PRESENTERS
Peter Afrasiabi
Partner, One, LLP, Newport Beach, CA
Peter is a founding partner at One, LLP, and focuses his practice on copyright, patent, trademark and entertainment litigation. In addition, he is a professor and the Director of the Appellate Clinic at University of California, Irvine School of Law. Peter graduated from University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
Belinda Berling
Owner, LMIC, LLC, Raleigh-Durham, NC
Belinda is a paralegal specializing in various types of litigation, estate planning/probate, and commercial real estate. She graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with a BS in Sociology, and earned her AAS in Paralegal Studies from Phoenix College, an ABA approved program. She holds advanced certifications in incorporated business entities and contract administration from the National Association of Legal Assistants. Belinda worked for various law firms in the Phoenix, Arizona area for almost fifteen years, and is now a freelance paralegal providing assistance to attorneys throughout the country. In addition, she is adjunct instructor at James Madison University and Durham Tech Community College.
Holly Dormeyer
General Manager, New Media Legal Publishing, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Holly has extensive experience as a corporate attorney, including working for Boies, Schiller and Flexner in New York, Clark Hill in Arizona and in-house at several tech companies in Arizona. Holly is currently an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University and Grand Canyon University. She graduated from Franklin Pierce College and Albany Law School. Holly is licensed to practice in New York and Arizona.
Greg Dorst
Southern California Consultant to The Other Bar, Certified Addition Specialist, Riverside, CA
Greg is a former prosecutor and defense attorney who currently works full time in the recovery field. He is a Certified Addiction Specialist, frequent lecturer on chemical dependency and a trainer of staff at recovery and treatment facilities. Greg is also the Southern California Consultant to The Other Bar.
Zev Eigen
FOUNDER & CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, SYNDIO SOLUTIONS, LOS ANGELES, CA
Zev is a nationally recognized expert in data science applied in law and HR, appearing in the media frequently (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, NPR, Bloomberg News, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc.). He is a winner of the National Law Journal’s “40 Under 40 Rising Legal Stars” award, a FastCase50 Innovator, and has been recognized by the Financial Times as one of the 10 most innovative lawyers in the US. He is an accomplished public speaker and is invited regularly to lecture and present papers at academic institutions and professional organizations across the country. Zev is a former law professor (Northwestern, Yale, NYU), and former in-house counsel (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.). He received his BA and JD degrees from Cornell, and his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Zev founded Syndio Solutions, which develops technologies that enable organizations to find and close the gender pay gap, as well as measure and analyze relational data (how individuals connect to each other across networks) to reduce gender biases, improve collaboration, identify the most influential people in an organization and measure and improve inclusion as part of diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Theane Evangelis
Partner, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Theane focuses on class actions and appellate litigation. She serves as Co-Chair of the firm's Class Actions Practice Group and Vice Chair of the California Appellate Practice Group. She has played a substantial role in a wide range of appellate, constitutional, and crisis management matters, as well as employment, consumer, and wage-and- hour class actions. Theane clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Honorable Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit after graduating summa cum laude from New York University School of Law. The Daily Journal has named her to its list of Top Women Lawyers in California, and Law360 has named her a Class Action MVP.
Chad Fitzgerald
Partner, Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLP, Santa Monica, CA
Chad specializes in entertainment and business litigation as well as transactional matters for entertainment industry clients. He has represented actors, producers, writers, showrunners, musicians, professional athletes, production and distribution companies, the entertainment guilds, personal and business managers, and talent agents and agencies. Chad handles disputes in the areas of contract, profit participation and “vertical integration,” financing, distribution, copyright, trademark, trade secrets, partnership, franchise, fraud, rights of privacy, and defamation. He also negotiates and drafts agreements for intellectual property rights holders, entertainment industry executives, writers, producers, independent filmmakers, and unscripted programming creators, among others. He has written numerous articles on legal issues in the entertainment industry, has appeared on several panels discussing entertainment litigation, and has discussed legal issues in entertainment for media outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, E! Online, the Daily Journal, and KPCC’s “Air Talk” radio show. Prior to joining the firm in 2007, Chad worked in the Business and Legal Affairs department of Universal Pictures, negotiating and drafting agreements to acquire intellectual property rights for Universal and engaging talent to render services on Universal films. Chad was named a “Southern California Rising Star” by the publishers of Los Angeles magazine from 2012 through 2014; he was named a “Super Lawyer” in 2015. He is a graduate of Yale University (B.A. with distinction, 1998) and the UCLA School of Law (J.D., 2001).
Paul Fraidenburgh
Shareholder, Buchalter, Orange County, CA
Paul Fraidenburgh is a trial lawyer who serves as Chair of Litigation for Buchalter’s Orange County office. He focuses his practice on representing clients in high-stakes commercial litigation, arbitration, and regulatory compliance matters. Paul has prevailed on behalf of clients in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and at the state Supreme Court level. He has also served as lead trial counsel in California and beyond. He represents clients ranging from government agencies to Fortune 100 companies. In 2018, Paul was named a “Top 40 Under 40” lawyer by the Daily Journal, as one of only 20 lawyers selected from Southern California. Paul has also served as an active member of several firm committees. As a member of the Pro Bono Committee, he has volunteered his time to organizations that serve underprivileged children.
Jonathan Gottlieb
Executive Vice President, Legal Affairs, Fox Entertainment Group, Los Angeles, CA
Jonathan manages a team of lawyers responsible for drafting and negotiating license agreement for the distribution of Fox’s television and film content worldwide. Prior to that, Jonathan was Senior Vice President, Litigation, at Fox where he handled all manner of legal problems faced by Fox's film, television, and Internet properties. He clerked for the Honorable Roger J. Miner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and, before joining Fox in 2004, was Counsel in the Appellate and Litigation groups at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
Rex Heinke
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Rex is co-head of the firm's Supreme Court and appellate practice. He has argued almost a hundred and fifty appeals in federal and state courts throughout the country, involving, among other things, television camera access to courtrooms, alter ego, antitrust, attorneys’ fees, bankruptcy, billboards, class actions, complex business disputes, computer software, constitutional law, contracts, copyrights, criminal sentencing, defamation, docudramas, domestic and international arbitrations, drug testing, employment discrimination, environmental law, extraterritoriality of federal laws, false advertising, federal preemption, federal securities, foreign sovereign immunity, global warming, invasion of privacy, partition of real estate, personal jurisdiction/inconvenient forum, products liability, public records, reporters’ privilege, right of publicity, separation of powers, statutory interpretation, tax, telephone regulation, trademarks, trusts and estates, unfair competition, unsolicited faxes, wage and hour disputes, and wrongful termination. Recently, he has handled appeals or writs in the Second, Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits, the California Supreme Court, and the California Courts of Appeal, as well as cert. petitions in the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a fellow of the American and California Academies of Appellate Lawyers. Rex has lectured and written on appellate law for the University of Southern California, University of Houston, and University of California at Davis law schools. He has won numerous awards, including Best Lawyers in America’s L.A. Appellate Lawyer of the Year (2010), California Lawyer’s Lawyer of the Year (2009 and 2013), and Top 10 Southern California Super Lawyers (2014). He is a former member of the California Judicial Council and the California State Bar Board of Governors, and a past President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association.
Jim Heiting
Former President, State Bar of California (2005-2006), Partner, Heiting & Irwin, Riverside, CA
Jim is a trial attorney and managing partner of Heiting & Irwin in Riverside, California. He is a former President of the State Bar of California, the Riverside County Bar Association, and The Other Bar.
William Highberger
Judge, California Superior Court, Complex Civil Litigation Program, Los Angeles, CA
Judge Highberger has been assigned to the Los Angeles Superior Court Complex Civil Litigation Program since March 2008. His docket primarily consists of class actions, complex civil cases, Judicial Council Coordinated Proceedings involving multiple tort claims from around the state and the nation, and other types of complex civil litigation. The substantial majority of his docket since 2013 has been wage-and- hour class actions. He and his colleagues in the Los Angeles Superior Court Complex Civil Litigation Program have one of the largest wage-and- hour class action dockets in the entire nation. He routinely deals with contested motions to compel arbitration in this context and frequently teaches other judges about this topic in CLE programs. He also routinely hears motions for approval of wage-and- hour class action settlements and other class-action settlements. While handling various mass-tort cases, he has held joint court sessions with the United States District Judge handling the counterpart MDL case involving In re Incretin Mimetics. He has also worked in cooperation with the Court of Common Pleas Judge in Philadelphia to facilitate the handling of overlapping mass-tort claims involving the prescription drug Risperdal®. He has been a judge since September 1998. He is a Fellow of the College Of Labor And Employment Lawyers, a Member of the American Law Institute and an Adviser to the ALI’s recently completed RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW, EMPLOYMENT LAW. He is also an Adviser to the ALI’s current project to draft a RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW, LIABILITY INSURANCE. Before his appointment to the court in September 1998, he was a partner in the labor and employment practice of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Los Angeles, CA and Washington, DC, where he handled both traditional labor-management disputes and individual and class litigation in state and federal court.
Helen Holden
Of Counsel, Spencer Fane, Phoenix, AZ
Helen helps businesses understand how successfully navigating the alphabet soup of federal and state employment laws can positively impact company culture. She brings over 20 years of experience to her focus on management-side employment law, which is evident in the practical advice and training she provides to management on human resource issues. Her clients include companies in diverse industry sectors, including construction, real estate, manufacturing, technology, health care, distribution, and the retail and service sectors. When disputes arise, Helen is a strong advocate for the employer’s interests, without losing sight of the larger issues impacting the business. She regularly represents employers in agency proceedings involving allegations of discrimination or harassment, and has successfully defended employers in lawsuits brought in both state and federal courts.
Esra Hudson
Partner, Manatt Phelps & Phillips, LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Esra's practice focuses on all aspects of employment law and related litigation. She represents companies in state and federal court in claims of discrimination, harassment, wrongful discharge and related tort claims, breach of contract, trade secrets, and unfair competition, and all other employment-related matters. Esra also defends companies against employment-based class actions. She regularly represents employers in proceedings before state and federal agencies, including the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Esra's litigation practice also includes extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, including arbitration and private mediation. In addition to a litigation practice, Esra advises companies on a variety of employment and personnel management issues. She also regularly develops employment manuals and policies, as well as executive employment and severance agreements. Esra provides a wide array of management training on a variety of employment-related subjects, including sexual harassment and discrimination prevention. Esra provides services for companies in a variety of industries, including entertainment, financial services, healthcare, transportation, insurance, manufacturing, the service industry and nonprofits.
Jean-Paul Jassy
Partner, Jassy Vick Carolan, LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Jean-Paul (JP) litigates with an emphasis on disputes in the media, internet, First Amendment and entertainment arenas. He also routinely represents all types of businesses in multi-million dollar breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, copyright, trademark, idea submission and profit participation cases. JP's clients include internet giants, television networks, metropolitan newspapers, motion picture studios, nonprofits dedicated to free press and free expression, top-flight production companies and award-winning reporters. He has taught full-length courses on First Amendment and media law at prestigious law schools, and repeatedly been named by his peers to The Best Lawyers in America® in the First Amendment field. JP founded two law firms listed as Tier 1 (top tier) by US News & World Report, both nationally and locally. He has successfully litigated cases in the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court. His work has been covered in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Washington Post, among other media outlets. JP also routinely advises production companies and publishers in ways to avoid and mitigate liability.
Kelly Klaus
Partner, Munger Tolles & Olson, Los Angeles, CA
Kelly’s practice is focused on copyright and complex commercial litigation. He has represented all of the major motion picture studios and all of the major recorded music companies in some of their highest-profile copyright litigation matters in recent years. The Daily Journal has named Kelly as one of the 75 leading intellectual property lawyers in California in each of the last four years. In recent years, he represented the four major recorded music companies in their trial against LimeWire and its founder (resulting in a $105 million settlement); the six major motion picture studios in their successful infringement action against the Zediva DVD-streaming service; and the studios in their successful action against RealNetworks for violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions with its “RealDVD” DVD-copying device. He is a member of the Los Angeles Copyright Society and the board of Legal Advisers of the Copyright Alliance. Kelly received his B.A. from UCLA and his J.D. from Stanford Law School. Following law school, and prior to joining Munger Tolles, he was a law clerk to Judge William H. Orrick, Jr., U.S. District Court, Northern District of California; to Judge Pamela Ann Rymer, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; and to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Supreme Court of the United States.
Cherise Latortue
Associate, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, Orange County, CA
Cherise is an associate in the Orange County office and a member of the employment and labor practice group. Her practice focuses on the defense of class action and individual wage and hour claims, discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination actions. She also advises clients on a wide array of employment law issues. She has significant experience representing employers in mediation and litigation on disability, age, race and national origin discrimination matters in state and federal courts, as well as with federal and state government enforcement agencies. She also has substantial experience advising clients on federal OSHA and Cal-OSHA compliance and traditional labor law issues. Prior to joining the firm, Cherise was an associate at Dorsey & Whitney LLP. She clerked for Judge Judith Chirlin (Ret.) in 2008 and also worked as an intern at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Trade Commission in 2009.
Joey Liu
Partner, One, LLP, Newport Beach, CA
Joey is a patent attorney with extensive experience handling complex intellectual property matters for some of the largest companies in the United States, including Advanced Medical Optics, Broadcom, Charles Schwab, and Intel. With a background in electrical and computer engineering, he has handled a number of patent matters related to computer software and hardware (on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants)–ranging from optical drives to wireless communication devices to e-business applications. Before law school, Joey was an electrical/software engineer and product manager for an Orange County network software company where he developed network device drivers for PC-to-Host connectivity products.
CARRIE MENKEL-MEADOW
CHANCELLOR’S PROFESSOR OF LAW AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE, AND A.B. CHETTLE JR. PROFESSOR OF LAW, DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND CIVIL PROCEDURE EMERITA AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER
Professor Menkel-Meadow is one of the founders of the modern legal dispute resolution field and has been teaching negotiation, mediation and related subjects for over 35 years. She has published over 15 books and 200 articles in the field. She has taught law and dispute resolution to diplomats, lawyers, law students, mediators, government officials and ordinary citizens in 26 countries (on seven continents). She is an active mediator and arbitrator, as well as policy and strategic planning facilitator, and has consulted for the World Bank, United Nations, the Federal Judicial Center and federal and state courts, and the International Red Cross on matters of conflict resolution and dispute system design. Professor Menkel-Meadow graduated cum laude Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, magna cum laude, B.A. (in sociology) and Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College, Columbia University.
David Malow
Lead Alumni Volunteer, Betty Ford Center / Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, Palm Desert, CA
A former owner of Serenity Lane Transitional Sober Living Homes, David received his certification as a Peer Recovery Support Specialist while working at The Riverside County Department of Mental Health in 2010. In 2009, David worked as a consultant to the Betty Ford Center and wrote the policies and procedures manual for their BFCSL Sober Living program. He received a scholarship from The Betty Ford Center to obtain his certification as a Grief Recovery Specialist at the Grief Recovery Institute in Los Angeles in 2008. Since 2005, David has been the lead alumni volunteer at the Betty Ford Center / Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, having served for over 5,000 hours. In 2009 David was a consultant to the Betty Ford Center for their BFCSL Sober Living program. A lifelong resident of Southern California, David is married to Joey Malow and has a son. David enjoys long-term sobriety & is a current member of CAADAC, CCAR, Recovery View, and The Sober Living Network.
Zach McGee
Senior Vice President, Business Affairs, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment,Los Angeles, CA
Zach leads worldwide business affairs for Sony’s home entertainment division. Before moving to Sony, he was the Senior Vice President, Head of Business & Legal Affairs at Miramax, a leading independent film and television studio. Before joining Miramax, Zach was a Vice President, Legal Affairs, with NBC Universal, Inc. Prior to moving in-house, he was an associate with Davis Polk. Zach clerked for the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and he received his Masters of Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Zach also has taught negotiation ethics for lawyers as an Adjunct Professor at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University.
Tom McNamara
DIRECTOR, BUSINESS AND LEGAL AFFAIRS, ENTERTAINMENT ONE TELEVISION, BEVERLY HILLS, CA
Tom is a Director of Business and Legal Affairs for Entertainment One (eOne) Television. He negotiates deals and drafts contracts for eOne Television to secure the services of above-the-line talent through the development and production of television projects. Specifically, Tom prepares option/purchase agreements, pilot script agreements, and executive producer agreements, among other agreements. In addition, he has drafted record label licensing agreements, publishing agreements, and management employment contracts for musicians and songwriters with companies such as Kobalt, Red One Publishing, Mr. 305, Inc., Budde Publishing, Single Lock Records, Nevado Music, and Red Light Management. Tom is acutely familiar with royalty structures, publishing rights, ancillary rights, and licensing arrangements on both the record label and publishing sides of the music industry. Furthermore, he is a former business and commercial litigator with comprehensive litigation experience through trial and binding arbitration.
Devin McRae
Partner, Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Devin is a business litigator with a particular emphasis in entertainment, intellectual property and employment disputes, including those concerning breach of contract, copyright and trademark infringement, idea submission, royalties and participations, distribution agreements, trade secrets, discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination. He also has extensive experience in real estate, partnership, investment and insurance coverage-related disputes. His clients include television networks, prominent artists and producers, and insurance companies. In connection with his representation of clients in the television industry, Devin is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He is routinely called upon by the media to provide commentary on high profile issues of entertainment law and litigation. He has been selected for inclusion in Southern California Super Lawyers Editions 2016-2018, Southern California Super Lawyers–Rising Stars Editions 2009, 2011-2015, and was named in The Best Lawyers in America© 2016-2018 for Intellectual Property Litigation. In 2016, the Daily Journal selected Devin as one of California’s “Top 40 Under 40” lawyers. He is AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell. Prior to co-founding Early Sullivan, Devin practiced at the Los Angeles Glaser Weil firm and international firms Dorsey & Whitney and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae. He received his law degree in 2002 from UCLA School of Law. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of New Mexico where he graduated summa cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Matt Meaker
Senior Corporate Counsel, Sundt Construction, Inc., Phoenix, AZ
Matt has practiced law for over 10 years and has developed a business-minded approach to legal issues. He is very active in the legal profession and the community at large. He serves on the Executive Council of the Construction Law Section of the State Bar of Arizona and on the Board of Directors of the Maricopa County Bar Association. In addition, he is actively involved with the local chapter of the Construction Financial Management Association, the Arizona Builders’ Alliance, the American Subcontractors Association of Arizona, and the Arizona Registrar of Contractors Industry Advisory Council. Matt also gives of his time to numerous community causes, including the Arizona Town Hall.
Howard Miller
Partner, Girardi Keese, Los Angeles, CA
Howard heads the firm's International Dispute Resolution Practice, and practices intellectual property litigation, anti-trust, and general complex commercial litigation. He is a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). Howard is also a former Professor of Law at USC Gould School of Law. He served as the 85th President of the State Bar of California during the 2009-2010 term.
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Aaron Moss
Partner, Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Aaron is a Partner with Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, in Los Angeles. He handles a variety of entertainment litigation, intellectual property and general commercial matters, specializing in protecting the rights of owners and users of creative works. Aaron litigates high-profile copyright infringement actions for both plaintiffs and defendants, including studios, independent distributors, production companies, video game publishers, technology firms and individuals. He also counsels clients on all aspects of copyright law, including chain of title and clearance reviews, ownership transfers, license termination, copyright preemption, fair use, music sampling and internet piracy. Aaron has particularly extensive experience with the Copyright Act’s statutory termination provisions, and has litigated cases involving numerous entertainment properties when authors’ heirs have sought to recapture copyrights under these statutes. He has been named to The Hollywood Reporter’s “Top 100 Power Lawyers” list, Variety’s “Legal Impact Report,” and to the Daily Journal’s “Top IP Litigators in California” for the last five years in a row. Aaron is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, Phi Beta Kappa, and a magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School.
Bill O'Brien
Partner, One, LLP, Beverly Hills, CA
Bill is a trial and appellate lawyer with 30 years of experience in intellectual property and technology cases. He has extensive experience with patent, trademark, trade dress, copyright, trade secret, and idea submission cases and with a wide range of technologies, including medical devices, consumer electronics, telecommunications, software, optics, aerospace, manufacturing equipment, diagnostics, and chemicals, as well as business-method patents. Bill has successfully represented clients in major jury trials and in multiple appellate proceedings before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and other federal and state appellate courts.
Cliff Palefsky
Partner, McGuinn, Hillsman & Palefsky, San Francisco, CA
Cliff has argued seven arbitration cases before the California Supreme Court including numerous landmark and precedent setting cases such as Armendariz v. Foundation Health Psychcare, Little v. Auto Stiegler, Gentry v. Circuit City and Sonic-Calabasas v. Moreno. He was also co-counsel in Circuit City v Adams, Duffield v Robertson Stevens and EEOC v Luce Forward and has been very involved in helping to draft legislation relating to arbitration at the state and federal levels. He was a founding board member of the National Employment Lawyers Association and served on its Executive Board for 10 years. He is the co-chair of NELA’s Mandatory Arbitration Task Force and was co-chair of the Privacy, ADR and Securities Industry Arbitration Committees. He also served on the Executive Board of the California Employment Lawyers Association for 12 years and is presently on the organization’s Advisory Board. Cliff was an advisor to the American Law Institute on the drafting of the Restatement of Employment Law and is a co-author of the CEB’s Wrongful Employment Termination Practice treatise. He is a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has authored numerous articles on employment law and mandatory arbitration. He is a frequent speaker nationally on subjects relating to employment law and the field of arbitration.
Chris Reed
Vice President, Global Content Protection, Fox Entertainment Group, Los Angeles, CA
Chris provides legal advice on copyright and other intellectual property issues, and helps develop strategies relating to protecting creative assets from infringement for all of the Fox Entertainment Group entities worldwide, including 20th Century Fox Film, Fox Searchlight, Fox 2000, Fox Animation, Blue Sky Studios, Fox Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Television, Fox Television Stations, and Fox Networks Group (including Fox Broadcasting Company, FX, National Geographic Channel, and various national and regional Fox Sports properties). Prior to joining Fox Entertainment Group, he was Acting Chief of the Information & records Division and Senior Advisor for Policy & Special Projects at the United States Copyright Office in Washington D.C. Chris is a graduate of Lehigh University, and the University of New Hampshire, School of Law. Following graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Steven J. McAuliffe, United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire.
Brandon Reilly
Associate, Manatt Phelps & Phillips, Orange County, CA
Brandon's practice encompasses all aspects of civil litigation in federal and state courts, with a particular focus on consumer financial services, privacy and data security, and class actions. He has represented a wide range of businesses, including national and regional banks, mortgage servicers and originators, auto finance lenders and servicers, health and workers’ compensation insurers, petrochemical refiners, national retailers, e-commerce businesses, payment card processors, motor vehicle manufacturers, and sovereign Native American nations. Brandon also has significant experience advising financial services companies on regulatory compliance and representing them in government enforcement actions and monitoring. In addition to his broad litigation and government enforcement experience, Brandon also counsels businesses and other organizations on privacy and data security issues. His practice in this area includes advising clients on incident investigation, containment, and mitigation; managing data breach responses; and assisting impacted entities before and during litigation. Brandon is a Certified Information Privacy Professional for the U.S. Private Sector (CIPP/US) and an active member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). He also regularly participates in pro bono matters, with a special emphasis on veterans and mental health issues.
Jeremiah Reynolds
Partner, Eisner Jaffe, Santa Monica, CA
Jeremiah's practice focuses on Entertainment and IP Litigation, as well as Complex Business Litigation. He was recently named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the “The Best Lawyers in America” in the category of Entertainment and Media Litigation. High-profile clients regularly turn to Jeremiah for his substantial trial, arbitration and appellate experience. Throughout his career, he has represented numerous prominent clients, including Justin Bieber, Michael Keaton, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Nate Diaz, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Robert Duvall, Kate Hudson, Reggie Bush, the Kardashian Family, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Paul Anka, Danny DeVito, and Paris Hilton. He has also represented various independent entertainment and media companies in lawsuits involving distribution rights, merchandising and licensing rights, profit participation and other accounting issues, contractual disputes, and intellectual property disputes. He is known as a trusted source for national media outlets and is frequently quoted as an authority on intellectual property and entertainment disputes. From 2006 through 2009, he was named a “Southern California Rising Star” by the publishers of Los Angeles magazine. Jeremiah is a cum laude graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A., 1997) and received his J.D. from the University of Southern California in 2002.
Robert Rotstein
Partner, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Robert grew up in Culver City, California, then the location of the famed MGM Studios and so the true “Hollywood.” To this day, the city’s motto is “The Heart of Screenland.” Robert’s elementary school was caddy corner to one of the studio’s back lots. At an early age, he became hooked on legal dramas – not only Perry Mason, the archetype of the legal mystery, but also on the politically charged The Defenders and lesser known shows like Judd for the Defense, The Young Lawyers, and The Trials of O’Brien – lawyers doing justice. Perhaps Robert’s early combination of life in an entertainment-company town and fascination with the lawyer-as-hero made it inevitable that he’d become both an attorney whose practice focuses on the entertainment industry and an author of legal thrillers: during breaks from representing movie studios and well-known writers, directors, and musicians in copyright and IP cases, Robert penned the critically acclaimed novels Corrupt Practices, Reckless Disregard, and The Bomb Maker’s Son. Robert graduated from the University of California Los Angeles School of Law in 1976, where he received the Order of the Coif and was a member of the UCLA Law Review. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a B.A. degree in 1973, summa cum laude, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Ted Russell
Executive Vice President, Business Affairs, Digital, Home Entertainment and Television Distribution, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Los Angeles, CA
Ted has been responsible for negotiating strategic partnerships and deals for the distribution of film and television content in digital and traditional media. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President, Litigation, for Fox Entertainment Group, handling all manner of legal problems faced by Fox's film, television, cable, sports and Internet properties. Ted has substantial experience litigating in state and federal courts. He has lectured on topics ranging from electronic discovery to crisis management. But his true academic interest arises in the context of negotiations, and specifically the legal, ethical, and practical limitations imposed on lawyers participating in negotiations. Ted has served as a Lecturer in Law at USC Gould School of Law, where he taught a course in Negotiation Ethics, and as an Adjunct Professor at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University. Before joining Fox in 1998, he was a business and employment litigator at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Ben Sheffner
Vice President, Legal Affairs, Motion Picture Association of America, Los Angeles, CA
Ben specializes in copyright policy and runs the MPAA’s amicus brief program. He has previously held in-house legal positions at NBCUniversal and Twentieth Century Fox, and worked as an associate in the Century City office of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, where he litigated copyright and other cases for major movie studios, television networks, and record labels. In 2008, Ben served as Special Counsel on Senator John McCain's presidential campaign where, among other responsibilities, he handled the campaign's copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property issues. Ben previously blogged at http://copyrightsandcampaigns.blogspot.com/, which was named as a top 100 legal blog by the American Bar Association in 2009 and 2010, and wrote a regular column on legal issues in the music industry for Billboard magazine. Ben served as a law clerk for the Hon. M. Margaret McKeown on the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2000-2001.
Randa Soudah
Vice President, Assistant General Counsel, CBS Corporation, Los Angeles, CA
Randa supervises a variety of litigation matters for CBS and also provides advice and counsel on labor and employment matters. She has been with CBS since 2001. Prior to that, Randa was a litigation associate at the New York law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher and a law clerk to the Hon. William H. Walls of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Dan Stone
Counsel, Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Dan is a Counsel with Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, in Los Angeles. He helps plaintiffs and defendants successfully navigate their disputes at all stages of litigation and dispute resolution, including at trial and on appeal. Dan represents clients ranging from artists to Fortune 100 companies in disputes involving copyright, trademark, trade secrets, breach of contract, rights of publicity and privacy, labor law, and ERISA. Formerly Assistant General Counsel at the Directors Guild of America, he represents and advises multi-national corporations, production companies, rights-holders and artists in connection with entertainment industry collective bargaining agreements and pension and health plans. Before attending law school, Dan was Director of Development at a production company affiliated with a major studio, and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He graduated from Cornell University and Loyola Law School.
Andrew Struve
Andrew Struve, Shareholder, Buchalter P.C., Orange County, CA
Andrew is a member of the Health Care and Litigation practice groups in Buchalter’s Orange County office. Andrew focuses his practice on complex healthcare litigation and unfair competition actions as well as regulatory compliance matters. He has particular expertise in provider and plan representation, private equity, insurance, and the defense of consumer suits. An experienced litigator in the healthcare field, Andrew has litigated both provider and health plan disputes, class and other representative actions, federal and state qui tam litigation, antitrust suits, RICO actions, managed care contracting suits, earnout disputes, partnership actions, bad faith claims, and payment disputes. He has also conducted numerous sensitive internal investigations and compliance audits, as well as responses to governmental and commercial billing/coding challenges. In addition to leading litigation teams in healthcare disputes in federal and state courts across the United States, Andrew serves as national governance, regulatory, and compliance counsel for a number of companies and many healthcare clients. He is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute, and is rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating it confers.
John Tehranian
Partner, One, LLP, Newport Beach, CA
John is a founding partner of One LLP and the Paul W. Wildman Chair and Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School. A graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, John has litigated numerous high-profile lawsuits, including copyright, trademark and right of publicity disputes involving Madonna, Don Henley, B.B. King, Bettie Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Perez Hilton, among others. Variety’s 2013 Legal Impact Report recognized him as one of the world’s top 50 entertainment lawyers and he has been repeatedly honored as a Southern California Super Lawyer. John’s writing has been widely cited, from testimony before Congress and decisions of the state, federal and Israeli courts to briefs before the Supreme Court in such landmark intellectual property cases as MGM v. Grokster, Tiffany v. eBay, Golan v. Holder and Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons.
Paul Tepper
Executive Director, Western Center on Law & Poverty, Los Angeles, CA
Paul has worked in the Southern California nonprofit community for the majority of his career, focusing on the political, social and economic justice issues that impact low-income people. He was formerly the Executive Director of the WCA Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Weingart Center Association. Paul also served on the Board of Directors of the California Bar Foundation, is former Chair of the State Bar of California’s Legal Services Trust Fund Commission and was an adjunct faculty member at USC’s Graduate School of Social Work. Paul is an active member of the California bar with a J.D. from Washington University School of Law.
Kevin Vick
Partner, Jassy Vick Carolan LLP, Los Angeles, CA
Kevin is a litigator with extensive experience representing clients in the entertainment, media, internet and other industries. His trial experience includes successfully defending motion picture companies and talent agencies in jury and bench trials. His appellate experience includes successful representations of major internet, media and entertainment clients. He routinely litigates copyright, trademark,defamation, publicity rights, idea submission, invasion of privacy, Section 230, and anti-SLAPP matters, as well as business disputes involving breach of contract, trade secrets and partnerships. Kevin is a Trustee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Board of Trustees, and a Chair Emeritus of the Entertainment and Intellectual Property Section of the Bar Association. He has taught First Amendment law at the University of Southern California Law School. He has been named a Super Lawyer in Intellectual Property Litigation by Super Lawyers magazine since 2015. Kevin graduated with honors from Stanford University and Harvard Law School, and clerked for the Honorable Florence-Marie Cooper of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
John Wagner
Judicate West, Los Angeles, CA
John Leo Wagner has 29 years' experience in conducting ADR processes. In 1997, he left the Federal bench to become the Director of the Irell & Manella ADR Center, where he engaged in a full-time practice as a neutral. He previously served for 12 years as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of Oklahoma. He was appointed to this position at age 31, after trying many substantial cases to verdict as litigation partner with Kornfeld & Franklin. While on the Federal bench, he founded and administered a court-annexed mediation program and served as an ADR neutral, in addition to maintaining a full civil caseload. Judge Wagner has successfully conducted thousands of mediations and arbitrations. He is respected and requested for his extensive experience and skill in resolving multi-party, and extremely complex issues in cases involving intellectual property, construction defect, environmental and mass torts, as well as securities and consumer class actions. He has also earned a reputation for handling matters with a high emotional content including employment, civil rights, partnership dissolution plus all types of business, insurance and personal injury disputes. One client commented: "Judge Wagner offers a unique combination of federal bench and private practice experience. With this experience and his calm and even-handed disposition he earned everyone's respect." Both plaintiff and defense concur Judge Wagner is knowledgeable, intelligent, creative, perceptive and works relentlessly to resolve disputes. John is a long time Distinguished Fellow with the International Academy of Mediators, and its former President.
Susan White
Special Counsel, Buchalter, Los Angeles, CA
Susan is an experienced commercial litigation attorney with a specialty in insurance recovery. She represents corporate and individual policyholders and has recovered millions in insurance proceeds on their behalf in all types of complex litigation against their insurers. Susan is able to think out of the box, using creative and strategic approaches to both find and maximize insurance coverage for her policyholder clients. Throughout her 30 years of practice, she regularly has represented a wide variety of clients on numerous insurance coverage issues and has resolved complex insurance matters through settlement, arbitration or trial. Susan counsels clients operating in a wide range of industries, including healthcare, pharmaceutical, retail, manufacturing, telecommunications, software and Internet technology, financial services, entertainment, and real estate. Acting as insurance coverage counsel, she also represents companies in bankruptcy and advises trustees for bankrupt estates in connection with the recovery of insurance assets for the estate. She also provides risk management guidance to clients to maximize the coverage provided by insurance policies. Additionally, Susan speaks regularly on various insurance coverage issues.
Mark Wooster
Actor, Writer and Producer, former Senior Vice President, Corporate Legal Affairs & Litigation, Universal Pictures, Los Angeles, CA
Mark started his legal career at KattenMuchinRosenman LLP where he represented several television and motion picture studios and industry talent in litigation and transactional entertainment matters. He then went in-house with Universal Pictures where he worked for over ten years, ultimately as Senior Vice President, Corporate Legal Affairs & Litigation, reporting to the General Counsel of Universal Pictures, where he was responsible for all litigation matters affecting Universal Pictures. Today, Mark enjoys pursuing the creative side of entertainment, including writing and production, with occasional forays into stand-up comedy and acting. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.
Mike Young
Judicate West, Los Angeles, CA
Mike, a former employment, intellectual property and business litigator and mediator with the national firm Alston & Bird, has been mediating cases since 1989. Building off of his extensive litigation experience, and his training through the nationally acclaimed Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine Law School, he assists parties resolve contentious and complex civil disputes, often in creative and innovative ways that the parties themselves had not previously considered. He has extensive experience both litigating and mediating all varieties of employment, intellectual property, and business disputes, including class actions and single-plaintiff matters. On the employment side, these have included wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, disability, public policy, wage and hour, and misclassification disputes, among others. On the IP side, Mike had handled disputes over trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, patents, and restrictive covenants. In addition, in his 25-plus year legal career, he has mediated, litigated, and tried hundreds of disputes involving unfair competition, antitrust, and environmental issues (including CERCLA and RCRA cases), among other complex business disputes. Mike is a long time Distinguished Fellow with the International Academy of Mediators and former President, and was an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law for nearly a decade, and at the Straus Institute of Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine Law School, teaching mediation and ADR.