Head of Legal – UK, NE, ANZ

Believe is a global artist development company. We empower local artists, labels and publishers to grow their audiences at each stage of their careers with expertise, respect, fairness and transparency. Operating in 50+ countries, with more than 2,000 employees, Believe offers a full range of services including audience development, publishing, marketing and distribution, with a tailor-made approach to fit any artist, label or publisher. Believe champions independence and innovation through a unique model that combines local expertise with a global tech platform, delivering exclusive solutions for artists to promote and monetize their music thanks to strategic partnerships with leading global digital service providers.

As Head of Legal – UK, NE & ANZ, you will serve as the senior legal lead for the regional business of a music company operating across digital and physical distribution, artist services, and sync licensing. This is a standalone, high-impact role with full responsibility for all legal, regulatory, contentious and risk matters across the UK, Northern Europe and Australia & New Zealand, requiring strategic oversight, commercial acumen, and hands-on operational execution.

You will act as the principal legal advisor to the regional business while ensuring alignment with Group legal strategy and frameworks in a complex, international matrix organisation. The role requires autonomy, sound judgement, and the ability to drive matters forward efficiently across multiple internal stakeholders and approval layers.

We are seeking a commercially astute, highly autonomous legal leader who thrives in a complex and fast-moving international environment. The successful candidate will demonstrate:

• A proactive, solutions-driven mindset — someone who identifies paths forward rather than obstacles
• The ability to work with minimal supervision, taking full ownership of matters from instruction to completion
• A “can do” attitude with a strong problem-solving capability combined with sound commercial judgement
• Confidence in navigating a sophisticated, multi-layered organisation and securing alignment across functions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Very strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust and credibility at all levels across sales teams, senior leadership, operational teams, and Group stakeholders
• Resilience and composure when managing competing priorities in a fast-paced, high-pressured environment
• Deep commercial fluency in the music ecosystem; someone who understands artist/manager dynamics, maintains strong credibility with external music lawyers, and approaches legal frameworks as a tool to win and secure competitive deals.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary legal advisor for the region across music distribution (digital and physical), artist services, and sync/licensing activities.
• Lead the drafting, review, negotiation, and structuring of agreements including artist distribution agreements, artist services and revenue-share arrangements, sync licensing agreements, content exploitation and platform agreements, and marketing, branding, merchandising, and promotional partnerships.
• Advise on copyright, neighbouring rights, publishing, royalty structures, and rights ownership issues.
• Oversight of copyright enforcement strategy across the region, including digital infringement matters, takedown processes and coordination with Group anti-piracy functions.
• Ensure contractual frameworks are commercially robust, operationally workable, and compliant with Group standards.
• Partner closely with A&R, Sales, and Business Development to proactively structure competitive, forward-thinking deals to help attract high-profile talent and high-value label partners.
• Act as the sole lead for the Regional legal function, with full ownership of legal risk management.
• Implement and adapt Group-level legal guidelines, templates, and approval processes to the UK legal and regulatory framework.
• Work closely with the Group’s Contract Administration team, navigating multi-layered approval workflows and ensuring contracts progress efficiently through internal governance channels.
• Advise on contractual breaches, disputes, and pre-litigation matters, managing external counsel where required.
• Support and lead legal aspects of any local M&A activity, joint ventures, acquisitions, strategic investments in coordination with Group Legal and executive stakeholders.
• Conduct legal due diligence, support transaction structuring, manage transaction documentation, and assist with post-acquisition integration from a legal perspective.
• Contribute to broader regional growth strategies, identifying legal pathways for catalog acquisitions, strategic joint ventures, and new business models that expand the company’s market share across the UK, NE, and ANZ.
• Full ownership of all pre-litigation, litigation, arbitration, regulatory investigations and enforcement matters across the region.
• Collaborate closely with local teams (Sales, A&R, Operations, Finance) to improve contractual processes while balancing commercial objectives and risk management.
• Liaise regularly with the Group Legal Department on strategic matters, escalations, global templates, and international initiatives.

Qualifications:

• Fully qualified lawyer with a comprehensive academic background in Law.
• Significant experience in senior legal roles within an international, matrix organisation.
• Strong experience within the music, entertainment, media, or digital content industry.

Working at Believe means having individual and collective impact in a fast-growing company! We need teams that truly reflect the diversity of our clients: our international presence is an inspiring and enriching work environment for each one of us, with daily opportunities to connect with our colleagues all over the world.