Co-chair, Entertainment Practice Group

Representative Experience
Intellectual property, entertainment and media transactions, with emphasis on all aspects of theater, film and television financing and production, as well as music and publishing matters

Trademark practice including advice regarding selection, clearance procedures, prosecution of applications and other aspects of registration, licensing and other exploitation of trademark assets, policing and dispute resolution

Copyright practice including registration and advice regarding protection of unpublished works, manuscript/script review for fair use, work-for-hire arrangements

Licensing practice including exploitation of name/likeness rights, famous trademarks and character rights

Litigation support in cases of intellectual property infringement

Prior Experience
Partner, Kay Collyer & Boose

Associate, White & Case

Representative Clients
Intellectual property counsel to a leading producer and distributor of licensed sports merchandise, and primary outside counsel to a privately-held company which is the leading print and online publisher of monthly sports collectibles magazines

Numerous theatrical/live attractions producers and production companies, whose productions have included Elaine Stritch: At Liberty; Dame Edna: Back With a Vengeance; Laugh Whore; Lennon, and The Color Purple, regular counsel to the non-profit off-Broadway MCC Theater (Wit, The Mercy Seat, Frozen)

Several independent film producers whose productions include three Sundance Film Festival award-winning productions in the last five years, including Forty Shades of Blue (Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Dramatic Prize 2005)

Counsel to the award-winning television series Inside the Actors Studio since its inception in 1994, as well as numerous television programs from BBC Production USA (What Not to Wear, While You Were Out, Moving Up) and Optomen Productions (Most Evil)

Trademark and licensing activity for a variety of clients, including book/magazine publishers, film/video producers, online retailers and information service providers, and designers and manufacturers of consumer goods

Memberships and Activities
Bars of the State of New York and federal district court for the Southern District of New York

American Bar Association’s Forum on Entertainment and Sports Law

New York City Bar Association

Founding and current member of Board of Directors, Bank Street Law Office (a non-profit organization offering no-cost legal assistance to the indigent elderly of Greenwich Village)

Board of Directors, King Family Foundation (providing financial assistance to support film/television studies in the form of individual student scholarships and direct support to schools for professorships, film festivals and other activities)

Board of Directors, Film Forum (nonprofit organization established in 1970, New York City's leading exhibitor of first-run independent films and classic film repertory)

Regular lecturer on copyright, trademark licensing and related intellectual property, entertainment and media issues

Education
J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1983

• Virginia Law Review
  
• Order of the Coif

• Phi Beta Kappa
  
• Harry S. Truman Scholar