OWN Firms Up Legal Department

The Oprah Winfrey network has retained two executives as vice president of business and legal affairs.
OWN hired Julie Shapiro and Tina Perry to serve in those roles in which they will negotiate and draft all deal items, talent, production, new media, licensing, affiliate, ad sales deals, and all other network -elated agreements. They report to Alan Saxe, senior vice president, business and legal affairs.
Shapiro joins OWN, which is slated to launch early in 2010, from New Line Television where she headed the business and legal affairs department for the past nine years. There, she created the in-house television business and legal affairs department for the studio. Prior to New Line Television, she was vice president of business and legal affairs at Rysher Entertainment.
Perry comes from MTV Networks' business and legal affairs department, where she structured, negotiated, and drafted development, production, and co-production deals for the documentary, reality, and scripted original programming departments at MTV and VH1. She also provided production legal advice for MTV and VH1 original programming.
"Julie's experience creating and managing a business and legal affairs department from the ground up, coupled with Tina's proven track record with successful wide ranging network cable television deals with multiple cable networks, makes this dynamic and talented duo a strong foundation for our division," said Saxe in a statement.