Negotiating Success: Lisa Wang Pearl’s Path to NBCUniversal Entertainment Law
LISA WANG PEARL is VP, Business Affairs at Universal Studio Group, a division of NBCUniversal, where she structures and negotiates above-the-line deals for actors, directors, producers, and writers.
What inspired you to pursue entertainment law?
As a kid, my dad said that I’d end up in entertainment because our family lived in LA and I always acted like a human IMDB page.
Entertainment law seemed like a great career path for me. It also was a good fit for my personality because I prefer the business side of things rather than the creative side.
How did you get your start in the industry?
We were in the aftermath of the Great Recession when I graduated law school in 2010. Only half of my classmates had a job.
I ended up in entertainment litigation for a few years just to have a steady job, but I knew immediately that wasn’t what I wanted to do.
When I started applying to in-house roles, I realized that once you get your foot in the door, you can move around the in-house entertainment law jobs fairly easily.
The tough part is just finding someone to take a chance on you the first time.
What are your responsibilities, as an entertainment lawyer?
There are many different types of entertainment lawyers!
Some draft agreements, focusing specifically on copyrights and intellectual property – they are what people normally envision when thinking about lawyers.
I’m in Business Affairs, which involves negotiating deals with talent for television shows, films, etc. That includes deals for anyone above the line (such as actors, writers, directors, and producers).
Lastly, I shepherd the show throughout production, which is my favorite part.
What skills do you think are most important for your job?
Being organized, being a good writer, and being able to succinctly get your point across when you’re sending emails to creative executives and lawyers that are doing 10 million things at once.
It will make your life easier. It will make their lives easier.
What is the most fulfilling part of your job? What’s the most challenging?
I enjoy being a part of a show from start to finish! I like taking a show from its first deal, which could be optioning the rights to a book and its writer, then helping the project become a real television show.
I’d say the hardest part is the personalities. I deal with a lot of agents and entertainment lawyers whose job is to get more money for their clients, and they all have different styles of negotiating that unfortunately, aren’t always kind.
What advice would you offer young women trying to figure out if entertainment law is a good fit for them?
You need to know yourself.
Know what you like, what you’re good at, and what you can handle.
It’s easy to say, “Oh, entertainment law sounds fun because you’re making TV shows and movies!”
But you’re still a lawyer, and you’re still negotiating. Ask yourself, “Is this something that I want to do and is it fitting for my personality?”
Lawyers do not have the highest job satisfaction rate. You are arguing with people and negotiating for a living, which can get contentious. So, give it a lot of thought because it’s also expensive to go to law school.
What changes would you like to see in the industry to better support women in leadership?
Across the board, we need more women in leadership that want to help and protect other women from going through the same things they did.
We need leaders that care about your work-life balance and mental health.
Fortunately, the woman who runs my group is a mom and understands the importance of going home and seeing your kids at dinner.
What advice do you have for young women in getting their foot in the door?
Reach out to your network. When I was trying to get into in-house entertainment, I reached out to people that attended my law school on LinkedIn and asked them to chat over coffee.
While I’m not someone who’s good at going into a party and talking to random people, I make an effort to have lunches with people and become friendly with the ones I get along with.
It’s all about increasing your network in entertainment. For most jobs, people already have someone in mind once their application is posted. Expand. Get to know these people.
It’s also important to have a network of people you can go to when you have questions, so you can say, “Hey, I don’t want to ask my boss this question. How do you do this?” Find people you can trust, be friends with, and who will help you with your job.
Don’t underestimate the value of a good network!