Founded in 1995, Getty Images Inc. creates and distributes content including photographs, music and video clips. It adds some 40,000 pictures daily to its massive digital archive of more than 71 million images, and licenses 200,000 images to customers daily. The company acquired iStockphoto for $50 million in 2006. Last year, private-equity firm The Carlyle Group acquired a controlling interest in Getty Images in a $3.3 billion deal. Getty Images has about 2,000 employees and major offices in London, New York and Seattle.
LEGAL TEAM
John Lapham leads a 25-person team of 15 lawyers and 10 support staff spread over six cities in four countries. The team embraces the corporate creed of “bring me solutions,” Lapham said. It works closely with both the technology and product teams and meets with customers as needed. Although the attorneys focus largely on licensing and intellectual property issues, Lapham prefers to hire generalists with intellectual curiosity who are drawn to cutting-edge work. The group includes a global litigation manager and mergers-and-acquisitions specialists.
