The Details:

Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Second Annual Small Firm and Solo Practitioner Conference, June 24-25.

Social Networking For Lawyers: A Roadmap to Success
Thursday, June 25. 9:15 – 10:30 a.m.

In this interactive session we will explore the buzz surrounding social networking and social media tools and how solo and small firms practitioners can effectively employ them to communicate with current clients; control your messaging as you reach out to new clients and the media; and to meet, network and collaborate with colleagues.

Our panel of solo and small firm attorneys will discuss their experiences with blogging as a social media tool, and we will spotlight several social networking applications, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. By calling upon their personal experiences, our panel will highlight best practices for how you can incorporate these and other Web 2.0 applications into your business development, PR and networking activities.

You don’t want to miss this event!

Stormy seas ahead for everybody who works in and around Hollywood. ?Including Entertainment Lawyers.

November 28 through December 7, 2008, ANMT will be  auctioning off some fun and unique items that you can bid on to help raise money for the organization.  Many of these auction items will make great holiday gifts, so I hope you’ll take a look.

The bidding starts at 8:00 AM/PST on November 28 so please come join in the fun! Your bid will help support the Academy do what we do best, which is to develop new musicals and new writers. Auction items range from exotic vacation getaways to one-of-a-kind items guaranteed to delight and surprise. So, tell your friends, family, community. With your help, we’ll reach our goal and raise $10,000!

About  ANMT
The Academy for New Musical Theatre is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. Our programs include opportunities for writers, lyricists, composers, actors, singers, directors, music directors, and everyone with a love for new musical theatre. Learn more about us at www.anmt.org.

Photo is from ANMT’s 2008 15 Minute Musicals featuring Elise Dewsberry, Barry O’Neil, Paul Wong, Kendra Munger, and Brent Schindele in KEEPING SCORE by ANMT writers, Yolanda Mendiveles, Chana Wise, and John Piraino.

Academy for New Musical Theatre – Auction Home Page – cMarket Fundraising Auction.

I’m honored to have been asked to join the faculty at Solo Practice University, a web-based legal education community created by Susan Cartier Liebel of Build a Solo Practice, LLC.  Solo Practice University™ (SPU)  teaches legal professionals about the practical aspects of running a law practice.  This kind of instruction is not given in law school, and for most lawyers is acquired the “hard way”… by trial and error.    Now, SPU offers  lawyers and law students the chance to benefit from the experience of those who’ve gone before them into the world of private, solo and small-firm law practice.

As faculty, I’ll be teaching a course focused on the nuts and bolts of practice in entertainment law, and covering many different aspects of practice in this unique field.

Susan is encouraging SPU faculty to employ a variety of teaching methods, so I’ll be leveraging technology to provide an informative, interactive online course.   I hope that those who participate in my course will be better prepared to open their own offices and reap the rewards of self-employment in this challenging field.

I expect to learn quite a bit from the students, too… I have no doubt that fresh perspectives, and a diversity of ideas will make me a better lawyer.

Mr. LaFontaine made famous the “In a World….” opening of movie trailer voice-overs.  His deep, resonant voice appeared in over 5000 movie trailers, and numerous other tv commercials, films, and other media.

We record live on Tuesdays at 5pm Pacific, 8pm Eastern.  Visit us at lawandvideo.com  or subscribe using iTunes.

Our Latest episode is now available.

This week’s topics:

•  Discussion of  Lenz v. Universal, in which a Court ruled (preliminarily) that The Fair Use defense  to copyright and DMCA claims DOES apply to a Youtube video featuring a baby dancing with music playing in the background.  Entertainment Lawyers need to pay attention to the judge’s order before issuing Takedown notices and Cease and Desist letters .
•  How can a freelance artist collect unpaid fees/wages for animation services rendered on a major motion picture for a now-defunct, bankrupt, Canadian film production company?
• Must a dance studio remove a video clip from its website when faces of the dancers featured are not visible?  What are the likely financial and legal ramifications of ignoring demand from a parent of one of the dancers?  Should I consult my lawyer?
• Is an unwritten agreement (supported by email correspondence) for a literary agent’s commission enforceable?  Can write terminate now that a script sale is imminent, after 1-1/2 years of inactivity by the agent?
• Wedding Video Company provides faulty equipment to freelance videographer.  Shoot goes bad.  Who’s liable to the Bride?   Should he hire an attorney?
• Are red-light cameras a violation of motorist rights?  Is a ticket from such a camera valid?
• What (if any) permission or licenses are needed when using a character from a famous film in a 3-second video clip?  Do I need an entertainment lawyer to negotiate this for me?

Get your questions answered live on The Law and Video podcast.  Tuesdays at 5pm.

ANMT’s roots go back 30 years to the teachings of  Lehman Engel, a preeminent Broadway musical director. The Academy became a non-profit corporation in response to an ever-growing interest in the international musical theatre community.  The Academy’s community includes writers of new works, and the producers, directors, choreographers, actors, and singers who make those works come alive.

The Academy’s Goals:

• Advance the future of musical theatre production by creating a large pool of writing, performing, and producing talent;
• Develop a comprehensive musical theatre curriculum;
• Cultivate an awareness of and enthusiasm for new works for young audiences; and
• Forge partnerships with local, national, and international theatre companies.

The Academy has programs with opportunities for writers, lyricists, composers, actors, singers, directors, music directors, and everyone with a love for new musical theatre.

The Academy is a registered charitable organization, and although it is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission,  it’s activities are funded primarily through the tax-deductible donations of individuals who believe in our mission and goals.  Please consider supporting  ANMT with your donations.  Please make sure the ANMT knows you heard about the organization  from me!

Under a  reporter’s shield law reporters couldn’t be compelled to disclose their sources, notes or unpublished material.  The bill in question does provide some exceptions for information  needed to prevent acts of terrorism or harm to the national security.  Nevertheless, the white house opposes the bill out of concern that it would undermine governmental efforts to  investigate terror- and national-security threats.

 Advocates of the bill  cite press reports on Abu Ghraib,  secret CIA prisons and shoddy conditions at Walter Reed Army Hosptial as cases in which  sources spoke to reporters on promises of confidentiality.  It’s liklely, they say that these stories couldn’t have been  reported if sources feared that their identities would be disclosed to officials.

The podcast will be recorded live on Tuesdays. I’ll be taking listener calls and answering questions about business, intellectual property, contracts, etc.

For more information, see the press release: Law and Video Podcast – Press Release

Specifically, the lawsuit claims that the actors were entitled to 5% of the net revenue from sales of merchandising bearing the likenesses of their characters.    New Line’s earnings from Merchandise reportedly exceed $100 Million.

The case once again calls into question the “Hollywood accounting” used by studios and distributors, to make $100 Million in revenues look like a deficit situation, by taking deductions for distribution fees, gross-participations, and overhead and interest before arriving at the bottom-line “net revenues” figure.

The accounting system has been repeatedly challenged in the courts, most notably by humorist Art Buchwald, who developed a treatment that was later developed into the hit Eddie Murphy film “Coming to America”, which despite hundreds of millions in worldwide gross earnings, continued to show a net loss, depriving Buchwald of his so-called ‘back-end’ compensation.    Buchwald won at trial, garnering several key rulings in the case before the matter was settled before the studio’s appeal was decided.   Buchwald’s attorney, Pierce O’Donnell recounts the case  in his book “Fatal Subtraction”.

The current Lord Of The Rings case is  not just a case of a few disgruntled actors.  The trilogy’s director, Peter Jackson, is also suing the studio, claiming he’s owed as much as $100 Million for the trilogy.