Steve Chung
Chief Counsel, Disney Entertainment Television
Steve Chung is the chief counsel for Disney Entertainment Television (DET) and The Walt Disney Company’s world-class streaming platforms, Disney+ and Hulu. In his role, Chung acts as a strategic advisor to Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden and manages all legal efforts related to the production of Disney’s television programs and the management of Disney television networks and streaming platforms. He leads a team that provides guidance and collaborates with specialists within the company on a diverse range of areas, including labor, talent contracts, employment, litigation, intellectual property, rights management, among many others. Chung oversees a team of attorneys and other legal professionals responsible for ABC Entertainment, ABC News, ABC Owned Televisions Stations, Disney Branded Television (Disney Channel, Disney Junior), Disney+, Disney Television Studios (20th Television, 20th Television Animation, ABC Signature, Walt Disney Television Alternative), Freeform, FX, Hulu, National Geographic and Onyx Collective, which collectively produce over thousands of hours of critically acclaimed television a year for audiences around the world. He also leads Standards & Practices for all of Disney’s TV networks.
This year, Chung and his colleagues will launch an innovative international practice group for Disney’s content lawyers, allowing lawyers across Disney’s worldwide offices to coordinate, learn from each other and operate uniformly as a practice group.
Prior to joining The Walt Disney Company, Chung held the position of senior vice president, NBCUniversal Legal, where he served as attorney for the “TODAY Show,” Owned Stations Group, NBC Sports, NBC Entertainment News and NBCU Television Distribution Group (syndicated talk shows). He counseled clients on intellectual property, First Amendment, regulatory, compliance, litigation, advertising, privacy, employment, digital and transactional matters. Chung was also a founding member of NBCUniversal’s diversity committee for the law department, serving as the head of the group for a term.
He was a member of the board of directors for the Asian American Bar Association of New York and created a mentorship program that has reached hundreds of diverse lawyers and is still in operation.
Before his legal career, Chung was a management consultant focused on data analytics, creating prediction models for data-rich industries and working with the leadership of Fortune 500 companies to adopt new strategies. Chung holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.