Profile

Practice Areas: Entertainment Law; Class Action Litigation; International Law; Corporate; Business Law; Civil Litigation; Copyright Infringement; Trademark Infringement; Motion Pictures; Music; Music Publishing; Multimedia; Book Publishing; Theater Law

Admitted: Illinois; California; New York; U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Second Circuit; U.S. District Court, Central and Northern Districts of California; U.S. District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

Law School: Northwestern University, J.D.

College: University of Illinois, B.S.

Born: Chicago, Illinois

Member: Los Angeles County Bar Association (Member, Executive Committee, International Law Section, 1996-2003), Beverly Hills Bar Association (Chair, International Law Section,
1995-1996), American Bar Association (Chair, Moral Rights Sub-Committee, 1992), State Bar of California; Copyright Society of the U.S.A., Member, Chicago Bar Association, Atlanta Bar Association, Black Music Association, and The Arts Club of Chicago

Biography:

Associate, Curtis, Friedman and Marks, Chicago, 1965-1967; Staff Attorney, Capitol Records, Inc., Los Angeles, 1968-1970; General Counsel, Paramount Growers, Inc., 1968-1970; V.P. and General Counsel, London International Artists, 1969; Recipient, Deems-Taylor Award from American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1981; Author, "GATT and U.S. Moral Rights," Copyright World, June/July, 1995; "The Agony and the Ecstasy," Los Angeles Lawyer, April, 1995; "U.S. Moral Rights and the GATT," New York Law Journal, April 14, 1995;
"Changes in Canadian Copyright Law," New York Law Journal, April 1, 1988;
"U.S. Moral Rights: Fact or Fiction," New York Law Journal, August 7, 1992;
"The Validity of the Publisher-Songwriter Agreement," Beverly Hills Bar Association Journal, Fall, 1986; "Self Publishing and the Songwriter/Music Publisher Agreement," Entertainment Law Reporter, September 1986; Adjunct Professor, New York University, 1983-1986;
Lecturer, UCLA, 1988-2004; University of Southern California, 1988-2001;
Honorary Life Member and Governor, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Trustee, The Copyright Society of the U.S.A., 1999-2002; Vice-President and Director, Film Music Society, 1989-2002; Director, Merit School of Music, 2012-2013, Jazzmobile, Inc.,
1983-1986; Volunteer: New Americans Initiative, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, 2012-2017; Board of Advisors, Foundation for Hearing and Speech Resources (FHSR), 2023; Board of Councilors, AJC Atlanta, 2023-; BMI Foundation Advisory Panel, 2015-; Panelist, Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, City of Atlanta, 2023; Graduate, Chicago Police Department Citizens' Police Academy, 2019; Graduate, Atlanta Police Department Citizens' Police Academy, 2023;

Significant Cases:

W.B. Sanders Company v. Professional Career Colleges, Inc. (C.D. Cal. 1991)
Los Angeles News Service vs. Tullo, 973 F.2d 791 (9th Cir. 1992)
Rashid v. Bezjian, et al. (C.D. Cal. 1993)
Maria McKee v. Cadbury Ltd, et al. (C.D. Cal. 1998)
Fred Steiner, et al. v ABC Inc.(C.D. Cal. 2000)
Victor N.Taylor, et al. v. Black Entertainment Television, et al. (C.D. Cal. 2001)
Rodney T. Franklin v. Twentieth Century Fox, et al. (C.D. Cal. 2003)
Music Force LLC v. Viacom Inc., et al. (C.D. Cal. 2004)
Nathan East, et al. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, et al. (C.D. Cal. 2004)
Asha Puthli Goldschmidt v. UMG Recordings, Inc., et al. (C.D. Cal. 2005)
Image Entertainment Inc. v. Video Search of Miami, et al. (C.D. Cal. 2005)
Mervyn E. Warren v. Brian K. McKnight (C.D. Cal. 2005)
Paul K. Thomas, et al. v. UMG Recordings, Inc., et al. (C.D.2005)
Irwin vs. ZDF Enterprises GmbH, 79 USPQ 2d 1338 (SDNY 2006)
Paul Curcio v. Martin Cohn, et al., 1 Cal App. CCSF 698-809 (1976) (S.F. Sup. Ct. No. 653809)