Jay Shanker

Editor; Author

Jay Shanker is a veteran entertainment industry attorney whose practice encompasses a wide array of film, television, theater, music, live entertainment, new media, fine arts, publishing and sports industry transactions for individual and corporate clients, including both public and private companies, across the U.S. and abroad.  His clients and their projects have over the years garnered prestigious international recognition in every major creative media, including Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Clio nominations and awards. A graduate of Yale and the NYU School of Law, Jay has practiced law in Los Angeles since 1981, and in 2005 established a practice in Oklahoma City, where he now serves as a director at Crowe & Dunlevy, a national law firm with additional offices in Dallas and Tulsa.  Jay is co-author of Entertainment Law & Business, the third edition of which was published by Juris in 2013. He was also a contributing editor for Entertainment Industry Contracts, published by Matthew Bender in 1996 and co-editor of Law and the Television of the ‘80s, published by Oceana in 1982. He has taught courses on entertainment law at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University, and has lectured on entertainment industry legal matters at UCLA, USC and the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles and New York, for the Producers Guild of America, and online for the American Bar Association and other leading continuing legal education forums on entertainment law topics.  Jay has served on the advisory committee of the AFI’s Third Decade Council and was a founding board member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. Jay’s achievements have earned him repeated inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (Entertainment Law – Motion Pictures and Television; Entertainment Law – Music). He is admitted to practice in California, Oklahoma and the District of Columbia.  For more information about Jay and his firm please visit www.crowedunlevy.com

Kirk Schroder

Editor; Author

Kirk Schroder, a founding partner of the Richmond, Virginia law firm Schroder Davis Law Firm PLC, has an extensive entertainment and arts law practice. Kirk is named in the current edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for the field of entertainment law. He is also rated an “AV”* lawyer by Martindale - Hubbell, its highest rating for lawyers. Kirk was elected by his national peers in the entertainment and sports law profession to serve as the Chair of the American Bar Association Entertainment & Sports Law section (2008 -10). His law practice in all involves transactional work in all major entertainment fields, and draws entertainment and arts -related clients from all over the United States and the world. 

Kirk holds, BA and BSBA degrees from the University of Richmond, where he also earned his law degree.  Kirk additionally holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia.

He has written extensively on a wide range of entertainment law topics, and is  a frequent panelist and lecturer on entertainment industry and legal topics throughout the U.S.  For more on Kirk and his firm please visit www.schroderdavis.com

Paul Supnik

Intellectual Property

Paul Supnik practices copyright, trademark and entertainment law and related litigation in Beverly Hills. Paul is a past president of the Los Angeles Copyright Society and a former Chair of both the Entertainment Law/Intellectual Property Section and the International Law Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He is the author of the chapter "Copyright Infringement" in the California Continuing Education of the Bar book, Proof in Competitive Business Litigation and co-edited the publication Enforcement of Copyright and Related Rights Affecting the Music Industry published by the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers. He authored "Designations of Source--Are they Necessary to Support Entertainment Industry Merchandising Rights?" Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal (1986) and the articles "Protection of Trademarks Under the Madrid Protocol," "Check Marks-A Trademark Audit is a Useful Tool for Determining the Cost-Effectiveness of Maintaining a Client's Trademark Portfolio" and "Mark of Distinction--A New Federal Law Protects Distinctive Trademarks Against Dilution Through Unauthorized Use," which were all published in the Los Angeles Lawyer. 

He is a former Chair of the Editorial Board of the Los Angeles Lawyer magazine and served on the editorial board of the International Trademark Association's The Trademark Reporter. Paul was awarded the title of Honorary Vice-President by the Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats. Paul serves as an arbitrator of international motion picture distribution disputes on the Independent Film and Television Alliance International Arbitration Tribunal. 

In addition to writing and speaking on copyright, trademark and entertainment law matters locally, he has spoken on these subjects in Cannes, Buenos Aires, Marrakesh, Bordeaux, London and Brussels. He served as an adjunct associate professor at Southwestern Law School from 2009-2011, where he taught a seminar course on advanced copyright law. Paul graduated from Hastings College of the Law (J.D. 1971) and UCLA (B.S. 1968). He has been selected for inclusion in Southern California Super Lawyers magazine (2010-2017) in the field of intellectual property.  For further information about Paul and his practice, please visit www.supnik.com.

Johnathan Reichman

Intellectual Property

Jonathan Reichman, a partner with the New York City law firm of Andrews, Kurth Kenyon LLP, has over 30 years’ experience in litigation, licensing and counseling matters in copyright, trademark, unfair competition and right of publicity law, particularly for clients in the entertainment industry. World Trademark Review 1000 recognizes him as a leader in trademark matters and notes that he has “specific expertise in protecting rights related to fictional characters” (2016). He is ranked in New York by Chambers & Partners USA in the area of “Intellectual Property: Trademark & Copyright” (2014). In addition, Jonathan has been recognized as a leading intellectual property lawyer by New York Super Lawyers (2016). He is also recognized in the area of copyright law by The US Legal 500 (2016) and U.S. News and World Report/Best Lawyers (2015).

A major aspect of Jonathan’s practice involves the protection, defense, enforcement, licensing and exploitation of rights vested in fictional characters. He has handled complex issues concerning such characters and properties as Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman, Batman, Barbie, Babar the Elephant, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teletubbies, The Berenstain Bears, Inspector Gadget, Franklin The Turtle, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Mr. Bill and The Woodstock Festivals.

Jonathan also represents the estates of well-known entertainers, authors and artists. He has handled copyright, right of publicity, and trademark matters for such estates as Joseph Campbell, Mary McCarthy, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Rube Goldberg, W.C. Fields and Abbott & Costello.

In 2014, he served as an advisor to the New Jersey State Senate in connection with Senate Bill No. S2212 (“The Commercial Identity Protect Act”).

Jonathan is a member of the Advisory Board of Bloomberg BNA's Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal and The Licensing Journal. He has written on copyright, trademark and publicity law topics, and lectured for such organizations as The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Columbia University School of Law, Columbia University School of Fine Arts, The New School for Social Research, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and the Institute for International Research. He has taught entertainment licensing as an adjunct professor at New York Law School, and has been interviewed by such prominent media outlets as The New York Times, Dateline NBC and New York Newsday. He has been a regular commentator on copyright and trademark law topics for the NPR radio program "Soundcheck."  Jonathan earned his BA from Haverford Colleage in 1977 (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and his law degree from Stanford Law School in 1980.  For more information on Jonathan and his firm, please visit www.andrewskurth.com

Ken Basin

Television

Ken Basin currently works as Senior Vice President, Business Affairs for Paramount Television, where he is responsible for dealmaking with talent, producers, and licensees in support of Paramount’s broad slate of television programming (including scripted, unscripted, network, basic cable, premium cable, first-run syndicated, and first-run digital programming). Prior to joining Paramount, Ken was a Vice President of Business Affairs at Sony Television, where he served as the lead business affairs executive for the development and production of series such as $100,000 Pyramid (ABC), S.T.R.O.N.G. (NBC), The Briefcase (CBS), Sneaky Pete (Amazon), Good Girls Revolt (Amazon), and The Dr. Oz Show (first-run syndication). 

Basin also previously served as the Co-Head of Business Affairs at Amazon Studios, where he supervised all aspects of dealmaking, business strategy, and business development in connection with the development, financing, production, distribution, marketing, and ancillary exploitation of Amazon’s slate of original programming, including primetime television drama, primetime television comedy, children’s television, and theatrical motion pictures. The second Business Affairs executive ever hired by Amazon Studios, Ken created and implemented numerous new company forms and policies, developed new business models and negotiated complex co-production and license agreements with major and mini-major traditional media studio partners, and helped to launch the studio’s debut slate of original television pilots and series for first-run exhibition on Amazon Prime Instant Video. Before joining Amazon, Ken was an associate at the Century City law firm of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, LLP, where he developed a hybrid practice of entertainment transactions and entertainment litigation, and served as the Associate Chair of the firm’s Entertainment Department (the first associate ever promoted to a formal department leadership role in the 50-year history of the firm). 

Ken is also a published scholar, as well as a long-time speaker and commentator, on entertainment and intellectual property legal matters. Since 2014, he has been a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School (where he teaches Entertainment and Media Law), and an Adjunct Professor at UCLA School of Law (where he teaches Television Law) and Southwestern Law School (where he teaches Motion Picture Production Law). He has also lectured widely on entertainment and intellectual property-related issues, including to classes and audiences at Pepperdine University School of Law, Stanford Law School, University of Virginia Law School, USC Gould School of Law, USC School of Cinematic Arts University of Tennessee College of Law, UCLA Anderson School of Management, and UCLA Extension School. While at Greenberg Glusker, Ken co-founded and served as Editor-in-Chief of the firm’s award-winning Law Law Land Blog, a self-described “lawyer’s look at the weird, wacky, wonderful world of the entertainment industry” that tackled complex entertainment news and legal issues with humor, insight, and a fair dose of Ken’s trademark snark. 

In 2011, Variety named Ken one “the best and the brightest . . . attorneys that stand above the crowd and represent the next generation of sharp legal minds in the entertainment business” in its 2011 “Hollywood Law: Up Next” feature, and in 2012, the magazine profiled him as one of a small crop of rising “legal eagles” in its “Hollywood’s New Leaders” feature.

Andrew Boortz

Video Games & Interactive Media

Andrew Boortz is the General Counsel for multinational video game company Nexon America, Inc. and Nexon M, Inc., subsidiaries of Nexon Co. Ltd., Korea’s largest gaming company.  Nexon specializes in free to play PC, mobile and social games.  As General Counsel for Nexon America and Nexon M, Drew oversees all legal, regulatory, litigation and public policy activities of the Nexon group in North America, South America and Oceana.

Todd & Jeff Brabec

Music Publishing

TODD BRABEC, former ASCAP Executive Vice President and Worldwide Director of Membership, is an Entertainment Law attorney and industry consultant, a Deems Taylor Award winning co-author of the best selling music business book "Music Money and Success: the Insiders Guide to Making Money in the Music Business" (8th edition/Schirmer Books/ Music Sales) as well as co-author of the Music Publishing chapter in the 2018 Juris Publications multiple volume treatise “The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law”. He is an Adjunct Professor at USC where he teaches Music Licensing, Music Publishing and Film, Television and Video Game Scoring and Song Contracts and a former Governing Committee member as well as Music and Budget Chair of the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries. In addition to the Deems Taylor Award for Excellence in Music Journalism, he is the recipient of the 2005 Educational Leadership Award from the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) and the 2015 Texas Star Award from the Entertainment and Sports Law Section of the State Bar of Texas for Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in the Field of Entertainment Law. 

During his 37 year ASCAP career in addition to overseeing and directing all of ASCAP’s Membership operations in the Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Miami, Chicago, London and Puerto Rico offices, he was responsible for signing most of ASCAP's successful songwriter/artists including, among many others, Marvin Gaye, Metallica, Journey, Neil Young, Smokey Robinson, Tom Petty, Sting, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, the Jimi Hendrix catalogue, ZZ Top, War, Green Day, Jay Z, Bryan Adams, Jeff Lynne(ELO), Steely Dan, Fergie, Donna Summer, Motley Crue, Avril Lavigne, Supertramp, Foreigner, Marc Anthony, Bob McDill, America, John Prine, Sting, Rob Thomas and Earth, Wind and Fire as well as the worldwide top grossing box office feature film composers James Horner ( "Avatar" and "Titanic"- #1 and #2 all time box office films), Alan Silvestri ("Marvel's the Avengers"), Hans Zimmer ("Pirates of the Caribbean" films), James Newton Howard ("Hunger Games", "Dark Knight") and Randy Newman ("Toy Story 1, 2 and 3" films) in addition to many of the top television series score composers and theme song writers. 

His efforts over his career were instrumental in taking ASCAP from a 20% overall market share to a 52% share of radio and competitive dominance in broadcast television, cable and worldwide top grossing feature films as well as an increase in total annual revenue from 60 million dollars to 995 million dollars. 

In addition, he significantly changed most of ASCAP's distribution, payment and survey rules and systems and was responsible for significantly increasing the royalties and payment formulas for successful radio writers and film and television score and theme composers as well as eliminating practically all ASCAP payment and distribution policies, formulas and rules which were not in the best interests of songwriters and composers or which had a negative effect on their earnings or which financially penalized success. In addition, he was in charge of and responsible for all writer and publisher advances, guarantees, bank loans, financial incentives and other member inducements.

Past and current Board memberships include the L.A. Chapter of NARAS (the Recording Academy), the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), Entertainment Law and Finance, American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries (Governing Committee as well as Music and Budget Chairs), Academy of Country Music (ACM)) and the California Copyright Conference (CCC), among others. 

JEFF BRABEC is Vice President of Business Affairs for BMG (representing, among others, the catalogues of Bruno Mars, John Legend, Kurt Cobain, Roger Waters, ZZ Top, OutKast, Buddy Holly, David Bowie, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, My Morning Jacket, John Lee Hooker, Devo, Hal David,  Blondie, Paul Anka, Billy Idol, Jethro Tull, Burt Bacharach, Steven Perry, Tom Waits,  Dan Wilson, Paul Anka  and Ray LaMontagne).  BMG Is the fourth largest music publisher in the world which owns and controls over two million copyrights.  

He specializes in evaluating, analyzing, projecting income and negotiating music publishing catalogue acquisitions as well as songwriter, co-publishing, participation, administration, subpublishing, direct license and joint venture agreements as well as termination rights issues.  He also specializes in all music licensing issues Including digital media, motion pictures, television, video games, apps, Broadway musicals and new technology agreements and negotiations.

Previously, he has been Vice President of Business Affairs for both The Chrysalis Music Group and The PolyGram Music Group and Director of Business Affairs for The Welk Music Group and Arista-Interworld Music Group where he represented the catalogues of Elton John, Henry Mancini, Van Morrison, Waylon Jennings, Hall & Oates, Rick Springfield, Richard Rodgers, Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II, among others.    

Brabec is the co-author of the best-selling book "MUSIC, MONEY, AND SUCCESS: The Insider's Guide To Making Money In The Music Business" (8th Edition /Schirmer Trade Books/Music Sales).  He has been awarded the Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism and The Texas Star Award by the Entertainment & Sports Law Section of the State Bar of Texas for Outstanding Contribution and Achievement in the Field of Entertainment Law. .  

Brabec is an Adjunct Professor at USC Thornton School of Music/Business Division where he teaches music publishing and licensing, is Contributing Editor to the Entertainment Law & Finance Magazine and is co-author of the Music Publishing chapter in the 2018 Juris Publications multiple volume treatise “The Essential Guide to Entertainment Law”. 

THE BRABECS lecture extensively throughout the world at conferences, universities, foreign country licensing and collection societies, industry associations, law firms, and management companies, among others.  They have appeared on numerous legal and business panels for the Practising Law Institute (PLI), the Bar Associations of California, New York, Georgia, Texas, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee, Washington D.C. and Beverly Hills, SXSW, Midem, the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, ABA annual conference , NARAS, The Game Developers Conference, Song Summit Sydney, Billboard, Americana Conference, DIMA, AFM, MEIEA Educators Summit, the Cutting Edge Festival, Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), Entertainment Law Institute, California Lawyers for the Arts, Guitar Center, Canadian Music Week, Production Music Association (PMA), International Association of Entertainment  Lawyers (IAEL), American Film Institute (AFI), NARM, New Music Seminar, Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL), Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, ASCAP Expo, the Irish Music Rights Organization (IMRO) among many others. They have hundreds of published articles on all aspects of the business and law of Music and Entertainment including the American Bar Association Entertainment and Sports Lawyer, the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers Annual Handbook, Entertainment Law and Finance, the Mitchell-Hamline Law Review, the Entertainment and Arts Handbook, USC Entertainment Law Spotlight, Score magazine, Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and many others.  Todd’s Law Review article “The Performance Right: a World in Transition” was selected by West/Thomson Reuters as one of the best Entertainment Law Review articles of 2016 and was re-published in the Entertainment Publishing and the Arts Handbook. In addition, they have organized and participated in numerous American Bar Association webinars on Music Publishing, Licensing, Contracts and Sources of Income in the Music Industry.

College, university and law school guest lectures include USC, Harvard, NYU, Belmont, Loyola New Orleans, Southwestern, Middle Tennessee State, University of Miami, Miami-Dade, Emory, Tulane, Florida State, University of Florida, Berklee College of Music, UCLA, the Trebas Institute, Hastings, Michigan State, University of Colorado, Five Towns College, Thomas Jefferson, Victoria University, Syracuse University, Cal-State Northridge and the Musicians Institute, among others. 

Prior to their careers in music and entertainment law, they were legal services attorneys in Chicago for Community Legal Counsel (the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity). They were also recording artists for Audio Fidelity Records as “The Reunion”. Both are graduates of the New York University School of Law 

For more information on the Brabec brothers, please visit www.musicandmoney.com     

Brad Cohen

Entertainment Taxation

Brad Cohen is a partner in the Century City office of Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, LLP.  Brad's practice emphasizes business planning related to complex corporate and partnership transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, financing and business succession planning, income tax planning, and estate tax planning, all on an integrated basis.  Brad is best known for his business and tax advice related to the motion picture, television, music, emerging media and sports industries. One of the focuses of his practice is coordinating the relationships among the entertainment, advertising and nonprofit industries.  He has incorporated his personal commitment to philanthropy into a key element of his legal practice, providing multi-faceted counsel to clients regarding their involvement in charitable endeavors, including developing strategic plans, outlining the associated tax benefits and identifying the appropriate corporate brands and sponsorships. Brad acted as principal counsel representing the lead donor who financed the acquisition, delivery and permanent exhibition of the Space Shuttle Endeavour located at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. He also advises clients on tax controversy, executive compensation (including deferred compensation) and tax aspects of marital settlement negotiations.  He currently represents a production icon in the creation and operation of the Compton Performing Arts Center. Brad was also a lobbyist before the United States Congress for the Tax Reform Research Group. He is also an Ironman Triathlon finisher.

Brad’s clients include ultra-high net worth individuals and their closely held businesses. He has also represented studios, record companies, production companies and sports teams, as well as high-profile performing artists and behind-the-scenes individuals. Brad's clients have also included former presidents of the United States and a United States senator.

Brad is a Director of the Motion Picture Tax Institute and a past Chair of the Entertainment-Tax Subcommittee of the Tax Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He was a delegate to the Los Angeles County Bar Association Tax Section Washington, DC Delegation and a former Chairperson of the Taxation Section of the Century City Bar Association. He is on the planning committee for the Cal CPA Education Foundation's Entertainment Industry Conference.

Brad earned his LL.M., Taxation from New York University, 1981, his J.D. at Hofstra University School of Law, 1979, and his B.S. from Northeastern University, 1976 cum laude.  For more on Brad and his law firm, please visit http://www.jmbm.com 

Hailey Ferber

Theater

Hailey Ferber, Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs at The Araca Group, a renowned theatrical production and brand management company, came to work in the theater industry after studying with Manny Azenberg at Duke University.  Prior to joining The Araca Group, Hailey was an Associate at Levine Plotkin & Menin, LLP where she was a production attorney for the Broadway shows Hamilton: An American Musical, It’s Only A Play, Something Rotten!, Tuck Everlasting, and On Your Feet!, among others.  For more information on Hailey and her company, please visit www.araca.com

Stephen Monas

Motion Pictures

Steve Monas is an experienced lawyer and executive with over thirty years in the entertainment industry, Steve Monas founded Business Affairs, Inc. in July of 1999.  Since that time, Steve and the attorneys of BAI have built a client list of many of the most respected names in the independent motion picture and television industries, and Steve has represented producers, distributors, bond companies, sales agents, and financiers in every aspect of the entertainment business.  Steve is a frequent lecturer, moderator, and panelist at seminars on the entertainment industry.  Before founding BAI, Steve served as Executive Vice President and head of Business Affairs for MDP Worldwide, President of Vision International, Vice President of Business Affairs with Vestron Pictures, and as an associate with New York law firms Frankfurt Garbus Klein & Selz, Pavia & Harcourt, and Brown & Wood. Steve received his J.D. from Columbia University in 1981, and is admitted to practice in both New York and California. You can find more about Steve and Business Affairs, Inc. at www.bizaffairs.com 

Shane Nix

Entertainment Taxation

Shane Nix, Counsel to the law firm Venable LLP, advises companies and individuals on various business transactions with an emphasis on transactional tax matters relating to the acquisition, disposition and restructuring of businesses, corporations and partnerships. Mr. Nix has a broad range of experience in corporate, international and partnership taxation. At Venable, Mr. Nix advises clients in many different industries, including technology, real estate, hospitality, media and entertainment with significant experience advising actors, actresses, musicians, producers, directors and financers on a wide range of individual, corporate, and partnership tax issues specific to the entertainment industry. Mr. Nix also has significant experience advising executives in connection with equity compensation matters.

Prior to joining Venable, Mr. Nix was an associate tax attorney at a global American Lawyer 100 firm in Silicon Valley where he represented both sell-side and buy-side clients in M&A transactions and advised technology and media companies with respect to choice of entity formation and various tax matters.

Mr. Nix started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City where he advised public and private companies and private equity firms on international and domestic aspects of restructurings, divestures and various stages of mergers and acquisitions, including due diligence, structuring and post-merger integration. Mr. Nix also worked at Deloitte Tax LLP in Chicago as a tax consultant focusing on R&D tax credit substantiation.

In addition to scholarly publications, Mr. Nix has contributed to publications in the Journal of Taxation covering bad debt deductions and worthless stock losses.

Mr. Nix currently serves on the Executive Committee for the USC Tax Institute as Chairman of the Individual Taxation Subcommittee, and on the Planning Committee for the CalCPA Entertainment Industry Conference. He is also a member of the Motion Picture and Television Tax Institute and frequently speaks on matters pertaining to the entertainment and media industries. More information on Shane and his firm may be found at www.venable.com

Henry Root

Music Industry

Henry W. Root is a partner in the entertainment media firm of Lapidus, Root, Franklin & Sacharow, LLP. He has over 35 years of legal and business affairs experience in the music, television and media industries.  He began his legal career at MCA Records, Inc. after several years of working as a concert producer and subsequently as a tour manager and lighting designer for internationally renowned musical performers. Mr. Root has represented recording artists signed to nearly every major label as well as award-winning songwriters and producers, independent music publishers, record labels, book authors, and the principal cast members of several reality TV series. Root has also overseen business and legal affairs for the production and delivery of programming to every major network as well as for distribution on the internet, and provides counsel in transactions for the valuation, purchase and sale of music publishing assets and to banks in connection with lending activities in the entertainment industry.

Mr. Root was presented with the 2017 Ed Rubin Award by The American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries.  The Ed Rubin Award is the forum’s highest honor and is given in recognition of outstanding leadership and service. He served for six years as Chair of the Music & Personal Appearances Division of the Forum and presently sits on the Governing Committee of that organization. He is an adjunct professor of music law at the University of Miami School of Law. Root has been repeatedly selected by his peers for inclusion in “Super Lawyers” and has been named in “Top Attorneys in North America.” He also is a noted author and frequent lecturer and panelist. 

For more on Henry and his firm, please visit http://www.lrfslaw.com

Gail Ross

Literary Publishing

Gail Ross is a partner at Trister, Ross, Schadler & Gold, PLLC in Washington DC where she has focused on the legal aspects of publishing and media law for the last 25 years.  Gail writes and lectures frequently on publishing issues. She teaches CLE courses on publishing law for the D.C. Bar and the Practicing Law Institute.  She is the author of The Writer’s Lawyer (Times Books, 1989) and has also been named numerous times as one of the Best Lawyers in America and Washingtonian’s Best Lawyers for entertainment law.

She is also the president of the Ross Yoon Agency, representing important commercial nonfiction in a variety of areas.  Ross Yoon clients include top doctors, CEO's, prize-winning journalists, and historians, and experts in a variety of fields.  She and her team work closely with their authors and have earned a reputation in the industry for providing rigorous, enthusiastic editorial guidance at all stages of the publishing process.   In the last year alone, close to a dozen of her books have been New York Times bestsellers.

For more information about Gail’s legal practice and literary agency, please visit www.tristerross.com or www.rossyoon.com

Greg Snodgrass

Motion Pictures

Greg Snodgrass is an in-house attorney at Universal Pictures, where he drafts and negotiates above-the-line motion picture development and production agreements. Prior to joining the studio, Greg was an attorney at the transactional entertainment law firm Business Affairs, Inc., where he represented studios, financiers and producers and negotiated and drafted agreements relating to every step of the motion picture development, financing, production and distribution process. Greg also reviewed and resolved complex chain of title histories and handled various music licensing issues on behalf of the firm's clients. He is a graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Indiana University - Bloomington School of Law.

Victoria Traube

Theater

Victoria Traube is Senior Vice President/Business Affairs and General Counsel of Concord Music Publishing, with responsibility for the business and legal affairs of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, Boosey & Hawkes in New York and Imagem Music in New York.  She was previously Vice President and Head of New York Motion Picture and Theatre Business Affairs for International Creative Management, Inc., where she worked with Sam Cohn.  Before that she was Senior Counsel and Director of Business Affairs for Home Box Office, Inc. and an associate at the New York law firm of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.  She is a Trustee of The God Bless America Fund.  She served as Theatre Chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Sports and Entertainment Industries and Chair of the Entertainment Law Committee of the Association of The Bar of The City of New York.  She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a member of The Law Review, and Radcliffe College. For more on Victoria and her company, please visit http://concord.com/music-publi...

Robert J. Williams

Motion Pictures

Robert Williams founded RW Law to expand his entertainment and media practice after over a decade of experience as an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP and Dechert LLP.  He brings a wealth of knowledge to each deal, leveraging his hands-on experience with complex transactions.  He focuses on: film and television development, finance and distribution; licensing of intellectual property and copyright; secured transactions; and general corporate matters.  Mr. Williams is an executive producer of Z for Zachariah, a Craig Zobel film starring Chris Pine, Margot Robbie and Chiwetel Ejiofor.  

Mr. Williams has lectured multiple times at Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, and is published in the Virginia Law & Business Review as well as in the Virginia Tax Review.  At the University of Virginia School of Law he served as Articles Review Editor for both the Virginia Tax Review and the Virginia Journal of International Law, two of the most acclaimed and influential law journals in their respective fields.  For more information about Robert and his practice, please visit www.r-wlaw.com.

Justin B. Wineburgh

Television

Justin B. Wineburgh is the President and CEO of Alkemy X, an award winning creative media company with more than 250 employees and contractors located in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles and Amsterdam. From traditional commercials to original content, Alkemy X has produced work for clients, including HBO, Nickelodeon, AMC, SyFy, Comcast, truTV, FOX, CBS, ABC, Food Network, Discovery Channel, MTV, Scripps and National Geographic, among many others. 

Before joining Alkemy X, Wineburgh spent 16 years at Cozen O’Connor, an international law firm with more than 700 attorneys, where he built and headed the firm's media, entertainment and sports law practice. During his tenure as a partner at the firm, Wineburgh established himself as a “Super Lawyer” in the practice of Entertainment and Sports Law. American Lawyer Media described him as a “true pioneer in the entertainment industry,” where he served as production counsel to dozens of films and hundreds of television shows. He has also acted as outside counsel to numerous media and entertainment companies.  Wineburgh repeatedly represented clients at the Comic-Con International Convention, the American Film Market and the Sundance, Cannes, CineVegas and Toronto International Film Festivals.

Wineburgh is frequently interviewed and cited in the media regarding business and legal matters of the entertainment industry. A regular lecturer worldwide, he is an adjunct professor of Entertainment Law for the Kline School of Law at Drexel University, the School of Film and Media Arts at Temple University and Drexel University's Westphal College of Media Arts and Design, where he is also an advisory board member. Wineburgh also sits on the Advisory Board of the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, as well as the Executive Boards of the Philadelphia Film Society and the Pennsylvania Film Industry Association. He is a member of the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Committees of the Pennsylvania and Florida Bar Associations. For more on Justin and his company, please visit http://www.alkemy-x.com/