anyone hoping to be an entertainment lawyer/what school? Forum

[omeezy4sheezy]

Anyone here aspiring to be an entertainment lawyer? If yeah, what school are you in, what grades did you get in with etc.
Also what made you get to that conclusion and is the field what it seems like on the outside?

Basically if you can give me as much information as google hasn't already provided me with that would be great lol. Thanks in advance

[kalvano]

No such thing.

KTHANXBAI.

[270910]

lol me tooo!!! I can't wait this is going tobe great

Good idea to start a thread too so we can talk more about it! What are the big entertainment law firms? I'm at Case WEstern, starting this fall. How well do you think I need to do to get entertainment law? What if I don't like, want hollywood - just sports or something?

[jbarl1]

Anyone here aspiring to be an entertainment lawyer? If yeah, what school are you in, what grades did you get in with etc.
Also what made you get to that conclusion and is the field what it seems like on the outside?

Basically if you can give me as much information as google hasn't already provided me with that would be great lol. Thanks in advance

I'm not sure if this is the direction you are going in but when I visited schools with serious NCAA teams (Penn State and The Ohio State for example) there was mention of good opportunities to get into law related to sports on the college or professional level.

[thecilent]

Yale.

[omeezy4sheezy]

Yale.

Whats your plan, and for anyone else in this thread hoping to break into such a competitive field?

I'd love to work for William Morris or CAA or something but I mean, I also have to be realistic. Sort of hard to break into those fields when you live in Toronto, Canada as well. I'm planning on moving to Vancouver at one point and maybe having a better chance of breaking in there due to proximity and it being 'Hollywood North'

[Norwood]

I've spoke to a few entertainment lawyers and they said that it's not really about the school's program but more about how you network. It's a small field to break into, so relationships that develop are key. The same goes for sports law.

[Patriot1208]

If you want to work at CAA or WMA as an agent, do not waste your time in law school.

[Bronte]

If you want to work at CAA or WMA as an agent, do not waste your time in law school.

But Ari Gold went to law school...

[Patriot1208]

If you want to work at CAA or WMA as an agent, do not waste your time in law school.

But Ari Gold went to law school...

lol, and i'm sure entourage is why this douche thinks he should go to law school. But the guy Ari is loosely based off of didn't actually go to law school.

[deadhipsters]

Anyone here aspiring to be an entertainment lawyer? If yeah, what school are you in, what grades did you get in with etc.
Also what made you get to that conclusion and is the field what it seems like on the outside?

Basically if you can give me as much information as google hasn't already provided me with that would be great lol. Thanks in advance

Yea, I'm really debating between entertainment law and international law. I thinkz both would be sick, bro.

[thecilent]

Anyone here aspiring to be an entertainment lawyer? If yeah, what school are you in, what grades did you get in with etc.
Also what made you get to that conclusion and is the field what it seems like on the outside?

Basically if you can give me as much information as google hasn't already provided me with that would be great lol. Thanks in advance

Yea, I'm really debating between entertainment law and international law. I thinkz both would be sick, bro.

haha

[keg411]

If you want to work at CAA or WMA as an agent, do not waste your time in law school.

I worked as an assistant at a very small agency in NYC very briefly after college and they only hire law degrees (the specific quote I got was "they hire Harvard Law grads and pay them $30k/year to work in the mail room"). This was back in 2004-ish. Personally I think agency work is pretty miserable for the limited time I was there, but some people want to play "Entourage".

Truthfully, the only way to get into sports/entertainment is through connections.

[Kchuck]

lol @ entertainment/international law bro

I know that UNC pushes a dual degree JD/ MA in sports management or something... I had heard that this was a decent way to go if you were interested in NCAA compliance or that sort of thing. Anyone know if there is any merit behind that? Or is that just a program they push to lure these 'I want to be an entertainment lawyer' types....

[ScaredWorkedBored]

You'd be lucky to earn $30k/year as a grunt in a Hollywood agency and you'd earn it two times over without getting a nickle of overtime pay. $10/hour, wage & hour law abuses and harassment/hazing are gratis.

http://www.deadline.com/2009/06/wme-pay ... -than-wma/

[Patriot1208]

If you want to work at CAA or WMA as an agent, do not waste your time in law school.

I worked as an assistant at a very small agency in NYC very briefly after college and they only hire law degrees (the specific quote I got was "they hire Harvard Law grads and pay them $30k/year to work in the mail room"). This was back in 2004-ish. Personally I think agency work is pretty miserable for the limited time I was there, but some people want to play "Entourage".

Truthfully, the only way to get into sports/entertainment is through connections.

Places like CMA and WMA do not care if you have a wharton mba or a harvard JD or ucla undegrad business as long as your smart, have connections, and work your ass off for low pay and long hours, so the point I was making was that it is stupid to waste that type of money on a JD at a place like UCLA because they think it has good entertainment law placement. It's better to get to LA, and work your way up, making connections and blowing people. This is all anecdotal evidence from a friend of mine who works as an assistant in Paradigm.

Also, I don't think a single person on this list has a law degree: --LinkRemoved--

[sdv]

rather than jumping down the OP's throat for not already knowing this (god forbid someone not know something and therefore ask a question about it) I'll say what all the other posters are making fun of the OP for but didn't actually explain:

you can't "go into" entertainment law from law school - you have to work in another field (usually corporate), earn your stripes, get contract experience, then try to network your way into an entertainment/sports law opportunity (good luck with that...). saying you want to go into entertainment law is like saying you want to be an in-house counsel coming out of law school - that's simply not the way the system is set up.

With that said, its generally advised that the best schools to go to are the schools in the major entertainment markets: UCLA, USC, Columbia, and NyU, with Vandy thrown in to a lesser extent because of the Nashville music producing scene.

[beachbum]

rather than jumping down the OP's throat for not already knowing this (god forbid someone not know something and therefore ask a question about it) I'll say what all the other posters are making fun of the OP for but didn't actually explain:

you can't "go into" entertainment law from law school - you have to work in another field (usually corporate), earn your stripes, get contract experience, then try to network your way into an entertainment/sports law opportunity (good luck with that...). saying you want to go into entertainment law is like saying you want to be an in-house counsel coming out of law school - that's simply not the way the system is set up.

With that said, its generally advised that the best schools to go to are the schools in the major entertainment markets: UCLA, USC, Columbia, and NyU, with Vandy thrown in to a lesser extent because of the Nashville music producing scene.

+1: finally some solid advice. Realistically, though, your chances of getting into entertainment law (and achieving success) are very, very small. I mean, someone's gotta do it- so it's not impossible. But someone's gotta be an astronaut, and someone's gotta be a Supreme Court justice, and someone's gotta win the Nobel prize, etc. It can happen- and its far more likely to happen if you position yourself in a favorable market and work/network your ass off- but it's not at all likely. So plan accordingly.

[sdv]

+1: finally some solid advice. Realistically, though, your chances of getting into entertainment law (and achieving success) are very, very small. I mean, someone's gotta do it- so it's not impossible. But someone's gotta be an astronaut, and someone's gotta be a Supreme Court justice, and someone's gotta win the Nobel prize, etc. It can happen- and its far more likely to happen if you position yourself in a favorable market and work/network your ass off- but it's not at all likely. So plan accordingly.

That's a great and important disclaimer. Also, entertainment/sports law isn't glamorous or exciting most of the time; it's basically just a lot of contract work of varying levels of complexity.

[Patriot1208]

rather than jumping down the OP's throat for not already knowing this (god forbid someone not know something and therefore ask a question about it) I'll say what all the other posters are making fun of the OP for but didn't actually explain:

you can't "go into" entertainment law from law school - you have to work in another field (usually corporate), earn your stripes, get contract experience, then try to network your way into an entertainment/sports law opportunity (good luck with that...). saying you want to go into entertainment law is like saying you want to be an in-house counsel coming out of law school - that's simply not the way the system is set up.

With that said, its generally advised that the best schools to go to are the schools in the major entertainment markets: UCLA, USC, Columbia, and NyU, with Vandy thrown in to a lesser extent because of the Nashville music producing scene.

Also, there needs to be a realization here, most of the first part of the thread was about Agents, and this is about entertainment law is it pertains to firms working with hollywood contracts. These are not the same things.

[AJRESQ]

I read posts like this, and the responses... and I realize. There is hope. A lot of you kids on TLS do in fact get it.

God bless you.

[beachbum]

I read posts like this, and the responses... and I realize. There is hope. A lot of you kids on TLS do in fact get it.

God bless you.

Thanks, man! We're doin our best to make you proud

[goldeneagle]

good to see a thread progress from question to answer, without malice or hate. Much more friendly than some Macbook vs. Thinkpad debates on TLS!