Sandra Scott
Esq.Vice President of Legal Affairs
Home Box Office Inc., New York City
Moving up HBO’s ranks since 1995, Sandra Scott joined HBO as associate counsel for original programming and is currently the vice president of Legal Affairs for the cable channel’s marketing group, a position she assumed about two years ago.
Scott leads a team of 20 legal professionals whose responsibilities include working on strategic initiatives for the company, including the mobile business with Cingular (now AT&T) and the launch of HBO Broadband. She also manages the commercial law application for all of HBO’s marketing efforts.
Scott grew up in the most poverty-stricken section of Scranton, Pa., where she entertained the limited dream of becoming an administrative assistant. It wasn’t until she moved to Philadelphia in her early 20s that she saw that life offered endless possibilities. She enrolled in night school, but soon bartered babysitting services with friends and worked at night as a word processor in order to attend school full time during the day.
She graduated with honors from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and as a member of the California Law Review of the University of California’s Boalt Hall School of Law.
Scott landed a position in corporate law at Dewey Ballantine L.L.P. in New York City, where she spent six years, and became instrumental in the firm’s efforts to recruit and retain a diverse work force. “If we don’t pull us along, I don’t know who we can depend on to do so,” she says.
Among her most memorable accomplishments, Scott ran a half marathon in Ghana in 2007 in support of The Longevity Project, founded by a law-school friend to educate Ghanaians about the hazards that diminish life expectancy and to support efforts to reduce or eliminate those hazards.
Given the opportunity, she would devote more time to women’s and children’s issues, she says. “I would like to be remembered, hopefully, for using my creative talents to improve the lives of others,” she muses.
