Chandana Rao has long admired creatives and their passion for bringing to life what lives in their minds and hearts for the enjoyment of others. And over the course of her 20+ year legal career, Chandana has helped numerous clients leverage those passions, from musicians and filmmakers to gamers and fashion influencers, to name a few, by providing legal and business counsel. “I love getting into the weeds and learning the nuances of each business,” explains Chandana, “just like training wheels on a bike, I help my clients manage risk as they launch, grow and pivot.”
Chandana’s earliest experiences as a lawyer helped pave the way to her work with creative enterprises. Starting out in private practice, Chandana worked as a patent litigator representing global pharmaceutical and technology companies. “I was particularly fascinated by the licensing and co-development issues that would surface during trial discovery,” she says. Ultimately, this interest led her to shift gears, joining the corporate department at a global law firm to focus on technology transactions and providing IP counsel on M&A deals. “This role enabled me to round out my skill-set, opening the door to the C-suite and my work with a number of startup ventures.”
In addition to serving as a fractional Chief Operating Officer for several creative ventures (e.g., fundraising for a film, for which she earned associate producer credit; managing an indie rock college band; and co-founding a fashion stylist business), Chandana led the legal function at a financial technology startup. As GC, she quickly learned to recalibrate her approach to legal issues. “With limited resources and a strong focus on revenue growth, our appetite for risk was large, so I had to be more judicious in how I handled our contract negotiations,” she explains. “Each of these experiences helped to develop my understanding of countless operational issues, and this insight continues to guide my work today as a legal advisor.”
Joining OGC was an easy decision for Chandana, as it allowed her to work with an amazingly diverse roster of creative companies, from early-stage to established companies, across industries like technology, media, consumer goods and retail. “No matter the size of the company, certain issues, especially IP provisions and indemnities, always take center stage when representing creatives,” she points out. “Managing risk exposure in these areas is critical, and it is my job to help clients measure their specific business goals against it.”
One of Chandana’s most memorable OGC clients was a game development company (a husband and wife team) needing commercial contract support. “I negotiated and drafted all of their core contracts, from coding support to graphics and music,” she says. In just a year’s time, the company’s key video game caught the attention of a major publisher. “Negotiating the terms of the publishing deal that would put them on the map was immensely satisfying, especially having helped them build the company literally from the ground up.”
More about Chandana Rao
Chandana regularly negotiates and drafts a wide range of legal agreements, including those relating to influencer arrangements; licensing; cloud services and hosted platforms; marketing, sales and distribution; corporate formation and governance; and supply and manufacturing. When not working, she’s either gardening or playing tennis badly.