Entertainment & the Arts Legal Clinic

The Entertainment & the Arts Legal Clinic (“Clinic”) is a clinical course in which students will provide legal services to real clients. Specifically, the Clinic will provide business affairs and production legal services in connection with low-budget motion pictures and other entertainment projects (e.g., live stage productions, web series, and other artistic projects as opportunities arise). Several projects will have already secured financing and will be produced in the near future. Business affairs and legal services will include some or all of the following: documentation of underlying rights and chain-of-title; rights clearance; personal services agreements for the producer, director, other principal crew, and cast/actors; location agreements, releases, composer agreements, music licenses, and other miscellaneous development, production, and possibly sales agency and distribution agreements. We will also occasionally work on Copyright Claims Board copyright small claims litigation matters which students can volunteer to work on, at their discretion.

The objective of this Clinic is to expose students to actual entertainment clients and give the students an opportunity to deal directly with those clients through classroom visits, phone conferences and meetings. Under professor supervision, students will be expected to discern the needs of the client, provide practical guidance and information for the client and to render the appropriate legal and business affairs services for the clients. This may involve discussions with outside counsel and agents. This exposure will provide valuable experience in learning to interact in a professional, effective manner with clients.