Paralegal

Fancy joining the legal team of one of the leading virtual reality games developer and publisher as well as supporting Aonic's amazing small-to-mid sized video games studios? Are you within a commutable distance to Leeds or Farnborough?

We are looking for a paralegal to join (and double the headcount of) the nDreams Legal team on a permanent basis to support our In-House Counsel. This is a fantastic and rare junior opportunity for those interested in a career in practising law in the interactive entertainment industry and looking to qualify as a solicitor through the SQE.

The salary for this role is £30,000.

We are looking for someone to join us in July/August 2024.

This role is remote though will require occasional travel to Leeds (2-3 times per month) for face-to-face catch ups with our In-House Counsel who is based there. Alternatively, as our HQ is in Farnborough, we would also be open to discuss hybrid options here, if preferred.

Key Responsibilities:

Supporting the In-House Counsel to:

• proactively identify and manage legal risks;
• ensure compliance with contractual obligations and laws and regulations;
• assist the business and management team take informed, commercial and risk-based decisions to facilitate the achievement of a company's strategic goals;
• provide ad-hoc legal support and guidance; and
• draft, negotiate and assist with the execution of lots of contracts!

What You Can Expect:

• Commercial contracts – reviewing, drafting and arranging the execution of a variety of contracts such as:
• development, publishing and porting contracts
• contractor and outsourcer contracts
• software, middleware and asset licences
• composition contracts and music licences
• playtester contracts
• IP and proprietary technology licences
• intracompany agreements
• NDAs
• supplier standard terms and conditions
• Game-specific:
• preparation of EULAs, Terms of Service and game privacy policies
• preparation of legal notices such as copyright and trade mark notices for store pages
• support the Publishing teams with legal due diligence on pitched games
• Intellectual Property:
• IP registrations - IP filings, registration renewals, managing nDreams' trade mark portfolio, queries on IP protection (i.e. is this mark registered in X, Y and Z countries?)
• conducting clearances on game names/logos and in-game use of names, locations, weapons, storylines, art, UI etc
• drafting and filing takedown requests
• drafting and reviewing IP assignments and licences
• conducting chain of title investigations and due diligence
• Compliance and regulatory such as advising on:
• consumer protection (in-game purchases, advertising and marketing, online safety, loot boxes etc)
• data protection
• platform requirements (e.g. Meta, PSVR2, Steam etc)
• Conducting research on legal developments
• Providing training on legal topics to the business and stakeholders
• Company law and company secretarial such as drafting board minutes and resolutions

Requirements

Essential capabilities:

• Qualifications:
• passed SQE1; or
• paralegal qualification (CILEX).
• Skills:
• solid drafting and writing skills;
• ability to communicate clearly, precisely and appropriately depending on the audience;
• ability to manage and prioritise workloads and multiple competing tasks and deadlines;
• a proven problem-solver and ability to solve complex issues creatively; and
• ability to perform the role remotely with limited in-person supervision.
• Experience: as this is a generalist role, 2 years of prior paralegal experience in commercial, intellectual property or data protection practice areas.
• Attributes:
• attention-to-detail;
• proactive solutions-oriented attitude;
• responds well to pressure and deadlines;
• willingness to learn and grow;
• can-do attitude to respond to all of the weird and wonderful queries an in-house legal department receives; and
• to be a safe pair of hands.

Desired experience/skills

• In-house experience in the entertainment industry.
• Academic or practical experience of entertainment law.
• Knowledge and understanding of the interactive entertainment industry.
• A passion for video games is not required, but nice to have.

Please note that this role will help you acquire skills while working alongside high-level professionals – so this experience can be learned on the job! Please still do apply, even if you do not have the desired experience.

Benefits

We are nDreams, one of the world’s leading developers and publishers of VR games and the team behind Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, Synapse, Phantom: Covert Ops and Fracked.

Our expanding company shares a passion for innovation, collaboration and leading the future of VR.  We encourage an open and diverse culture and empower people to explore ideas and put their own stamp on their work. With humble beginnings as an independent studio, we combine amazing projects and considerable scale with a personal, caring touch.  

We offer great perks, including flexible hours, duvets days, your birthday off, dedicated personal development time and support, as well as regular socials and parties. Beyond this, there’s an excellent holiday offering, pension scheme, health insurance, life cover and much more.

We are a virtual reality games publisher and developer based in Farnborough, UK. Since 2013 we’ve been focused entirely on virtual reality. As one of the lucky few to get our hands-on Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR prototypes, we were among the first to step into this immersive new medium. We haven’t looked back since.

Combining innovation with excellence, the culmination of our work so far is the #1 selling, Best of E3 Award-winning, Phantom: Covert Ops. We’ve got several exciting projects planned for 2021 and beyond, including Fracked, our recently announced PS VR exclusive. We can’t wait to show you more…