Canadian Lawyer InHouse

JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2018 20 INHOUSE actions had little bearing on our video divi- sion since we have a multitude of channels in different verticals, but it is an example of a change that can happen "overnight" and the need for a legal team that needs to constantly be at the forefront. [The year] 2018 will continue to be a ma - jor year for Valnet. At a time when online publishing businesses such as BuzzFeed are announcing job cuts and a delay of their Ini- tial Public Offering, we are starting the year with 25 new hires and taking on additional office space after moving into 25,000 square feet merely one year ago. When we began, we were strictly a web publishing company operat - ing websites in various verticals. Three years later, we launched our video team and YouTube channels. To - day, our channels are some of the most viewed on YouTube. The constant need to tweak and better our platform and keep up with consumer habits means a very changing landscape and a legal team that needs to keep up and understand the platforms. 2. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP PRIORITIES FOR THE BUSINESS UNITS YOU SERVE WHEN IT COMES TO REGULATORY AND COMPLIANCE MATTERS? The majority of our audience and partners [digital advertising] are U.S. based. As such, we have very unique matters we deal with that are not atypical of other general coun- sel's/legal departments in Canada. Our team's top priority is protecting and man- aging our intellectual property matters. We publish upwards of 130 articles a day across our websites, which does not include news articles that number about 100, with thou- sands of freelance writers and 84 videos per day across all channels. In this context, IP matters are critical and we manage it all from creation to publication. With other teams such as our user acquisition team and ad operations, keeping up with the ever- changing regulatory policies/changes of Facebook [and] Google is equally critical. 3. IS CYBERSECURITY A PRIORITY FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT? IN WHAT WAY? Cybersecurity is not a priority, but it is im- portant. We have had hacking attempts in the past, which we were able to deal with/ avoid. Given our size and scale, we become a "rewarding target" for hackers looking to take down large sites. We continually moni - tor ways to better our security, including re- sponse time and solutions. Internally, we took measures to better protect our own security and re-evaluate these measures twice a year. Thankfully, our team is made up of some of the most talented developers in Montreal who "keep us safe." 4. WHAT IS YOUR PHILOSOPHY TO MANAGING THE IN-HOUSE LEGAL TEAM? Many of our colleagues will tell you we are 1. WHAT BUSINESS CHALLENGES FACE YOUR COMPANY AND LEGAL TEAM FOR 2018? Our company is essentially a content cre- ator/online publisher via its websites and YouTube Channels, which has grown 100 per cent year on year including in size (over 100 employees in less than five years) and reach (collectively over one billion monthly views). With this unprecedented growth comes many challenges. Some typically as - sociated to growth [are]: employee matters; communication with various departments; understanding new business units; and some unique challenges such as IP issues re- lated to our larger audience (copycat chan- nels, licensing needs, etc). Also, we need to understand new initiatives and policies set forth by our partners such as Google, Face- book or YouTube. Case in point, in Q4, YouTube decided it would strictly monitor content related to kids, (reality shows featuring kids) on its channels (due to both pressure from advertis - ers and some media pressure) that meant al- most overnight disabling thousands of chan- nels. This at a time when we were developing two kids-related channels. On very short notice, we [the legal team] had to quickly un- derstand YouTube's new policies, audit all of our existing videos to determine which may be at risk of being demonetized by YouTube's new initiatives and create internal guidelines for our video editors. Thankfully, YouTube's David Felicissimo General counsel Valnet Inc. PHOTO: VALNET INC.

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