H. Gwen Marcus, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, is Showtime Networks Inc.’s chief legal officer, with responsibility for all of the company’s legal affairs, including its programming and distribution transactions, intellectual property, compliance, litigation and regulatory issues, and other legal policy matters. An integral member of the Showtime Networks senior management team, Ms. Marcus is often recognized by industry publications as a top executive in her field, including CableFAX, which has named her one of the Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Cable; Multichannel News, which awarded her its prestigious Wonder Woman honor; Variety, which has included her in both its Power of Women Impact Report and Legal Impact Report; and The Hollywood Reporter, which has included Ms. Marcus in its Women in Entertainment Power 100 list. In 2016, the National Law Journal named Ms. Marcus one of America’s 50 Outstanding General Counsel, and in 2010, Inside Counsel named her the recipient of its First Annual Transformative Leadership Sharing the Power Award for advancing the economic empowerment of women in the law. Ms. Marcus has been with Showtime Networks for over 30 years, having joined the company in 1984 as Assistant Counsel. Prior to joining Showtime Networks, she practiced entertainment law from 1981 to 1984 as an Associate at the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Ms. Marcus is a frequent speaker on diversity issues, and has delivered keynote addresses before the National Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF), the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), and the Capitol Region (NJ) Minority Chamber of Commerce. In addition to serving on the MCCA Board, Ms. Marcus serves as Vice Chair of the Board of not-for-profit Theatre Development Fund (TDF) and the Advisory Board of WILEF (Women in Law Empowerment Forum). She is a former Board Co-Chair of the LGBT Community Center of New York, which honored her with its Corporate Leader Award in 2006, and also has served on the Legal Council of the Williams Institute, a national think tank on sexual orientation law and public policy. She also has been recognized by numerous other not-for-profit organizations, including POWER UP (Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up, which has named her one of the Ten Most Amazing Gay Women in Showbiz), Cable Positive, the cable and telecommunications industry AIDS action organization, GMHC (for which she was the largest individual fundraiser for AIDS Walk New York for several years), and the YWCA of the City of New York (which named her a Woman Achiever). She also has been published in Out and About: The LGBT Experience in the Legal Profession, a joint publication of the American Bar Association and the National LGBT Bar Association.
Ms. Marcus is a member of the New York Bar. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University, with a Phi Beta Kappa key. A cum laude graduate of New York University School of Law, she was an Articles Editor of the New York University Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. In 2009, the law school recognized Ms. Marcus for her outstanding professional achievements.
She is based at Showtime Networks’ headquarters in New York City.