Q&A with Distinguished Service Award Winner Janell Wise

Janell Wise currently works at Paramount Skydance where she serves as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel in the News Law Group, where she focuses on contracts and rights and pre-publication and pre-broadcast clearance for the CBS News and Stations division. In this role, she counsels journalists and producers at programs such as CBS Mornings, CBS Evening News, 48 Hours, Sunday Morning, and serves as lead attorney for CBS owned and operated news stations in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis and Los Angeles markets, in addition to vetting digital, .com and investigative reports. She is an expert on defamation law and newsgathering issues.

Before that, Janell was Assistant General Counsel for CBS Corporation in their Contracts and Rights Group. In that role she negotiated advertising, marketing and promotion, sponsorship, merchandising, distribution, production, purchasing, rights acquisition, content license, location, talent, technology and other commercial agreements across various CBS Broadcasting Inc. divisions, affiliates and subsidiaries, including CBS News, CBS Sports, CBS Sports Network, CBS Consumer Products, CBS Television Stations, CBS Information Security and Technology, CBS Marketing, CBS Studios, CBS Studios International, Showtime Inc. and Simon Schuster and counseled clients at owned and operated news stations in four local markets and on shows such The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Prior to joining CBS Corporation, Wise worked as an associate in the Technology and Intellectual Property Transactions practice at Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP where she served as legal counsel on a variety of deals, including standalone intellectual property, media and technology transactions and all intellectual property-related aspects of private equity investments and mergers and acquisitions and counseled international and domestic corporate clients regarding copyright and trademark issues and prosecution and litigation strategy, Wise serves on the Board of Directors of Trailblazers, which provides outdoor programs and camps, financially accessible for all, to fulfill the mission of guiding young people in developing values and skills essential for productive citizenship through nature and the outdoors. She recently concluded a four-year term as Co-Chair of the Board of Directors.

A law and journalism graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Janell currently serves as Chair Emeritus on the Student Affairs Board of Visitors (BOV), after serving as Chair and Vice Chair since 2021. Wise resides in New York and is an avid international traveler and lover of outdoor activities and pickleball.

What does receiving this award mean to you?

I’m extremely honored and frankly a bit shocked! My career in the field hasn’t exactly been a straightforward or traditional path, but I always carry with me knowledge and skills I learned during my time at the J-School. I am extremely grateful for everything I received from the J-School, from the training I received to the memories I made and lifelong friends I met along the way. I owe so much of who I am now to the J-School and I’m grateful and humbled to be receiving this award.

What is your favorite memory from your time at the SJMC?

Interviewing Professor James Thompson as part of our final project for J202 on stem cell research at the UW (a very intense topic to tackle!). Several years prior, he was on the cover of TIME Magazine’s America’s Best in Science & Medicine feature for his work with human embryonic stem cells which was a big deal at the time! To be a student journalist and have the opportunity to interview a science trailblazer about his work was mind blowing!

Who is one SJMC professor who made a lasting impact on your career, and why?

Without a doubt, Katy Culver. She is an absolute powerhouse and an inspiration. Her class was by far the most rigorous I took during undergrad and was where I truly learned to be an effective thinker, writer and communicator. It’s also where I gained confidence in my skills and developed a fierce love and dedication to this profession that I carry with me to this day.

What is one thing you learned at the SJMC that you have carried with you throughout your career?

The crucial role of journalism in America as the “fourth estate” – holding government and power accountable to the public.

What has been keeping you busy since your time at the SJMC?

Though I went straight to law school after graduating from the J-School and spent five years practicing at a law firm in the IP/and technology space, I have spent the last 11 years working with CBS News and Stations journalists all over the country to help them tell their stories in the most impactful way.

What are you currently focused on in your career?

The profession of journalism is under attack – from physical and legal threats to digital harassment of reporters to political attempts to undermine public trust. I’m currently very focused on doing everything I can to defend press freedom and protect my journalist colleagues as they do their very important work.