July Industry Spotlight: Rosemary Colliver
General Counsel and Head of Business & Legal Affairs at ShadowMachine
Published July 17, 2026
Written by: Carolina Nascimento
Rosemary Colliver, General Counsel and Head of Legal & Business Affairs at ShadowMachine, has spent her career helping creative teams bring ambitious ideas to life while navigating the legal and business realities behind them.
Entertainment was always part of Rosemary’s world. She grew up with relatives working in live-action television as writers, producers, actors and attorneys, and initially dreamed of becoming an actor herself.
After developing a love for philosophy, she found a way to combine her analytical interests with her lifelong appreciation for art, film and television. She studied copyright, trademark and entertainment law, along with international issues in intellectual property, at Loyola Law School.
Rosemary moved to Portland in 2006 and worked at Stoel Rives and Tonkon Torp before joining LAIKA as in-house counsel. The opportunity to work alongside some of the animation industry’s most talented artists was one she could not pass up.
Now, after nearly 16 years in general counsel roles, her work touches almost every part of a production, including labor and employment, real estate, construction, compliance and contracts involving actors, composers, casting agents and music licenses. One of her favorite responsibilities is the clearance of creative materials.
Rosemary refers to herself as “an enabler” for artists. Creative teams come to her with a vision for what they want to make, and she helps them understand and navigate the many legal and regulatory risks that may arise along the way.
Her experience across film, television, music, video games, publishing and sports marketing has taught her that supporting creative work requires understanding both the artist’s vision and the complicated legal landscape surrounding it.
Rosemary believes Portland is especially well suited for that kind of work.
“At its heart, Portland is a wildly creative city and has attracted one of the most well-balanced creative workforces in the world,” she says. “Not sure what or how such a sophisticated creative community came to be here, but it’s special.”
Oregon’s natural environment also regularly inspires ShadowMachine’s artists, who gather reference materials from across the state, including its mountains, beaches, streams, waterfalls, wildlife, trees and flowers.
“Oregon clearly has everything to inspire!”
Having worked with both LAIKA and ShadowMachine, Rosemary has seen Oregon’s animation industry gain global recognition. She credits ShadowMachine’s opening of its Portland stop-motion studio in 2015 with raising the visibility of Oregon’s stop-motion talent, while the success of Pinocchio and LAIKA’s continued innovation have further demonstrated what artists here can accomplish.
Still, she believes Oregon must continue building the conditions needed to sustain the industry. Productions can last anywhere from six months to two years, with gaps between projects, making lengthy permitting processes, high costs and traditional long-term commercial leases difficult for studios to navigate.
“What excites me most is just that it is,” she says of Oregon’s film and animation industry. “An incredible community of artists in an incredible community.”
Her advice for emerging filmmakers, animators and creative entrepreneurs is delivered with a smile: “Befriend smart lawyers.”
Behind the joke is a reminder that contracts, intellectual property and partnerships are often more complicated than they appear. By helping artists navigate those complexities, Rosemary continues to support the people and productions strengthening Oregon’s creative community—and enables them to keep turning ambitious ideas into reality.
