Michael D. Fricklas
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Michael D. Fricklas is an American lawyer and an executive in the entertainment industry. He is Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of
Advance Publications Advance Publications, Inc. is a privately held American media company owned by the families of Donald Newhouse and Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., the sons of company founder Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. It owns publishing-related companies inc ...
. Previously, he was executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Viacom Inc. (and preceding companies) from 1993 to 2017, and general counsel from 1998 to 2017. Viacom is now known as Paramount Global. Fricklas is also a past president of the Association of General Counsel and a recipient of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s "Excellence in Corporate Practice" Award for "achievement in service to the legal profession and improvement of the legal system," the association said. Prior to his departure from Viacom in April 2017, Fricklas ranked among the highest-paid chief legal officers in America, with a total compensation of over 6 million dollars. Fricklas is responsible for all legal and governmental affairs for Advance. 


Viacom

While at Viacom, Fricklas was responsible for the company's legal and business affairs, including television, motion pictures, online and on mobile platforms for the company's brands which included
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
,
VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...
,
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
,
BET Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...
,
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
, Spike,
TV Land TV Land is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its networks division's MTV Entertainment Group. It was originally launched as Nick at Nite’s TV Land as a spinoff of Nick at Nite programing block consisting e ...
, CMT,
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
, among others. During his tenure, such brands also included CBS Simon & Schuster, Showtime, Blockbuster, Paramount Parks, CBS Television and many others.


Key responsibilities

While at Viacom, Fricklas' portfolio included large transactions and financings, capital raising transactions, management of technology, real estate, risk management and compliance matters and government affairs. He also created Viacom's cybersecurity governance program; he initiated and managed privacy and anti-piracy operations. Fricklas' responsibilities for content protection and IP put him out front on Viacom's decision to sue Google for copyright infringement at
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
.


Highly reported matters

YouTube Litigation: Fricklas was the architect of Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube. Viacom initially lost the case, but the company successfully appealed and ultimately settled the litigation.
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
"Deal Book" writer, Steven Davidoff Solomon, among critics of the litigation, chided Fricklas for creating "a case that just served to make a crazy situation crazier while wasting millions of dollars." Ultimately, Fricklas was credited for "helping to shape the rules of the road in posting online content," and The New York Times noted that Viacom saw, in the settlement with the book publishers, an acknowledgement that
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
needed to pay creators. Redstone Corporate Control Litigation: Fricklas was substantively involved in the legal issues surrounding the Redstone family war for corporate control and operating responsibility. CBS: Fricklas worked on deals to tie and untie Viacom with
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
, including Viacom's merger with CBS (2000), split-off with CBS Corp. (2005), and the Blockbuster split-off (2004). In 2016, Fricklas was at the head of the impending transaction that broke-off negotiations for a merger between the companies. Viacom Headquarters Lease: Fricklas did the deal that built out the company's space to 1.6 million square feet for its Times Square headquarters office, a big economic win for
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, according to Real Estate Weekly.


Viacom Legal Department notable initiatives

Cited as one of the "four best legal departments in the country" in 2016, Corporate Counsel recognized the Viacom in-house legal team under Fricklas for its protection of the company's intellectual property, and as a leader in legal automation, including leading edge e-discovery and document management.


Early career

Prior to his 25-year career at Viacom, Fricklas was vice president, general counsel & secretary of
Minorco The Minorco SA (Minerals and Resources Company) was a mining company based in Luxembourg. It was set up by the South African Anglo American Corporation in 1987 to hold its non-African, non-diamond mining operations. Although Minorco was quoted on ...
, (U.S.A.) Inc. (now part of Anglo American PLC) and served on the board of its subsidiary, Hudson Bay Mining, and before that a corporate lawyer with Shearman & Sterling and a predecessor of DLA Piper where he first worked on technology licensing for Silicon Valley–based technology companies.


Directorships and other leadership (volunteer organizations)

Fricklas participates in a variety of volunteer activities: * Boston University, Board of Trustees. * Boston University School of Law Dean's advisory board. * Member of the planning committee for the Tulane Corporate Law Institute. * New York's Permanent Commission on Access to justice, member (current). * Advisory board of the
Legal Aid Society The Legal Aid Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit legal aid provider based in New York City. Founded in 1876, it is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Its attorneys provide representation on criminal and civil mat ...
. He is also secretary and a member of the board of directors of Jazz at Lincoln Center and co-chair of the UJA Entertainment Media and Communications Division (current).


Publications, lectures, and videos

Fricklas has served as a panelist at conferences, bar associations and university classes on varied topics such as communications law, cybersecurity, copyright, corporate governance, mergers & acquisitions, litigation and law department management. He has been a speaker at Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Yale, Boston University, University of Colorado, the Legal Talk Network and the Lattice Society among others. * Law School of NYU International Legal Roundtable on Cross Border Investment and M&A Rebalancing the World Order in Global M&A and Strategic Cross-Border Transactions 2013. * Digital rights management (DRM) lecture to a Yale Law class. * Speaker at University of Colorado: Accelerate Your In-House Career January 4–8, 2016
University of Colorado Law School The University of Colorado Law School is one of the professional graduate schools within the University of Colorado System. It is a public law school, with more than 500 students attending and working toward a Juris Doctor or Master of Studies i ...
Corporate Counsel Intensive Institute. * Viacom's top lawyer tells Beet TV: Mash Ups are fine, but Copying is not Fair Use. * Our Case Against YouTube. * Panelist on “The future of the Internet” at Berkman Center for Internet and Society, May 16, 2008.


Honors and awards

Fricklas has been recognized as a legal expert and contributor in the entertainment industry and is the recipient of various awards noted in speaker biographies, such as Silicon Flatirons, which are provided for his classes, keynotes, and panelist engagements. * America's 50 Outstanding General Counsels, National Law Journal (April 11, 2016). * Counsel of the Year Award from the Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel. * The Legal 500 2014 Entertainment Individual of the Year. * Economic Justice award from the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. * Boston University School of Law's "Silver Shingle" for distinguished service to the school of law. * New York County Lawyers Association’s “William Nelson Cromwell Award.”


Academic background

Bar Admissions: California: 1984; Colorado: 1990; New York: 1993 Fricklas received a B.S.E.E. from the University of Colorado's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 1981 and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Boston University School of Law in 1984.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fricklas, Michael D. 1960 births Living people 21st-century American businesspeople Boston University School of Law alumni