Best Entertainment Law School in South East?? Forum

[MrCharles]

Really want to get into the entertainment Law field. Preferably music. I saw where UofMia has a JD/MM in music business program that seemed interesting. But all advice would be welcome. I'm a legal resident of GA but I'm doing undergrad in TN and I would like the practice in either TN, GA, or FL.

[Tom Joad]

UVA or Duke or Vandy.

[2012JayDee]

Steer clear of so called "entertainment law" specialties.
They don't really exist. Entertainment/Sports/Media law is really under the broader umbrella of intellectual property. Most law firms that practice entertainment law have attorneys that specialize in trademarks, copyrights, fair use, right of publicity, defamation (all IP topics) as well as bankruptcy, tax and estate planning, contract negotiation, and wills and trusts.

Smaller boutique firms that only do entertainment typically require that you have worked at some other law firm for a year or two and don't necessarily require that you have worked in the IP or entertainment group. That is a unique specialty that is really a combination of transactional and litigation work. If you truly want to get into entertainment focus heavily on getting in a law firm that will allow you to do transactional work and if you can, do some internships in the entertainment field to get some networking and contacts going. If you ever intend to work in-house you will need networks and more than likely you will need law firm experience (3-5 years in most cases). Apply for jobs at the major music groups (Warner, Universal) many of them have offices in Nashville which is VERY popular for music and entertainment and have tons of internships. Learning to be a good practitioner is going to be far more important than any specialty a law school claims to have.

Realize you can't actually specialize in law school. At most the school offers a set of courses that focus on that area, but there's nothing to say that you will have the opportunity to take all of those courses, or even that you will want to do so to the detriment of other valuable courses in school.
Don't base your law school decision heavily on a so-called entertainment law specialty.

[rad lulz]

There are no good entertainment law schools, much less any good ones in the South.

[tuckerp]

Vandy for music... and don't do this if you don't care for country music... otherwise I agree with what everyone else has said. The only reason I mention Vandy is that it will give you clerkship/exposure opportunities that the other cities will not.

[rad lulz]

Vandy for music... and don't do this if you don't care for country music... otherwise I agree with what everyone else has said. The only reason I mention Vandy is that it will give you clerkship/exposure opportunities that the other cities will not.

Basically no one from Vandy gets a job in "entertainment law." There are plenty of great reasons to go to Vanderbilt, but entertainment law is not one of them.

[Aberzombie1892]

OP, what do you mean by entertainment law?

[MrCharles]

So instead of looking for an entertainment Law program just get into a law school and take classes related to intellectual property? Then intern and ask for transaction experience. I really appreciate all the help.
And I'm not really interested in country. I mean I wouldn't mind but that's not my first choice by any means.

[Tom Joad]

So instead of looking for an entertainment Law program just get into a law school and take classes related to intellectual property? Then intern and ask for transaction experience. I really appreciate all the help.
And I'm not really interested in country. I mean I wouldn't mind but that's not my first choice by any means.

I think the odds of getting into entertainment law are so slim you should really never plan your career solely around it. It is cool, but being an astronaut is cool.

[flem]

Harvard, Yale or Stanford

[rickgrimes69]

Harvard, Yale or Stanford

But those schools aren't in the southea...

Oh, I see. I see what you did there.

[Slevin Kelevra 2011]

No such things at specialy rankings. Go down the rankings and highlight the schools in the southern markets you are looking at. The top five are the "best entertainment law schools in South East".

[jenesaislaw]

I worked for an entertainment law solo shop my 1L summer and some of my 2L fall at Vandy. Whoever said it's just country is wrong and doesn't understand Nashville at all. Whoever said don't plan your life around desiring to practice entertainment law is right.

From what I gathered, the big firms in town did some work but the most interesting, "real" entertainment work was with the small shops. Getting a job doing this work is a function of hustle, luck, more hustle, more luck, and then some more luck on top of that. HYS won't make a damn difference at these shops. Connections to the industry, going to shows and talking to artists/managers, and being insanely persistent will give you a minuscule chance of creating a practice out of this.

Nowadays, I do some work with people at Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta. They do legitimate entertainment law work, though on a different scale. Internally, they do a ton of it. They deal externally with the major IP firms in town, which (as far as I can tell) are all large firms like Troutman.

[Slevin Kelevra 2011]

Big firms in TN =/= biglaw. FYI.

[vanwinkle]

There are no good entertainment law schools, much less any good ones in the South.

[Applying_Late]

Entertainment law is a lil easier these days especially in music as that industry is still being bled and money isn't flowing like it used to. It helps if you have connections, but working in house at a major label isn't a problem if you go to hys (i know not se school). Why would you want to work for a major label in house after hys? Seems like you'd be wasting your opportunities....

[vanwinkle]

Entertainment law is a lil easier these days especially in music as that industry is still being bled and money isn't flowing like it used to. It helps if you have connections, but working in house at a major label isn't a problem if you go to hys (i know not se school). Why would you want to work for a major label in house after hys? Seems like you'd be wasting your opportunities....

This was thoroughly worthless advice.

[Applying_Late]

Entertainment law is a lil easier these days especially in music as that industry is still being bled and money isn't flowing like it used to. It helps if you have connections, but working in house at a major label isn't a problem if you go to hys (i know not se school). Why would you want to work for a major label in house after hys? Seems like you'd be wasting your opportunities....

This was thoroughly worthless advice.

Not exactly. Ive been working woth majors for a while and they'd love to get an hys kid. As for OP, he'll have to hustle. It's a tight-knit crowd and they don't like sharing the pie unless theyget something great out of it. The jd mm is a bad idea. I don't see it doing much. Recommendation to the OP is go HYS or start hustling now. Do cold calls, targeted emails, to land an internship. Again this is all about the music industry in nyc. OP moght want to do sports law or work with the movie industry, and i have no idea how they really work.

And to add smthg about the majors in music, theyve always had a preference for hyp undergrads but now the majors have to dip lower bc hyp kids get banking/consulting jobs. Again music doesnt make money anymore, so you'd be dumb to race to it. Go movie or sports instead...seems to have some money at least.

[vanwinkle]

Entertainment law is a lil easier these days especially in music as that industry is still being bled and money isn't flowing like it used to. It helps if you have connections, but working in house at a major label isn't a problem if you go to hys (i know not se school). Why would you want to work for a major label in house after hys? Seems like you'd be wasting your opportunities....

This was thoroughly worthless advice.

Not exactly. Ive been working woth majors for a while and they'd love to get an hys kid. As for OP, he'll have to hustle. It's a tight-knit crowd and they don't like sharing the pie unless theyget something great out of it. The jd mm is a bad idea. I don't see it doing much. Recommendation to the OP is go HYS or start hustling now. Do cold calls, targeted emails, to land an internship. Again this is all about the music industry in nyc. OP moght want to do sports law or work with the movie industry, and i have no idea how they really work.

And to add smthg about the majors in music, theyve always had a preference for hyp undergrads but now the majors have to dip lower bc hyp kids get banking/consulting jobs. Again music doesnt make money anymore, so you'd be dumb to race to it. Go movie or sports instead...seems to have some money at least.

What does this have to do with undergrads or majors? You do realize we're talking about legal careers here, right?

[Applying_Late]

Entertainment law is a lil easier these days especially in music as that industry is still being bled and money isn't flowing like it used to. It helps if you have connections, but working in house at a major label isn't a problem if you go to hys (i know not se school). Why would you want to work for a major label in house after hys? Seems like you'd be wasting your opportunities....

This was thoroughly worthless advice.

Not exactly. Ive been working woth majors for a while and they'd love to get an hys kid. As for OP, he'll have to hustle. It's a tight-knit crowd and they don't like sharing the pie unless theyget something great out of it. The jd mm is a bad idea. I don't see it doing much. Recommendation to the OP is go HYS or start hustling now. Do cold calls, targeted emails, to land an internship. Again this is all about the music industry in nyc. OP moght want to do sports law or work with the movie industry, and i have no idea how they really work.

And to add smthg about the majors in music, theyve always had a preference for hyp undergrads but now the majors have to dip lower bc hyp kids get banking/consulting jobs. Again music doesnt make money anymore, so you'd be dumb to race to it. Go movie or sports instead...seems to have some money at least.

What does this have to do with undergrads or majors? You do realize we're talking about legal careers here, right?

At first I thought you were joking but OK. If an employer has a strong preference to hire grauates from strong undergrad schools, do you think they'll change their minds when it comes to hiring from professional schools? I don't think goldman is going to stray far from its recruiting requirements for its undergrad recruiting when hiring in house. That said, the majors (you misread, I didnt mean college students majorin in music but majors ie major labels) aren't going to stray far from their ideal undergrad hire when lookin at law students. An HYS resume will get pushed through recruiting much like an HYP resume would for undergrad recruiting. And just to touch upon college majors, it doesn't matter for the music industry both when looking for managememt positions or legal positions.

[vanwinkle]

If an employer has a strong preference to hire grauates from strong undergrad schools, do you think they'll change their minds when it comes to hiring from professional schools?

Are you a 0L? You sound like a clueless 0L.

[dowu]

If an employer has a strong preference to hire grauates from strong undergrad schools, do you think they'll change their minds when it comes to hiring from professional schools?

Are you a 0L? You sound like a clueless 0L.

VW, I think he's trolling you. Don't play his games.

[abc12345675]

If an employer has a strong preference to hire grauates from strong undergrad schools, do you think they'll change their minds when it comes to hiring from professional schools?

Are you a 0L? You sound like a clueless 0L.

Why? I think he's right.

[vanwinkle]

If an employer has a strong preference to hire grauates from strong undergrad schools, do you think they'll change their minds when it comes to hiring from professional schools?

Are you a 0L? You sound like a clueless 0L.

Why? I think he's right.

He's wrong, and I agree with above poster that he's trolling.

Also, I read his post history and he is a clueless 0L. Clueless 0Ls have not been through the legal hiring process and tend to make stupid assumptions as a result; for example, assuming that legal hiring is just like undergrad hiring is a common stupid assumption.

[2012JayDee]

@Applying_late
I'm not sure where you work or what your legal background is, but this is completely off from my experience.
In-house entertainment companies couldn't give two shits about where you went to undergrad and usually don't give half a shit about where you went to law school. They do care about where you worked prior to applying.

All the execs I worked with were from various law schools, but the thing they had in common was large law firm experience.
The key to getting in-house is not about your law school specialty ranking because law school specialty rankings are a joke. There is no law school that has an entertainment law program that is so world-renown that Sony, Universal, Paramount, etc., are scooping up 2Ls during OCI.
**Newsflash** in-house companies don't recruit law students they recruit lawyers.

So, OP trying to find a school in the south east that is the best for entertainment law is completely pointless. OP needs to go to a good school and try and get a job at a law firm and then after 2-3 years at least of law firm experience start looking at positions in-house, hopefully doing entertainment. Working at a firm that does soft IP work or has an actual entertainment practice would definitely be helpful but is not necessary. If OP wants to say in the south east and wants to work in entertainment then trying to get into the Nashville area is a good idea because, despite what people may think, Nashville is HUGE in the music business, and not just country music. Nashville is a great place to get into the music business. LA is the place to be for movies, NY and Chicago are great for theater. Fortunately, these cities also correspond to having a large number of law firms. It almost goes without saying, that if one can attend HYS then one should attend HYS, because chances are that whatever you want to do with your life you can do it with a law degree from HYS.

But if you have very specific goals such as, entertainment law, then in addition to trying to get into HYS, the real answer is to make a good financial decision about the best law schools you have been accepted to. Once in law school it's going to be important to get some experience in the business. This can be accomplished through semester or summer internships. All major entertainment companies offer such internships. There are also numerous smaller entities within the entertainment business that will allow you to work in the mail room--in the entertainment business this is actually valid work. The mailrooms of most of the major talent agencies are filled with JDs and MBAs trying to work their way up to talent agent. There are law grads of schools of every tier trying to become talent agents and did not go the law firm route. Most talent agents don't even have a graduate degree and trying to become a talent agent purely based on prestige of your law school isn't going to work well. It won't really matter that they went to HYS or Tier 4 school if the company is going to start everyone in the mail room and make them work their way up. A degree from a certain law school is not going to help in a business where you really just have to know people and network (with the exception that your school and your alumni network may in fact provide you with the "who you know" to move up).

Since the best way to get a job at an in-house entertainment company, which is what most people think about when they say they want to work in entertainment, is to get to a large firm, then real question is, "what's the best school to get a law firm job?" Which is talked about on 99% of the threads on this site.