Andrea Appella Joins OpenAI as Associate General Counsel EMEA

As of March 2024, Andrea Appella (pictured) has assumed the role of Associate General Counsel EMEA at OpenAI, the company founded by Elon Musk to develop artificial intelligence technologies, including ChatGPT. 

This new position marks a return in-house for Appella, who in October 2023 joined the Herbert Smith Freehills firm as a consultant in the TMT sector and competition/regulatory fields, following nearly three decades of experience in the in-house legal market. Throughout his career, he has focused on regulatory law, competition, and intellectual property on an international scale within major players in the creative industries (audiovisual/media/tech). 

Previously, Appella held various positions, including Head of Global Competition at Netflix (2019-2022), Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, International at News Corporation/21st Century Fox (2009-2019), Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Warner Bros/Time Warner (1999-2008), and Director at MTV Europe (1998-1999). 

Appella has been involved in numerous competition and regulatory cases and legislative developments that have shaped the audiovisual and creative industry over the past decades. His expertise extends to mergers and acquisitions, competition law proceedings, market and regulatory investigations, copyright and Digital Single Market policies, regulation of audiovisual media, and digital platforms. 

He is widely recognized as one of the most qualified lawyers internationally in the TMT sector, covering the entire audiovisual industry chain (from production to distribution), digital economy, and artificial intelligence. 

Furthermore, Appella serves as a visiting professor at King’s College London, teaching “Competition and Intellectual Property in the Media Industry: Law and Practice” in the Master of Law (LLM) program. He is also a member of the ICPC (Innovation, Competition and Regulation Policy Centre) at the European University of Rome and the Scientific Committee of the Next Generation Lawyers course in collaboration with Cinecittà.

For the Italian version of the article click here