{"id":3679,"date":"2024-09-03T22:03:31","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T22:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/?p=3679"},"modified":"2024-09-04T22:09:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T22:09:40","slug":"saman-behbahani-finds-her-niche-in-broadcasting-entertainment-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/saman-behbahani-finds-her-niche-in-broadcasting-entertainment-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Saman Behbahani Finds Her Niche in Broadcasting Entertainment Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Adam Stone<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"<\/p>

For <\/span>Saman Behbahani, J.D. \u201908<\/span><\/b>, personal contacts have helped define a career trajectory.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

She started out in real estate law — in 2008 there was plenty of work in that arena. (\u201cThe people were lovely, but the work was horrible. I basically was kicking people out of their houses,\u201d she says.) A friend from UBalt Law got her a first clerkship, in the Montgomery County, MD, Circuit Court. From there, a friend from her undergrad days recruited her onto the legal team at National Geographic.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cUB really emphasized the value of networking, and that\u2019s what brought me to where I am today,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>

At NatGeo she read 10 years\u2019 worth of television contracts and learned how that industry works. She jumped to Viacom in New York, did a stint at AMC Networks, and two years ago moved to <\/span>NBCUniversal, where she serves as <\/span>vice president of <\/span>legal affairs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

If that sounds like a cool gig \u2026 it is.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Behind the scenes \u2026<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>

At NBCUniversal, \u201cI lead a small but mighty team of attorneys, and we license scripted content,\u201d Behbahani says.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThe scripted television content that you see on NBC or on any of the cable networks or streaming on Peacock, anything that our own studio does not make, we license,\u201d she says. \u201cWe work closely with our business-affairs colleagues and negotiate these deals, draft contracts, analyze any rights questions. Intellectual property and copyright law are the foundation of what we do, but really it\u2019s about making deals and drafting contracts for long-term licenses of content.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Entertainment law covers a lot of ground, and some of it isn\u2019t what you would expect. Beyond securing the rights to content, she says, \u201cWe make sure that nobody\u2019s injured, that nobody\u2019s rights are infringed on through the process of creating the content.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWe also want to make sure there\u2019s respect in the workplace,\u201d she adds.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cTraining for every single person that comes into contact with any of our productions: That\u2019s really big and very important,\u201d she says, and it all has to be written into the contracts. \u201cEveryone needs to feel safe on set, and in writing rooms. Everyone should be valued and their opinions valued. Storytelling also has to be very sensitive. When we license shows, we take that responsibility very seriously.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A fast-changing field<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>

In the midst of all this, Behbahani gets to be part of the effort to define new legal strategies in an industry that is very much in flux.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Entertainment law has been evolving since she got into the field in 2011, \u201cand in the last four years it has changed even more dramatically,\u201d she says. \u201cThe move to streaming is huge. The way people get content, the amount of content available \u2014 it has changed everything we do.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The new landscape has required a legal reset of sorts. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the rights, it\u2019s even the definitions: What is streaming? What is VOD (video on demand<\/span><\/span>) <\/span>versus what are digital rights?\u201d Behbahani says.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

And there are pandemic curveballs that linger. The pandemic pushed a lot of television production overseas, where it remains, \u201cand a lot of the production rules change in different countries,\u201d she says. All that impacts the work of the legal team.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Behbahani falls back on her UBalt Law training in order to navigate this complex landscape.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cOne of the biggest things that the law school was proud of was the hands-on practical learning. I didn\u2019t come out of law school with just book knowledge,\u201d she says. \u201cI had an externship my first summer after school and then did the immigration law clinic. I also interned at the courthouse because one of my professors, The Hon. John F. Gossart, Jr., was an immigration judge, and I clerked for him.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

All that practical experience in turn supports agility, the capacity to pivot when needed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s the ability to have a bigger picture view, to see opportunities. That kind of agility is what allows you to work towards \u2018yes.\u2019 My clients are creatives,\u201d she says, \u201cand my job is to make sure that what they want to happen, happens. So the answer is always yes: Let\u2019s just figure out how.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Adam Stone<\/strong> is a writer based in Annapolis.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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By Adam Stone For Saman Behbahani, J.D. \u201908, personal contacts have helped define a career trajectory. She started out in real estate law — in 2008 there was plenty of work in that arena. (\u201cThe people were lovely, but the work was horrible. I basically was kicking people out of their houses,\u201d she says.) A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3679"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4565,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679\/revisions\/4565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}