The Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries

OUR MISSION is to educate lawyers in the legal principles and transactional aspects of entertainment and sports law; to provide a platform for the discussion of issues affecting these fields, and to foster excellence in the practice of law in these fields. The forum is governed by a seven-member governing committee. Because of the diverse subjects covered by the forum, the governing committee created the following divisions: Interactive Media and New Technologies; Literary Publishing; Litigation; Merchandising and Licensing; Motion Pictures, Television, Cable, and Radio; Music and Personal Appearances; Sports; Theater and Performing Arts; and Visual Arts.

Dear Colleagues:

The Forum serves the needs and interests of lawyers whose clients are in the entertainment, sports and arts industries ?as well as lawyers and law students who plan to represent clients in these industries someday. The Forum does this in several ways. First and foremost, it produces several educational programs a year on the legal and business aspects of entertainment, sports and the arts. Indeed, the Forum’s big annual meeting is primarily an educational program. The Forum also stages smaller conferences throughout the year, not just in the major markets where entertainment lawyers are clustered, but in other cities too, all around the country. And the Forum publishes, and automatically sends to its members, The Entertainment & Sports Lawyer, a quarterly periodical that is the most readable, interesting, and visually attractive of any legal publication in its field (or others).

To be certain the interests of all of its members are well-served, the Forum has ten divisions, each headed by its own Chair: Motion Pictures, Television, Cable, & Radio; Music & Personal Appearances; Sports; Theater & Performing Arts; Literary Publishing; Litigation; Visual Arts; Merchandising & Licensing; and Interactive Media & New Technologies. The Forum is the largest national organization in the entertainment and sports law area. Its size and national scope accounts for one of the most valuable and enjoyable of the benefits of membership: the opportunity to meet and network with others, from all around the country, who share an interest in our exciting and vibrant field.

If you’re already a Forum member, wonderful! If you aren’t yet, join now. Your modest dues will be money well spent. The time you spend on Forum activities will be amply rewarded.

Kirk T. Schroder, Chair, Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, 2009-2011.