About the role

This is the senior-most legal role in the group and it reports to the CEO. You own everything: contracts, disputes, compliance, corporate governance, regulatory work, and the legal protection of the founder and the leadership team.

The work sits at an unusual intersection. On one side, media and entertainment production agreements, talent contracts, rights, distribution, publicity and personality rights. On the other, technology and AI enterprise contracts, data protection, intellectual property, platform liability and emerging AI regulation. Very few lawyers have both. We are looking for someone who has one deeply and can build the other fast.

We care less about where you trained than about what you have actually protected. The strongest candidates will be able to point to a specific clause they insisted on, a position they took, or a structure they built that later saved the company, its founder or its leadership real money, real liability or real reputation.

What you will do

- Own the full contract lifecycle — drafting, negotiation, review, playbooks and templates across every business line
- Handle media and entertainment agreements: production, talent and artist contracts, chain of title, music and sync rights, distribution and platform deals, brand endorsements, title clearance
- Handle technology agreements: master services agreements, SaaS and enterprise terms, data processing agreements, vendor and cloud contracts, licensing, NDAs
- Protect the founder’s and the company’s publicity and personality rights, including against AI-generated misuse and deepfakes — takedowns, cease-and-desist,



John Doe applications and injunctive relief
- Own compliance: the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and Rules, IT Act and intermediary obligations, advertising and content regulation, labour law, POSH, and sector-specific requirements
- Build and run the data protection programme ahead of the phased DPDP enforcement timeline — consent architecture, notices, retention and deletion, breach response, grievance handling
- Manage litigation, arbitration and disputes end to end, and manage external counsel to budget and outcome
- Handle corporate and secretarial work: entity structuring, board and shareholder matters, fundraising documentation, ESOP, M&A; and due diligence
- Advise the CEO and leadership on risk before decisions are made, not after
- Build the legal team, processes and knowledge base as the group scales

Skills and experience we are looking for

- LL.B or LL.M, enrolled with a State Bar Council of India
- 10–18 years of legal practice, with substantial in-house experience — you have been the person the business calls, not only outside counsel
- Proven contract drafting and negotiation ability across commercial, technology and services agreements
- Working knowledge of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and Rules, the IT Act and intermediary liability,



LLP Act and the Companies Act
- Litigation and dispute management experience, including instructing and controlling external counsel
- Sound commercial judgement — you can say yes with conditions rather than only saying no
- Ability to explain legal risk clearly to non-lawyers, including a founder who moves quick
- Able to be based in Chennai full-time, in person

Good to have Media, entertainment, film, music or OTT experience. Technology, SaaS or AI-product legal experience. Personality rights, defamation or reputation-management litigation. Intellectual property fluency. Data protection certification. Company Secretary qualification. Experience building a legal function from scratch. Experience advising a founder or public figure personally.

Other details

Compensation is competitive and discussed openly. NDA, conflict check and background verification apply. We are an equal opportunity employer.

To apply: [email protected] — with your CV, please include a short note describing one specific instance where a legal position you took, or a clause you drafted, protected your company or its leadership. Name the risk, what you did, and the outcome. This is the part of the application we read first.

Key skills: General Counsel, Head of Legal, Legal Head, In-house Counsel, Corporate Law, Contract Drafting, Contract Negotiation, Commercial Contracts, Media and Entertainment Law, Technology Law, Data Protection, DPDP, Litigation Management, Compliance, Corporate Governance, Regulatory Affairs, Intellectual Property, Dispute Resolution

📌 HEAD OF LEGAL / General Counsel (Chennai)
🏢 Atman Artwork
📍 Chennai