Students organize sports and entertainment law conference

While flying back to the United States from an entertainment and sports law conference in Mexico, Penn Law students Kanika Williams and Michele Simms Parris conceived of an idea to bring a similar conference to Penn. Their idea came to fruition last Saturday during Penn's first Entertainment and Sports Law Conference, an event the two students coordinated. The Penn Law School and the American Bar Association co-sponsored the conference, which included three panel discussions focusing on music. Pamela Lester, general counsel and vice president of business affairs for Time Warner Sports, gave the keynote address to open the conference. Lester's knowledge of the industry can be attributed to the depth and breadth of her law experience. She is chairperson of the ABA's Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industry. During her address, she emphasized the "importance of speaking to law students about the multi-disciplinary roles of lawyers in the entertainment industry." The speech also included description of Lester's personal experiences in the industry and stressed "taking advantage of contacts, but also being cautious about who you affiliate with. You have to be wary of their prior contacts and dealings." Law students about to enter the "real world" must learn to "use contacts to determine what area of entertainment law suits them best," she said, adding that "market shifting" is increasing the number of jobs available in merchandising, licensing and multimedia. Several of the Penn Law students attending the address said they were pleased with Lester's speech. "I am very interested in entertainment law, especially music, but it is a difficult field to get into," said first-year Law School student Tehmina Jaffer. "[Lester] gave realistic advice about how to get started in the field," she said. Ted Mathias, a first-year Law student, added that he found Lester's address "very informative." "I have a masters in sports management and am very interested in the issue of sports law," Mathias said. The conference included three panel discussions in addition to the keynote address. During the first panel -- which focused on law in the music industry -- Susan Genco, the vice president of business and legal affairs at Arista Records, addressed negotiating and drafting contracts for new artists, television licenses and soundtracks. "The legal affairs include reviewing copyright and publicity issues and drafting rules for contests and promotions," she said. Dorsey James, the general manager of LaFace Records, also spoke at the panel. He oversees all financial and general operations for clients like Usher and Tony Rich, as well as projects such as the soundtrack to the movie Soul Food. The third panel addressed how to deal with the modern athlete. During the panel, Michael Joshua, president and chief executive officer of Paz Sports Management Co., spoke about dealing with clients such as former NBA star Julius Erving and current WNBA player Megan Compain.