Senior Legal Counsel
DAZN · London, London ·
- Work mode
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Senior
- Category
- Legal
- Experience
- 3+ years
The Role
The Senior Legal Counsel (IP & Content Protection) provides expert legal support on complex, high-impact and strategically significant intellectual property and content protection matters, including patent strategy and portfolio management, anti-piracy enforcement, IP licensing and IP litigation.
The role acts as a trusted advisor to DAZN’s senior management, technology, product, commercial and rights teams on IP and content protection strategy, influencing business and operational decisions. It delivers high-quality, pragmatic legal advice, proactively identifies opportunities to protect and commercialise DAZN’s rights, manages external counsel effectively, and supports the function of the wider Legal Team. For an IP specialist looking to broaden their practise, this role has significant opportunity to expand into other areas of DAZN’s group legal function (in particular the media, marketing, product/tech and rights).
The role acts as a trusted advisor to DAZN’s senior management, technology, product, commercial and rights teams on IP and content protection strategy, influencing business and operational decisions. It delivers high-quality, pragmatic legal advice, proactively identifies opportunities to protect and commercialise DAZN’s rights, manages external counsel effectively, and supports the function of the wider Legal Team. For an IP specialist looking to broaden their practise, this role has significant opportunity to expand into other areas of DAZN’s group legal function (in particular the media, marketing, product/tech and rights).
- Legal Expertise: Lead on complex intellectual property matters, including patent drafting, filing and prosecution strategy across jurisdictions, patent portfolio management, third-party portfolio assessment, patent licensing and commercialisation, anti-piracy enforcement, content protection and trademark oversight. Independently manage high-value and strategically significant IP matters with minimal supervision.
- Risk Management: Identify and manage IP and content protection risks, including patent portfolio exposure, third-party claims, piracy threats, content protection requirements (including those of rightsholders) and enforcement challenges across jurisdictions. Develop and implement practical strategies for portfolio defence, domain blocking, evidence gathering and escalation aligned with DAZN’s risk profile.
- Peer Support: Mentor junior legal Counsel and paralegals; foster knowledge sharing on patents, anti-piracy, licensing, litigation and content protection. Act as a role model in embedding a culture of accountability, continuous improvement and cross-functional collaboration across teams, geographies and practice areas.
- External Counsel Liaison: Coordinate and manage external patent, litigation, trademark and specialist anti-piracy counsel, including on patent litigation in the UK, Europe and the US, and content disputes, DNS blocking proceedings, UPC proceedings, and blocking injunctions. Oversee strategy, privileged communications, scope, cost management and performance, and maintain effective relationships with relevant industry bodies, including Unified Patents, as well as vendors and rights holders.
- Policy & Practice Application: Lead and contribute to structured anti-piracy and content protection governance, including weekly updates, membership of ACE forum, enforcement actions, domain-blocking processes, registrar engagement and evidence-gathering frameworks. Help develop and apply consistent policies, templates and enforcement strategies across jurisdictions, including in relation to German CUII and Indian blocking proceedings.
- BusinessPartnership: Provide strategic and commercially focused legal advice on patent licensing and commercialisation, content rights structures, co-exclusive licensing, DRM and authentication requirements, device limits and streaming constraints. Partner with technology, product, commercial and rights teams to balance IP protection, business opportunity and operational delivery.
- Technical Skills: Advanced legal drafting, negotiation and advisory skills with specialist knowledge of intellectual property. Strong understanding of patent drafting, prosecution, filing strategy and portfolio management; anti-piracy enforcement and content protection; IP licensing and commercialisation; and trademark portfolio management. Familiarity with DRM, watermarking, authentication, access controls, content delivery, OTT platforms and/or streaming technology from an IP and contractual perspective. The ability coordinate and work productively with technical teams, rights holders and external counsel will be critical.
- Soft Skills: Strong communication, stakeholder management, and problem-solving abilities with the ability to balance legal precision with commercial pragmatism. The confidence to articulate complex IP risks, to articulate and defend IP strategies and to manage relationships with external specialists will be central to this role.
- Leadership Skills: Ability to mentor and guide junior team members and to lead cross-departmental/functional workstreams of projects to successful completion
- Required experience: Significant experience in intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, anti-piracy and content protection, in the media, entertainment or technology sector. Experience with patent prosecution and litigation, anti-piracy enforcement programs, content protection strategies and multi-jurisdictional IP matters. Experience in managing and transacting with SEP licensors and patent pools, and familiarity with DRM, watermarking, authentication, access controls, content delivery, OTT platforms and/or streaming technology from an IP, would be particularly useful. 5+ years PQE probably needed, but not an absolute requirement.
- Education: Professionally qualified England & Wales solicitor(or equivalent in another jurisdiction). Training or experience at a recognised IP or media team in private practice, or within a strong in-house IP function in a relevant sector.
Benefits include access to DAZN, 25 days’ annual leave (increasing by 3 days after 3 years), private medical insurance, life assurance, pension contributions up to 5%, family friendly community including enhanced parental leave, electric vehicle benefit option, learning and development resources, opportunity for flexible working, and access to our internal speaker series and events.