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Originally published in Student
Lawyer magazine, February 2006 (Vol. 34, No. 6). All rights
reserved.
Hot Practice
Network your way to employment in entertainment law
ABA Resources on Entertainment Law
by Lisa Stansky
It's tough to break into show business. The same is true of entertainment
law, but practitioners say persistence, patience, and preparation
should pay off.
“A lot of people come into my office and say they want to
be on the entertainment side,” says Gerald Phillips, chair
of the entertainment law committee of the ABA Section of Dispute
Resolution. Phillips, of counsel to Phillips, Lerner, Lauzon &
Jamra in Los Angeles, says prospective associates must demonstrate
an interest in the field.
How? “Become involved early” with groups like the
ABA, says Phillips, who began his entertainment law practice in
1951 with a focus on the motion picture industry. Today, Phillips
mediates and arbitrates disputes in the industry, often in cases
involving U.S. and foreign distributors.
Besides being a challenging area to break into, other realities
of entertainment law are important for savvy law students to know.
For one thing, the practice has a strong geographical pull; most
observers point to New York and Los Angeles as the main hubs. Nashville
is another common destination, especially for those who want to
dive into the music business.
Chicago, which has a “substantial number” of entertainment
law practitioners, can be added to the list, notes Thomas Roberts,
a Rolling Hills, Calif., solo. “If you’re going to go
into this area of the law, you should be prepared to go into one
of these four cities,” says Roberts, co-chair of the sports
and entertainment committee of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment
Law. He advises students to seek jobs in these locations with firms
that have a strong entertainment law practice.
Though these are the hot locations, there are niche opportunities
to practice entertainment law elsewhere, such as representing museums,
art galleries, and other cultural institutions.
Roberts is an arbitrator with 30 years of experience in the entertainment
industry. He often hears disputes involving television networks
and labor unions such as the Screen Actors Guild.
Phillips lays out one possible career route for a prospective entertainment
lawyer: Become a law clerk to a judge, and go from there to a law
firm or a company.
“To be a good lawyer, the experience of being a clerk is
very important,” Phillips says, adding that a judicial clerkship
is valuable no matter what field of practice one ultimately enters.
He also advises students to consider a career in mediation and arbitration
because they are common methods for resolving contractual disputes
in the entertainment industry.
One skill of high value to entertainment law practitioners is
the ability to network effectively.
“Personal relationships tend to help a lot,” says
Leigh Brecheen of Beverly Hills’ Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal
& LaViolette. Brecheen is chair of the motion picture, television,
cable, and radio division of the ABA Forum on the Entertainment
and Sports Industries.
Brecheen advises new lawyers to learn the ropes at a large law
firm with an established entertainment law practice. At such firms,
which tend to represent companies rather than individuals, associates
often start off in a general litigation or corporate law practice
and move into entertainment-related work, she says.
According to Brecheen, large-firm experience is valuable for those
who want to move on to smaller entertainment law boutiques, where
lawyers usually focus on a single aspect of the field and work with
individual artists as clients. Boutiques often recruit from large-firm
ranks, as do studios, which hire lawyers for their business affairs
departments, she adds.
It’s important for entertainment lawyers to intimately know
the art form their work is involved with, says Jessica Darraby,
a partner with Steiner Darraby in Santa Monica, Calif.
“I highly recommend some actual arts experience,”
says Darraby, chair of the visual arts division of the Forum on
the Entertainment and Sports Industries and author of Art, Artifact
& Architecture Law.
As for getting that hands-on experience, Darraby notes that many
institutions have internship programs, including legal internships.
She advises ferreting out opportunities with museums, foundations,
galleries, and other cultural organizations, and to cast a wide
net.
Darraby’s own practice has been varied. In addition to work
involving major studios and entertainment companies, she sometimes
delves into projects that require her to investigate the provenance,
or chain of custody, of artistic works. Some matters involve art
counterfeiting and fraud. “I call myself a generalized specialist,”
Darraby says, noting the diversity of the practice within this niche.
Matthew Burrows, of counsel to Lapidus & Haft in Santa Monica,
had an interesting career odyssey. When he was fresh out of law
school, he went to work for the William Morris Agency, the international
company that represents authors, actors, and other performers. In
the agency’s Beverly Hills office, Burrows focused on the
music industry. He moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to get involved
with digital media, eventually landing in Los Angeles. Burrows signed
on with a music boutique firm, where his practice today handles
transactional aspects of music and theater projects.
A member of the literary publishing division of the Forum on the
Entertainment and Sports Industries, Burrows also does transactional
work in the literary publishing world, mostly representing book
authors and screenwriters.
Burrows sets out his own version of a career path for prospective
entertainment lawyers to consider. Like other practitioners, he
recommends seeking work in California, New York, or Nashville. At
some point, he says, law firm experience is valuable, but it doesn’t
have to be done right out of law school. Burrows, whose career began
with William Morris, says he is a testament to that.
Networking is the next point in Burrows’ game plan. Develop
mentors, he advises. Constantly educate yourself. Attend conferences,
which are excellent sources for networking. Membership in bar associations
and other professional organizations is a must, he says.
Another great way to get involved is through community service,
Burrows says, adding that volunteer opportunities offer lawyers
a way to give back and to meet those in the field.
Burrows’ final piece of advice: Be persistent. “It’s
the persistent ones who survive,” he says.
Lisa Stansky (
lstansky@mcglinchey.com)
is a lawyer with the New Orleans office of McGlinchey Stafford.
Are you interested in other fields of law? Read previous Hot
Practice columns online at www.abanet.org/lsd/studentlawyer.
ABA Resources on Entertainment Law
The ABA Forum
on the Entertainment and Sports Industries is the first
stop for law students who are interested in the field. ABA law student
members can receive informative publications, invitations to meetings
with lawyers, access to online forums, and other resources by joining
the forum and these ABA sections and committees—often free
of charge or at a reduced rate:
Section
of Dispute Resolution
Entertainment Law Committee
Section
of Labor and Employment Law
Sports and Entertainment Labor Law Committee
Section
of Intellectual Property Law
Broadcasting, Sound Recordings, and Performing Artists Committee
Young
Lawyers Division
Arts, Entertainment, and Sports Law Committee
Customize your membership
To add a section to your member profile, call 800-285-2221 or visit
www.abanet.org/join.
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