What is common with all lawyers is that we all have an early start to our day. My colleagues all know me for being that one person in the company who sends emails at 5am! The main reason for my early starts is that I feel my most productive when the office is not officially open for the day and I am surrounded by silence – even the 24 hour city of Dubai is silent at 5am. This means there are no Teams calls, meetings, or last minute requests so I can focus on the other tasks on my to-do list. I choose this time to create my priorities list for the day, respond to emails, catch up on business news, read any memos received and draft contracts, memorandums and similar paperwork. This takes time and mornings are perfect for these tasks because it is quiet enough and my mind is fresh and alert.

Exercise is critical for lawyers, and since no day is ever the same and its hard to keep a schedule, I always train in the morning. The endorphins also help maintain an energetic and positive vibe throughout my day – I will need it!

Pre-Covid I would have to dash to the office for my 9am start. One of the advantages of Covid has been the ability to work from home which means I can now take a leisurely stroll to my home office at 8:55 and still be early for work.

I usually start my day with a catch up meeting and spread these across the week so that I meet with either my General Counsel, one of my direct reports or one of my business clients at least once a week. Whilst I am always available for ad hoc advice throughout the day, its good to have such catch ups formalized and scheduled on a weekly basis as it gives everyone the opportunity to discuss matters in more depth and keep abreast of new business objectives. In house counsels need to stay close to the business and this is a best way to keep your finger on the pulse of the business.

My work is incredibly diverse so while there is no typical task per se, there are certainly a few broad buckets that the rest of my day is split between:

· project meetings

· drafting contracts such as programme licences, production agreements, development agreements, service contracts, MSA, service level agreements, distribution and carriage agreements

· negotiating contracts with third parties

· preparing written advice to the business

· drafting rights summaries or contract summaries or deal memos

· watching content that has been flagged for censorship reasons and giving the business guidance on how to censor such matters

· carrying out an audit on our existing media rights to establish if we can launch a new media product

· guiding the piracy team on how to enforce any trademark and copyright infringement matters

· providing advice to the originals production team guiding them on issues ranging from music rights to talent agreements to location permits to issues with the production company themselves

· researching a specific point of law for example data protection, direct marketing, jurisdiction, termination

· administration – arranging for contracts to be executed and filed – not the sexiest part of the job but certainly just as crucial.

With such a diverse role, my role also lends itself to be able to participate in other opportunities and areas of the business. One aspect of the TMT sector that I enjoy is that the technology is always changing and evolving. That means that TMT lawyers have to be especially creative in thinking about how to apply existing (and even “old”) legal principles to new technology. The business looks to me to face these new issues in a fresh and engaging way and so I need to stay prepped and ready for new issues and questions on a daily basis.

No matter how chaotic my day may be though, I absolutely love and thrive in this environment and sector. The TMT sector is in the midst of a major disruption. Streaming services like Amazon, Hulu and Netflix have completely disrupted the industry. Broadcast TV has been declining for a long time – the future of broadcast TV while uncertain is ripe for growth and change. This means that for TMT lawyers we are in for a fantastic ride in the next few years, it means there will be all types of new deals being done and I for one am excited about the future and being a participant in the facilitation and packaging of these deals.