Entertainment and Media Law

"Hollywood's a Union Town," goes the chant, and it's true. An entertainment lawyer can't be effective without a solid understanding of the Hollywood guilds and unions, yet that information is hard to come by. Union issues arise frequently in practice, and clients and employers are always looking for lawyers with this specialized knowledge. The course focuses on issues that arise under the industry-wide collective bargaining agreements with the WGA and, to some extent, various other Hollywood guilds.

This course is a negotiation skills course in which students will engage in a series of seven mock negotiations - modeled after actual industry deals - covering television, motion picture and legitimate theater deals. Each negotiation exercise will include substantive, in-class instruction in the relevant subject matter, including review of long-form contracts; actual mock negotiations, in rotating teams of two students; and in-class debriefing sessions in which both substantive results and negotiating strategies and tactics are discussed and evaluated.

Students who have successfully completed the Entertainment and the Arts Legal Aid Clinic (680PR) can continue to hone their lawyering and professionalism skills through the continued provision of business and legal affairs services on motion pictures.