The Washington Post's small but strong legal team last year successfully handled legal challenges from executing licensing deals to bringing an imprisoned journalist home.

The paper's four-lawyer in-house legal team works on everything from pre-publication review to labor negotiations with six different unions.

Since Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff Bezos bought the newspaper in 2013, the paper has changed as Bezos lasered in on technological innovation. That has meant that the legal team has learned some new tricks, general counsel Jay Kennedy says.