Gallagher finds himself increasingly involved in cybersecurity and privacy issues at AMC Networks. “We’ve instituted a cybersecurity task force across a number of disciplines including Legal, IT, Operations, Corporate Communications and HR,” he says. It meets monthly and has created an incident response plan. With oversight of legal issues for the AMC Networks’ portfolio, Gallagher also addresses securities, corporate transactions, litigation and strategic planning. When negotiating, Gallagher says he focuses on building trust. “My golden rule is to work hard to try to build a relationship of trust with the counterparty and to try to understand their point of view,” he says.
What have been the most important legal issues in communications for you in the past year?
A combination of cybersecurity and privacy. Both issues are of critical importance for companies. We’ve instituted a cybersecurity task force across a number of disciplines including Legal, IT, Operations, Corporate Communications and HR. The task force meets monthly and has created an incident response plan and team. As to privacy, we’re a global company with TV networks in more than 100 countries and half of our employees outside of the U.S. We’ve been spending a lot of time preparing to comply with the EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy rules.
What is your golden rule for negotiating?
My golden rule is to work hard to try to build a relationship of trust with the counterparty and to try to understand their point of view. Of course you have to couple that with understanding one’s own negotiating parameters and acceptable outcomes.
If you could be any legal thriller writer, who would you want to be and why?
It would be Scott Turow. I’ve been a very big fan of his from his earliest work of non-fiction, One L, and then all the superb novels that have followed. He has been a practicing lawyer, both as a federal prosecutor and a commercial litigator at a large Chicago law firm. This experience has grounded him in the reality and complexity of the law, but he’s also an enormously entertaining writer of great depth and insight.