Music Law Conference
Speaker Bios
John Thomas
Thomas is a professor of law at the Quinnipiac University School of Law in Connecticut, where he teaches entertainment law, health law, civil procedure, and commercial law. He holds a law degree from the University of Arizona and an LLM and MPH from Yale University. His publications cover topics from health policy to politics to juvenile justice and mental health treatment to acoustic music. His current book project, Banner Gibsons: The Story of the Flattop Guitars of 1942-45 and the Extraordinary Women (and a Few Men) Who Built Them, centers on a series of oral histories of a dozen women pictured in the Gibson Guitar Company's 1944 workforce photograph. John is also a fingerstyle guitarist who specializes in the blues and ragtime music from the turn of the twentieth century.
Gary F. Roth
Roth is Assistant Vice President, Legal & Business Affairs, Performing Rights, for BMI, a position to which he was named in April, 1997. He was Senior Legal Counsel in the Legal Dept. from July 1993 to April, 1997. From 1986 to June, 1993 he was Senior Attorney in that department.
BMI is the world's largest performing rights organization, which represents 350,000 songwriters and music publishers. The company collects license fees on behalf of those American creators it represents, as well as for the thousands of creators from around the world who have chosen BMI for U.S. representation. The fees for the "public performances" of its repertoire of more than 6.5 million works - including radio airplay, broadcast and cable television carriage, Internet and live and recorded performances by all other users of music - are then distributed as royalties to its writers and publishers.
Mr. Roth joined BMI in 1974 as a staff attorney immediately upon graduation from the College of William & Mary School of Law from which he holds a J.D. degree. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Roth's duties at BMI involve supervising the legal matters of the Performing Rights Dept. in regard to writers and publishers, including song disputes, estates, banking, divorce, assignment, bankruptcy and tax and judgment issues and departmental policy questions. He also counsels Performing Rights Dept. personnel on copyright and other legal matters. In addition, he drafts agreements for BMI affiliates and answers copyright questions from the public. Mr. Roth also lectures to educational and legal groups about BMI and copyright law. He is a contributing faculty member of songwriter101.com, for which he writes the "C in a Circle" column.
Mr. Roth is admitted to the New York, New Jersey and Supreme Court bars. He is a member of the Executive Committees of the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section and of the Corporate Counsel Section of the New York State Bar Association. He currently serves as Chair of the Corporate Counsel Section, having previously been Chair of that section in 2001. He is also a director and Vice-President of BMI Foundation, Inc. He is a former Treasurer and Trustee of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. and is a member of numerous music industry associations.
Mr. Roth and his wife, Vivianne, are residents of Manalapan, NJ. They have two children, Pamela, a talent agent, and Elliott, a marketing executive.
Ayodele Vassall-Gore
Vassall-Gore, an Entertainment Attorney, is a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law. She is an active member of NARAS, NATAS, and film industry organizations. She published an article titled, Monetizing The Peer-To-Peer Space, for the GA Bar Entertainment and Sports Section Newsletter. She reviewed the performance contract for African dancers during Ludacris' MTV Video Music Awards performance. She worked with the General Counsel reviewing music publishing, recording, and real estate agreements at Estefan Enterprises. She reviewed recording artist agreements, trademarks, and corporate formations at Georgia Lawyers for the Arts. She worked with the General Manager on a major publishing proposal at Purple Ribbon Entertainment.
She is particularly sensitive to the needs of students and new artists. Her firm specializes in: Licensing Intellectual Property, Copyrights and Trademarks, Brand Management and Endorsement Agreements, Contract Drafting and Negotiation, Songwriting and Publishing Agreements, Corporate Formations (LLC, Inc., LP, 501(c)(3)). Visit www.avglaw.com for more information.
David Beame
David Beame is a transactional entertainment attorney, manager, deal-maker and musician. His clients include major and indie label bands, Grammy, Tony and YouTube Award winning artists, video directors, independent film producers, independent record labels and media companies, producers, multi-platinum songwriters and international entertainment companies. He was formerly a partner at the law firm of Draves & Beame, PA, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Central Florida where he taught Entertainment and Sports Law and worked in the A&R Department of Rykodisc Records and Palm Pictures. David is also an organizer of the Florida Music Festival, an annual three-day conference showcasing 250 unsigned bands with two days of entertainment panels lead by industry professionals (www.FloridaMusicFestival.com). David is a graduate of New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida, Boston University and the University of Miami School of Law.
Brian Mencher
Mencher is a partner in the entertainment law firm of Beame & Mencher, LLP. Licensed in New York, his practice focuses primarily on the representation of artists and business organizations involved in the music, film, publishing, and hospitality industries. He is a member of the ABA's Entertainment & Sports Law Forum, a published author, and the founder of Music Law Conference. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mr. Mencher studied music for over 10 years. He has been involved in numerous aspects of the music industry, serving as a personal manager, booking agent and promoter. Brian graduated from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2002 in the top 3% of his class. He was Executive Articles Editor of the Florida Law Review. Brian Mencher handles legal matters in the music and film industries, with particular focus on intellectual property management, contract drafting, and general business governance. Mr. Mencher's clients include start-up record labels, award-winning filmmakers, musicians/bands, booking agents, producers, and other professionals in the entertainment industries. He recently negotiated a successful settlement agreement with a major record label and internationally-known hip-hop artist on behalf of one of his artist clients. Prior to joining Beame & Mencher, Brian had his own practice located in New York City. He is licensed in New York State. He is also the founding director of Music Law Conference - He can be reached at www.BMlawgroup.com and via e-mail at bm@bmlawgroup.com.
Ravi
Ravi tours the country performing original music, conducting guitar clinics, and lecturing on crucial issues facing the music industry. The singer-songwriter and guitarist has performed on Letterman, Leno, Saturday Night Live, Today Show, Good Morning America, etc., and at the most prestigious venues including Madison Square Garden, Louisiana Superdome, and a White House Christmas party. The "crème de la crème" of the entertainment industry frequently calls on Ravi. Mercury Records/PolyGram hired him in 1997 to play guitar on tour with three-time Grammy nominee and top-selling band in the world that year, Hanson. Simon & Schuster published his tour journal. Electronic Musician, Music Inc, and other magazines feature Ravi's articles monthly. Berklee College of Music and others including NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) and most music business conferences regularly host his lectures. With professional endorsements & business savvy, Ravi records and performs his own unique twist on "pop" music combining funky grooves with smart songwriting.
Julee L. Milham
Milham has practiced business, intellectual property, and entertainment law in St. Petersburg, Florida since 1986 and is one of fewer than 100 Florida lawyers board certified in the area of Intellectual Property Law. A graduate of Stetson University and Stetson University College of Law, Julee is licensed to practice law in Florida, California, New York, and the District of Columbia. She studied Comparative Human Rights and Corporate Governance at Oxford College of Law in Oxford, England and is admitted to the Roll of Solicitors for England and Wales. Julee has an extensive commercial litigation background, including that involving national and multidistrict litigation, state and federal regulatory agencies, and state and federal civil appeals as well as criminal appeals. Today, her practice is almost exclusively transactional and advisory in the entertainment, intellectual property, and business fields. She is Chair Emeritus of the Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section of the Florida Bar and served on its Executive Council from 1995-2007. Julee is the author of both editions of the Florida Bar's Fast Train, "The Practice of Music Law in Florida". She also authored "The Arts and the Law / Florida" for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, which she served as a volunteer and advisory council member in Pinellas County from 1995 until its closing in 2006. Julee is an adjunct professor of Entertainment Law at Stetson University College of Law and regularly speaks on entertainment and intellectual property topics. She has served on the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Board of Governors and currently serves on the Pinellas County Film Commission Marketing Panel and the International Academy of Technology & Design Advisory Panel, Recording Arts Department. A certified state and federal mediator and arbitrator and a mediator and arbitrator panelist for the American Arbitration Association (including its Commercial, Consumer, and Intellectual Property panels), Julee has mediated and arbitrated intellectual property cases and well as a variety of consumer, commercial, property, and construction matters. She has also trained fellow mediators and arbitrators. Julee has served over 1100 days on the bench as Pinellas County's Small Claims Hearing Officer and nearly 675 nights on the bench as one of its Civil Infraction Traffic Court Hearing Officers. She may be reached through her website, eMusicLaw.com.
William L. Whitacre
Whitacre is an entertainment attorney with offices located at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. His firm is William L. Whitacre & Associates, P.A., whose clients include film and television producers, musical artists, and independent music labels. Whitacre graduated from UF Law with his J.D. degree in 1971. Music clients have included Jaco Pastorius (Grammy nominee with Weather Report); D.J. Magic Mike ("Father of Bass"); and CHEETAH RECORDS (Four RIAA certified Gold Sales Awards, and one RIAA certified Platinum sales award). Whitacre's music affiliations include being an ASCAP and BMI music publisher through his company Wail & Moan Music; the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS); the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM; and the Country Music Association (CMA). Film clients include HAXAN FILMS, INC. (The Blair Witch Project, released by Artisan Pictures, which earned $140.5M in theatrical box office revenue and was a 1999 Sundance and Cannes Film Festival Selection); WHITE APE PICTURES, LLC (Altered, released by Focus Features/Rouge Pictures through Universal in 2006); ANGEL DEVIL PRODUCTIONS (Missing in America with Danny Glover, Ron Perlman, and Linda Hamilton, released through Lantern Lane) and SEVENTH MOON PARTNERS, LLC (Seventh Moon the current HAXAN feature starring Amy Smart, filmed in Hong Kong 11/2007). Whitacre is a member of the Director's Guild of America (DGA) as a Unit Production Manager, and is also a credited film producer.
José E. Latour
Latour graduated from the University of Florida Colleges of Journalism and Law. He served as a U.S. Diplomatic and Consular Officer in Mexico and Equatorial Guinea, West Africa upon graduating from law school and left to begin private law practice in the U.S. in 1990. He has since concentrated on business immigration, focusing on corporate and entertainment industry clients. He is A/V rated by Martindale-Hubble.
In addition to his legal career, Mr. Latour is an active recording songwriter and musician whose CDs have been released by Polygram Latin and Sony Discos. He is a certified Pro Tools engineer and currently records via Paradise Records, his independent label. He is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. As a musician, his interest is in examining the impact of developments in technology and alternative marketing strategies to identify opportunities created for independent recording artists.
Cassandra Willard
Cassandra Willard is a partner at the law firm of Franklin & Willard in Orlando where she focuses her practice on intellectual property and entertainment law. She has worked with musicians, web designers, graphic artists, venues, actors, performers, filmmakers, special effects/make up artists, promotions companies, labels, managers, DJs and editing/post facilities to negotiate contracts, safeguard intellectual property rights and limit her clients' potential liability.
Before joining her firm, she worked in various aspects of the entertainment law industry, including Planet Hollywood's corporate legal department and working for a boutique firm specializing in technology law. Through these positions, she gained practical experience with licensing, merchandising, business liability and diverse technology and intellectual property issues. These experiences also afforded her experience with issues that international companies and solo artists face in the industry.
In addition to her current practice, she is a professor, teaching Advanced Entertainment Law, at Full Sail Real World Education in the Entertainment Business Masters Program. Her broad experience in teaching includes not only Full Sail but also various other colleges and universities in Florida. In the past, she taught classes including Business Law, Intellectual Property Law, Final Project/Business Plan Development and Internet Law.
Cassandra graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Business Administration, focusing on Finance, Hospitality and Accounting, from the University of Central Florida. She then earned her J.D., with honors, from the University of Florida's College of Law, with a focus in Intellectual Property.
Jon Granat
Granat grew up in Miami with a love for music. He cultivated that passion at the University of Florida while earning money for school working at a production company handling sound & lighting. He expanded on that college experience when he began booking concerts like Tribe Called Quest and the Indigo Girls and then becoming a college marketing rep for I.R.S. Records and later Capitol Records.
Upon graduation Jon moved to Los Angeles where he began his work in the realm of Film & TV Music. First for Warner/Chappell Music in their Synch licensing department handling clients like MTV, VH1 & Lifetime, before leaving to run the day to day operations of a small boutique publishing company called Barton Music. After several freelance music supervision gigs he took a job on the studio side of the business in Warner Bros. Television's music department handling music clearance for shows like Veronica Mars, One Tree Hill, and The Closer.
In 2007 Jon went back to music publishing when he joined the Film & TV department at Chrysalis Music Group where he oversees creatively pitching artists/songwriters like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Blondie, and TV On The Radio for placements in Film, Television, and Trailers. He also oversees the web presence for Chrysalis Music as well as acting as product manager for Eastern Conference Champions.
Kevin E. Leary
Leary is a Gainesville attorney and a 1986 graduate of the UF College of Law. He is a member of the Entertainment & Sports Law and Business Law sections of The Florida Bar. His practice is focused on helping entrepreneurs, inventors, writers, composers and other creative people protect their intellectual property rights and maximize their commercial opportunities. He has represented a diverse range of public and private companies, E-commerce based businesses, and entertainment industry clients. He's played in bands since high school and recorded jingles and local recording projects on the drums, bass, chromatic and diatonic harmonicas.
Moderators
Dean Robert H. Jerry II
Jerry is Dean and Levin, Mabie and Levin Professor of Law at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida.
Following graduation from the University of Michigan Law School in 1977, a clerkship with Judge George E. MacKinnon of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and three years of practice with an Indianapolis law firm, he joined the faculty at the University of Kansas School of Law in 1981. He was promoted to Professor in 1985 and served as Dean of the KU School of Law from 1989 to 1994. In 1994, he became the first permanent holder of the Herbert Herff Chair of Excellence at the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis. In 1998, he became the Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, a position he held until accepting the deanship at the Levin College of Law in 2003.
He is the author of numerous books (including Understanding Insurance Law, published by Lexis, now in its third edition), book chapters, articles, and essays in the field of insurance law, and is a frequent lecturer on insurance topics. He is a past chair of the Insurance Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools, a member of the American Law Institute, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
His service activities include chairing the Faculty Executive Committee at the University of Kansas in 1988-89, election to the Faculty Executive Committee at the University of Missouri in 2000-01, and numerous committees and boards at every university where he has been a faculty member. He has also been active in numerous community service organizations.
His honors and awards include the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award at the Missouri Law School in 2001, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana State University, his undergraduate alma mater, in 1992, and the KU Chancellor's Award for University Service at KU in 1989.
He lives in Gainesville with his wife Lisa and their three children: John, Jim and Beth.
Amy R. Mashburn
Mashburn is a Professor of Law at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law where she teaches Legal Ethics, Professional Responsibility, Legal Malpractice, Civil Procedure and Florida Civil Procedure. She graduated from Eckerd College in 1977, attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and received a JD from the University of Florida, Levin College of Law in 1987. Prior to teaching, Professor Mashburn practiced law in Orlando, Florida with the firm of Dean, Mead, Egerton, Bloodworth, Capouano & Bozarth, P.A. Professor Mashburn's scholarship focuses on the regulation of lawyers and their professional and ethical responsibilities. She has made numerous presentations to sections of the American Bar Association, the Association of American Law Schools, the Florida Bar, and Inns of Court on legal ethics and professionalism. In addition to serving on the Florida Bar's Professional Ethics Committee, which provides lawyers with ethical legal opinions, Professor Mashburn has been an expert witness on the law governing lawyers and a consultant to law firms, corporations and disciplinary authorities.
Dean Kathleen Price
Dean Price joined the Levin College of Law in 2003 as visiting faculty from New York University to serve as Associate Dean of Library & Technology and Clarence J. TeSelle Professor of Law. Dean Price previously served as the Law Librarian of Congress (1990-94) and as NYU's College of Law Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law (1994-2003). She began her distinguished career as an assistant law librarian at the University of Alabama (1967-70) and the University of Illinois (1970-73), and continued as a Professor of Law and Law Librarian at Duke University School of Law (1970-1980) and at the University of Minnesota as Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law (1980-1990), where she also served as acting assistant vice president for Academic Affairs (1985-86). Dean Price has been a visiting professor at Uppsala University (1998, 1990), Tsinghua University (Summer 2001), Renmin University (Summer 1999), and Fudan University (Summer 1997).