Rina Yano, VP for business and legal affairs at Kin Community in Los Angeles. May 30, 2019.

For more than 70 million women, Kin Community is a place to talk everything from fitness to family to food. For Rina Yano, Kin's VP of business and legal affairs and sole in-house lawyer, the lifestyle entertainment company that develops, creates and distributes content in all forms and across all platforms is the opportunity to work in an environment that she says represents “the wave of the future.” After a year as an associate in the Los Angeles office of Kelley Drye & Warren, Yano went in-house at Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Following an 11-year stint at The Wonderful Co., she's back in the law of entertainment, this time on the digital side. Yano spoke with Corporate Counsel reporter Kristen Rasmussen about the challenges and thrills of her job. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What drew you to this interface between entertainment and digital law?

I feel like we're at a very critical point in entertainment in which people are cord-cutting and exclusively viewing their entertainment content on their laptops or their phone. It was very evident for me when my 2-year-old's main entertainment was watching YouTube channels on her iPad. At 2 years old, that was her main focus of entertainment, so I knew that there was something there.

How does it compare to your previous entertainment work?

At prior jobs, I did the same sort of licensing type arrangements, but here I am constantly being challenged by the people that I work with on extending the boundaries of what can be said online. I find it to be very exciting because I am constantly educating myself, reading up on what other attorneys have experienced and speaking to other attorneys. I'm a 20+-year lawyer now, but I'm still learning, which is very exciting. What's also fun about my job is that since we're a small company, in addition to being the lawyer, I also can speak up and discuss creative issues and suggest talent. And that opinion is very much welcome, which is a lot of fun for me.

What is your biggest challenge?

The challenge for me is working with talent from traditional media, who have to switch their mentality of working at a TV production to going to a digital production, which is completely different: Our deals are structured differently, our shows are distributed differently, and the feedback they receive is instant. It's so many different layers that a traditional talent is not accustomed to. My company has been around for 12 years, and we've been doing digital video exclusively for that time, but then to now be working with traditional talent that is not used to that environment is a challenging educational process.

How do you deal with being a woman in the male-dominated media startup ­industry?

There's a comfort for me only because of the company I work for, which is 80% women. But when you step outside the bounds you definitely feel the difference of being a woman and, for me, an Asian woman. I just tend to focus on what I do and what our company does in empowering female voices, so I don't let that outside world bother me as far as my day-to-day work.