counsel.

4.General: You will support in other areas as well, including:

1. Localization/Translation: Oversee third party localization of Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policies, End User License Agreements, and other legal documents, including translation of documents and agreements (English to Chinese & Chinese to English). You will ensure that the quality is good in the translations.
2. Liaison with Legal Teams: Regularly update and coordinate with legal team at regional and US corporate headquarters, including product counsel and legal specialists for issues related to IP, e-commerce, data protection, employment, and compliance.
3. External Counsel: Coordinate with and supervise external legal counsel, including managing external counsel fees for various matters. 
4. Add’l Duties: As may be instructed from time to time depending on business needs.

Areas of Law

The role requires you to have substantive legal knowledge in a wide range of areas - essentially all areas relevant to operating a successful studio and publishing organization.  Some of the key areas include:  commercial and contracts laws, IP, employment, e-commerce, consumer protection, data protection, and FCPA/anti-corruption.

1. Intellectual Property: oversee management of the use of EA's intellectual property, and the intellectual property of EA's licensors.  You must have substantive working knowledge of IP issues relating to content licensing, including copyright and trademark laws.
2. E-Commerce, Data Protection & Consumer Protection: work closely with our legal specialists to review and advise on our commercial deals, marketing campaigns, game designs, etc. to ensure compliance with relevant laws.
3. Employment: work closely with HR and labor specialists to advise on employment matters, including regulations on overtime, contingent workers, terminations, and compensation and benefits.  Some of the more common issues involve contentious disciplinary measures and internal investigations relating to alleged employee misconduct.  You must be able to support HR and advise them on how to lead investigations into sensitive and contentious matters.
4. Compliance: work closely with internal compliance team and external counsel to implement and advise on various compliance matters, including anti-bribery/corruption, conflict of interest, and other applicable policies and regulations.

Requirements & Preferences

1. Law degree.
2. PRC bar, or an overseas bar qualification.
3. 5 years in contract and general legal experience - Comprehensive knowledge of general corporate business practices and commercial contracting principles. Law firm and in-house experience strongly preferred.
4. English and Chinese fluency assumed. Should be able to draft/review legal agreements in English and communicate with internal English-speaking clients.
5. Intellectual property related business background preferred (i.e., games, movies, music industries).
6. Ability to work independently with minimum supervision
7. Understanding of and experience with relevant Chinese laws and practices essential (particularly employment law); experience of other laws and cultures useful.
8. Experience working in a multinational company preferred.

 

City:

State:

Community / Marketing Title: Legal Counsel, China

Company Profile:

Electronic Arts Inc. 是全球领先的互动娱乐软件公司。 EA 提供适用于联网主机、个人电脑、手机和平板电脑的游戏、内容和在线服务。

EEOText: 关于 EA 在 Electronic Arts，我们的宗旨是“激励世界，同享乐游”。我们让兼具创意、创新和激情的人才共聚一堂，为世界各地的亿万名玩家创造非凡的全新游戏体验。我们知道我们的长处在于员工的多样性。我们保证员工处于包容的文化之中，为其提供学习和领导的机会，让其从事职业生涯中最有影响力、最有价值的工作。 我们把我们的员工放在首位。我们为员工提供全面的、着重于健康和福祉的福利保障，以满足您的需求，并帮助您平衡您的职业生涯和个人生活。我们提供充满活力和共同协作的工作环境，您可通过我们的员工资源小组进行联系和贡献，享受带薪休假、产假和育儿假来平衡工作与生活，另外还有免费的电子游戏等更多福利！ Electronic Arts 是一个机会平等的雇主。所有招聘决定均不考虑种族、肤色、国籍、血统、生理性别、社会性别、性别认同或表达、性向、年龄、遗传信息、宗教信仰、残障状况、医疗状况、怀孕状况、婚姻状况、家庭状况、退伍军人身份或其他任何受法律保护的特征等因素的影响。EA 还会遵照相关法律，为符合条件的残障个体改善工作环境。

Days Open: 239

Can this position be remote?:

EEO Employer Verbiage:

EA 是一个奉行机会均等的雇主。 所有招聘决定均不考虑种族、肤色、国籍、血统、生理性别、社会性别、性别认同或表达、性向、年龄、遗传信息、宗教信仰、残障状况、医疗状况、怀孕状况、婚姻状况、家庭状况或退伍军人身份等因素的影响。 EA 还会遵照相关法律，为符合条件的残障个体改善工作环境。