Rick Levy, the general counsel, founding partner and managing member of ICM Partners (Photo: Courtesy photo)

It's been a big year for ICM Partners.

In June, the talent agency partnered with eSports industry-focused Evolved, opening the door to a new and growing industry. Earlier in 2018, ICM acquired the Just For Laughs Group, which holds an annual comedy event in Montreal and offshoots elsewhere, and the Washington, D.C.-based Sagalyn Agency, broadening its representation of nonfiction authors.

All that change has kept ICM's general counsel, Rick Levy, busy.

“You're seeing a real period of growth and investment and us leaning into a lot of the opportunities that come our way,” Levy said.

But after more than two decades with the agency, Levy's used to fast pace and change. He grew his in-house career, and most of his law career, within the talent agency, developing the legal, business and leadership skills needed to meet new demands.

Levy first joined an earlier iteration of ICM, then International Creative Management, in 1997. His relationship with the company started before then, as an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

He was working as outside counsel on employment and labor law for the agency when the general counsel position opened, and ICM offered him the role. At 28 years old—Levy had graduated from McGill University in three years and headed straight to New York University School of Law—he wasn't sure if his level of experience could meet the needs of a GC job.

“I said, 'Let me be really clear. I've got no corporate experience, I've got no regulatory experience in the entertainment industry. I've got no—or very little—entertainment experience' … I gave them a laundry list of the things I didn't know,” he said. “And they said, 'Well, that's OK. You can learn all that stuff. We're really hiring the person, not the resume.' And they took a shot on hiring me as a general counsel.”

That left Levy as the head of a small but busy legal team at 28, with a lot to learn about finance, real estate, securities and more, all while transitioning to the life of an in-house lawyer. He jumped in headfirst.

It was a lot of “learn by doing,” Levy said. He learned how to manage a real estate leasing deal and go through a merger and acquisition process—things that hadn't fallen on his plate as outside employment counsel—by doing them during his early time as GC.

He also learned by reaching out to those in the industry who had experience. Levy said he spoke with colleagues inside ICM who had a legal background, relied on outside counsel and even peers at competing companies, who he said were “generous” in lending a hand to a new GC figuring the industry out.

Coming into the top legal spot as a 28-year-old with only employment law experience was also, in some ways, helpful. Levy said he brought a new set of eyes to precedents that had previously seemed set in stone.

“Sometimes not knowing the way things have been done in the past is an advantage because you question precedence. You question why things are done a certain way, when [it] might not make sense doing it that way or coming to that result,” he said.

It's an adaptive attitude he's kept as ICM changed, bringing its legal department with it.

In 2012, Levy was part of a management team aiming to buy the company back from its then-owners, who were outside investors. He got permission from the board and the prior ownership group to sit on the buyout side of the transaction, an effort to combat ethical conflicts and boost transparency.

After the buyout went through, Levy's position shifted from chief business development officer and GC to to founding partner, managing member, board member and GC, though he said the new ICM tries not to focus on titles.

“There's a fluidity to people's responsibilities when you don't have a huge bureaucracy, and so I move towards issues, matters and areas of responsibility almost on an as-needed basis. When our chief operating officer left the company … that required me to step in and fill some voids. We also have empowered and promoted other people over time,” Levy said.

Last month, ICM promoted a number of business executives, including a new addition to the legal affairs team. Over time, he's earned a seat at the business table by learning the company inside and out and learning about business strategies.

Unlike real estate deals or mergers and acquisitions work, leading a legal team was a skill Levy said he had already started to develop before he joined ICM. During his nearly five years at Gibson Dunn, Levy had begun taking on leadership roles and mentoring, which he found “natural.” He brought those experiences with him as he led and grew ICM's legal team.

Levy's leadership has also extended beyond ICM. Since 2016 he has been the co-president of UNICEF USA, Southern California region. He's also the chapter chair of the Golden West Chapter of YPO, formerly called the Young Presidents' Organization, and sits on the strategic planning committee of the Association of Talent Agents.

Balancing work with his out-of-office life has been a challenge, but one Levy said he's gotten better at with time.

“It's not a job that you can shut off when you walk out the door, doesn't matter whether you leave early or leave late. It can be all-consuming if you allow it to be. And so it's hard,” he said. “I sometimes realize that I'm not doing as good a job at balance as I could. Usually the things that get taken, are on the short end of the stick, are family and self … but I definitely am much more conscious of the need to recalibrate and check in and make sure that I'm not too far out of alignment with my goals and values and how I'm spending my time.”