Business and Legal Affairs, Associate

Symphonic Distribution•New York, NY

4d•$75,000 - $95,000•Remote

About The Position

Symphonic Distribution is seeking a detail-oriented and proactive Business and Legal Affairs Associate to support our growing Legal Team, reporting to and working directly with the Director of Business and Legal Affairs. This role focuses on creating and maintaining contract frameworks across a range of agreement types, with particular emphasis on custom client deals, digital distribution agreements, and other related contracts. The ideal candidate has strong organizational and communication skills and the ability to manage multiple ongoing projects with sound judgment and limited oversight. This is an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to empowering artists, labels, and managers with the tools and expertise they need to thrive in today's music industry.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree required; J.D., paralegal certificate, or equivalent legal training strongly preferred.
J.D. with meaningful business and legal affairs internship or work experience, OR three to five years of post-graduate experience in a B&LA, contracts, or transactional environment.
Proficiency with contract/project management platforms (e.g., Monday.com, Dropbox, Google Workspace, HubSpot).
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Highly organized with exceptional attention to detail.
Strong time management skills with the ability to handle multiple tasks and meet tight deadlines.
Self-motivation with a strong sense of initiative.
High energy, high-volume, detail-oriented work style with the drive to own your workload and grow fast.
Coachable and confident, with the ability to take ownership of projects, receive feedback, and iterate quickly.
Excitement to keep learning and to become a go-to for knowledge and resources.
Ability to fully engage and integrate with the team while working remotely.
High standard of ethics and the ability to maintain confidential information.

Nice To Haves

Fluency in Spanish and/or Portuguese is not necessary but would be super helpful!
Familiarity with music licensing, intellectual property, and digital distribution.
Passion for contracting, IP rights and licensing, copyright law, and related topics such as AI issues and regulation.
Keen interest in the legal aspects of the independent distribution and music space.
At least one year of experience drafting distribution agreements and other music licensing contracts.
Experience collaborating with Deal, Sales, and Finance Teams.
A can-do attitude and willingness to tackle matters outside the core area of expertise.

Responsibilities

Draft and update contract frameworks and templates for digital distribution agreements, licensing arrangements, and other custom client and partner deals.
Review, redline, and help negotiate digital distribution agreements, addenda, and custom client and partner deals, escalating novel or high-risk issues to the Director.
Collaborate with internal stakeholders to understand business needs and incorporate them into contractual terms.
Maintain and manage legal workflows and contract lifecycle updates via project management tools (primarily Monday.com or other applications as requested).
Track the status of contract projects and provide timely updates to the Director of Business and Legal Affairs and relevant teams.
Conduct entity verification and KYC/KYB diligence across U.S. and international registries, sanctions/PEP screening, and identity verification, and summarize findings for internal stakeholders.
Assist Legal and Finance with deal diligence, including vetting the contracting party, client rightsholdership, client history, account information, and other data necessary for advising internal stakeholders and drafting accurate contracts.
Support general legal and operational initiatives, including research, internal documentation, and compliance projects.
Help ensure consistency in legal language and formatting across documents.
Maintain organized and up-to-date records of contract templates, revisions, and executed documents.
Research and analyze trends and emerging law and industry practices related to operations, contracting, copyright, improper activity, and other legal matters.
Communicate and liaise with internal stakeholders concerning legal policies, processes, and procedures.
Provide support on escalated legal matters.
Brief the Director of Business and Legal Affairs regularly and consistently on the status of contracting activities.
Complete other projects as identified by the Business and Legal Affairs Team.