Disney Lawyers Forum

[Hordfest]

Hello! I was wondering if anybody here had any experience working as in-house counsel for Disney or could point me in a direction to learn more. If this is the wrong forum for this, please let me know! I know Disney is huge and the answers to these probably depend a lot on department and place, but I figured the good people at TLS would at least have some ideas. I browsed the internet and some of the legal position postings on Disney's hiring site, but official listings never tell the whole story. Here are some questions:

1.) How competitive are the positions? Are we talking T14 only or forget about it, or do they pull from state schools, a.k.a. Florida law schools for Florida offices, California schools for California positions? I have browsed Linkedin somewhat and seen some variety, but a few samples doesn't necessarily mean a trend. I have seen a scattering of Levin, Loyola, Davis, and some T20 schools, but I think it's safe to imagine those folks are in the Top 10% or 5% of their classes? (or their years of experience outweighs their class ranking)

2.) Are these jobs mostly second or third jobs out of law school or does Disney hire out of law school directly?

3.) Is there a way to stand out more to a company like Disney on a resume? Like is experience at a big law firm basically a pre-requisite to get your resume taken seriously?

4.) What is it like working for Disney or other big entertainment companies as in-house counsel? Does it feel similar to corporate law at a large firm or is it a different vibe being in-house?

Thanks for your thoughts!

[JHP]

As to whether Disney hires directly out of law school, I cannot imagine that they would hire directly from law schools. Disney is a goliath of a company, and I doubt they have the training, resources or desire to hire someone so green that they can't be of much real use to the company for the first couple years.

I'm going to bet that biglaw experience (or at least some other very substantive and significant in-house or midlaw work experience) is going to be a prereq. Big companies don't want to have to teach you law or legal process--the only thing they expect to teach you is the particular innerworkings of that specific company.

If you want to work at a company like Disney specifically, the best thing you can probably do is either be a powerhouse at IP, licensing and contracts work. Don't know what their needs are corporate governance-wise, but if they're hiring general corporate folks, you'll obviously stand out if you have significant governance work under your belt.

For your last question, it's obviously going to depend on what company you're talking about. Facebook, Amazon = known for rough in-house hours. I think Hulu is less so.

[jhett]

I doubt Disney hires straight out of law school because they need people to hit the ground running. For most in-house positions, it is the quality of your work experience that counts more than your school rank. That is why you see a spread of schools among its in-house roster.

Your best best is probably to focus on some of the most important legal areas for the company, like IP (it is a copyright/trademark juggernaut), labor and employment (it has tons of employees), entertainment law, M&A/securities, etc. You don't necessary need to be at a biglaw firm (although it helps), but again it matters that you've done a lot of work in the areas they are interested in. Since you've already been looking at their job postings, just look each job's requirements to get an idea.

I don't know what the work environment is like, but I know someone who works in-house at Disney and is able to attend red carpet events. That's pretty sweet.

[Anonymous User]

HYS and applied for the Disney in house position my 1L year. Applied in January, dinged in April. No interview request.

[cookiejar1]

I see Disney postings on https://www.goinhouse.com/ all the time. Take a look at their listings to get a sense for what they’re looking for.