Legal Fellow (Full-Season)

General Description:

The Houston Rockets, Toyota Center, and Space City Home Network are looking for a talented Legal Fellow. The successful candidate will be a part of a small in-house legal team for the Houston Rockets, Toyota Center, and Space City Home Network with a focus on drafting and negotiating commercial transactions in a high-volume corporate legal department, developing and maintaining organizational processes, and collaborating with business units throughout the organization as well as external partners. We are looking for an energetic and outgoing individual who has a positive, can-do attitude and has a strong desire to learn and be part of the One Team philosophy and culture.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Assist with supporting the operations of the Company on a broad range of legal matters, including commercial transactions, intellectual property, labor and employment, sweepstakes, promotions, contests, and litigation management
• Assist with drafting, reviewing, revising, and negotiating commercial agreements, including sponsorship agreements, suite licenses, master services agreements, master subscription (SaaS) agreements, arena use agreements, talent agreements, programming agreements, and other general commercial contracts
• Draft releases and waivers, sweepstakes, contest, and promotion rules for Company activations across the team, arena, and network
• Support compliance efforts related to privacy, data protection and security and other regulatory matters, including tracking and responding to data privacy requests
• Provide operational support to legal team, including contract management, matter tracking, and other administrative tasks as needed
• Assist with tracking key dates of upcoming renewals, expirations, and options
• Support the continuous improvement of standard form agreements and legal department processes
• Assist with advising business staff on legal issues and risks
• Perform legal research on a variety of topics
• Assist with managing compliance with NBA rules and regulations
• Research and remain current on laws, rulings, and regulations affecting the Company’s business
• Complete other special projects and responsibilities for the legal department as assigned
• Demonstrate our One Team philosophy of Passion, Accountability, Customer Focus, and Teamwork.

Minimum Qualifications:

• The fellowship period will last from approximately September 2024 – August 2025
• Available for 30+ hours per week of primarily in-person work, with 5 days on-site per week
• This fellowship is in-person; no remote opportunities are available at this time
• Bachelor’s degree from a four-year college or university
• Recently graduated (in 2023 or 2024) from an accredited law school
• Prior legal experience or experience working for a team, athletic department, or with a sporting event is beneficial
• Proficient in Microsoft Suite Office including Word, Excel, and Outlook
• Working knowledge of corporate/transactional law
• Contract drafting, redlining, analysis, and negotiation skills
• Detail oriented, hard working, and business minded
• Ability to work under tight deadlines
• Excellent organizational skills; ability to handle multiple priorities simultaneously
• Able to work under pressure and to handle work-related stress
• Friendly, courteous, professional, outgoing, and customer-service oriented
• Ability to work independently and productively with minimum supervision
• Ability to work extended days, hours, evenings, weekends, and holidays during the basketball season
• Ability to commute to Toyota Center located in Houston, TX
• Fellowships do not provide housing or transportation
• Fellowships do not guarantee full-time positions with the Houston Rockets, Toyota Center, or Space City Home Network upon completion

Physical & Mental Requirements:

• The fellow may be regularly required to stand, sit, walk, use, handle, or feel, reach, stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, and communicate with others.
• The vision requirement includes the ability to review written and electronic materials in both digital and physical format.
• The fellow must be able to transfer and move items for departmental needs.
• The fellow must be able to adjust to changing work hours and locations as needed in light of the strong focus on external communications

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital or veteran status, or any other protected class.