The expansion of the Walt Disney Company has brought fresh challenges for its European general counsel, Peter Wiley. He speaks to Leigh Jackson about international growth, bringing Disney into the digital age and life at Disney castle

For Peter Wiley, the Walt Disney Company's European head of legal, these are interesting times. His employer, one of the most iconic companies in the world, is currently engaged in a drive to expand internationally and take the House of Mouse into the digital age.

Not that there is any shortage of lawyers to help. Disney maintains one of the largest legal teams in the world with 350 lawyers company-wide. The team is overseen in the US by Alan Braverman, one of the country's most high-profile and best-paid general counsel.

Wiley's part of the empire is also significant: he oversees a 32-lawyer team, 20 of whom are based in London. He certainly retains his enthusiasm for the job, commenting: "I was attracted to the in-house scene from my early days in private practice. There is a more holistic view – when you understand the business through from start to finish, you can really add value to the company."

Since Wiley's arrival at Disney, the legal function has enjoyed measured growth internationally, keeping pace with the progress of the entertainment company as a whole.

After a period of stability in Disney's UK legal team, the company is moving to expand its team aboard.

"At the moment, one of our main priorities is international growth," says Wiley. "In order to grow we have to be strong in the international market and not just in the US. We are particularly focused on emerging markets, such as Russia, India and China, and recently recruited our first in-house lawyer in Moscow."

Further testament to Disney's expansion was the development of the Hong Kong Disneyland resort – a joint venture with the nation's government – which was officially opened in September 2005, making it the third major Disney resort outside of the US and the second in the emerging Asian market.

However, the company's growth is not confined to emerging market expansion. Disney completed the acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios in 2006 and online gaming experience Club Penguin in 2007.

Wiley explains that his team has had to embrace different forms of content delivery, such as video on demand, as part of its continued growth and its changing role as a legal function.

He says: "Boundaries are really breaking down in terms of different forms of digital delivery of media content. The business models are changing now and we need to adjust our legal skills as business models develop."

Given this backdrop of digital revolution, Disney has been trying to uphold its intellectual property rights in the battle against piracy.

Wiley says that the company is keen to avoid recent troubles that have plagued the music industry. He says: "One of the major challenges to the business is internet-based piracy. It has hit the music industry very hard and is obviously a big issue for the film industry.

"However, anti-piracy initiatives are often controversial; not least in the relationship between data protection and copyright enforcement."

The company has so far focused its large legal team mainly within its business divisions rather than building a big, centralised team.

Wiley says: "Seventy-five percent of the Europe, Middle East and Afria (EMEA) legal team sit with specific lines of business and are defacto dedicated. There is a small central group, but the vast majority of the group are responsible for specific business units regionally."

He adds: "The lawyers for areas of the business such as the Disney Channel, for example, are physically located with business units. We deliberately avoid using a large, centralised legal function. It destroys the essential closeness to the business."

An integral part of the Disney in-house ethos is communication. As well as the legal function working closely with the business, the worldwide lawyers form a co-ordinated network so that they can work together on common issues.

Wiley explains: "Worldwide business functions have close business relationships with lawyers in similar functions across the world. It is important that information and knowledge is shared on a worldwide basis and not just in EMEA, and that there is a high degree of co-ordination in the legal function."

He adds: "Some specialist functions are run globally, for example trademark issues – because trademark registrations are determined on a global basis – and also antitrust where we need a worldwide perspective. We talk to each other and discuss issues consistently on a worldwide basis."

With Disney requiring its lawyers to interact closely with the commercial side of the company as well as being able to offer assistance to their legal colleagues, it is essential that recruitment for the team is carried out carefully.

Wiley says: "We place a high value on strong technical ability. We are a large legal department with a culture of legal excellence and newcomers have to be able to survive in that environment as well as speak the language of a media business."

However, like other general counsel, one of Wiley's main concerns is meeting the ambitions of his team. He says: "Career development is always a challenge for in-housers, so we try to move people around. We are in the process of transferring a lawyer in our Madrid office to London and we recently transferred an American lawyer from Japan to London."

Alongside the in-house team, the company uses a range of law firms to conduct more specialist business. Although Disney operates no formal panel, Clifford Chance, Bird & Bird, Olswang, Bevan Brittan and SJ Berwin are among the firms regularly used in the UK and Europe.

"In our UK legal function we tend to only outsource specialised work," Wiley says. "Bread-and-butter business advice, we do in-house. We act very much like a small firm.

"We outsource more outside of the UK across the European Union and use a relatively large number of firms for special tasks. We spread our instructions around. I would describe it as horses for courses. We tend to use individuals that we know."

With the entertainment company continuing to perform well despite the economic downturn – the company recently reported a 9% hike in profits for the third quarter – Wiley is looking forward to the future.

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