Minutes of the 1-04-06 Meeting of the Entertainment Executive Committee

In attendance:
Dave Bortman davesq@earthlink.net
Gordon Firemark gfiremark@firemark.com
Pamela Forster pamelaforster@earthlink.net
Joel Grossman joel@grossmanmediation.com
Eric Harbert ericharbert@yahoo.com
Helen Kang hkang@sheppardmullin.com
Leigh Leshner venturepwb@aol.com
Caroline Raufi craufi@stroock.com
Susan Rabin srabin@spattorney.com
Marissa Román mroman@akingump.com
Greg Slewitt gslewett@sheppardmullin.com
Mark Staenberg mstaenberg@bhba.org

The meeting was CALLED TO ORDER at approximately 8:37 AM.
Marissa Román served as chairperson of the meeting. Caroline Raufi served as co-chairperson of the meeting.

There was no READING OF THE MINUTES of the last meeting.
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Marissa Román began the meeting by introducing a new guest, Greg Slewitt, an associate in the Entertainment and Media Group at Sheppard Mullin in Century City who handles entertainment transactional matters.

LAWYER OF THE YEAR EVENT
The Lawyer of the Year event, honoring Kenneth Ziffren, will be held on April 27, 2006. Marissa announced that the “Save the Date” card should be circulated in the next 1-2 weeks. Formal invitations will be circulated in mid-February. The BHBA has retained the services of Ilsa Jouette who did a fabulous job last year. Ilsa will make calls once Kenneth Ziffren’s mailing list is forwarded to the BHBA. Further details TBA.
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Marissa opened the discussion by noting that despite December programs’ historic lower attendance, attendance was solid at the December program on licensing and infringement of music in the 21st century, co-sponsored by the BHBA IP, Internet & New Media Section and NARIP.

Next, the Ex. Comm. discussed upcoming panels.

JANUARY 12, 2006
The three-hour January evening program will be held at the Beverly Hills Hotel and is entitled “ Entertainment Law Extravaganza: 2005 Litigation Highlights, Current Trends and Substance Abuse Issues. Marissa reminded the program chairs to forward the written materials, speaker bios and releases to Pam Weston. The deadline for the written materials should be Monday, January 9. Marissa will remind Pam Weston to send another e-mail blast regarding the January program.

FEBRUARY 15, 2006
The February program will address artist/talent/manager representation issues, including a discussion about the controversies surrounding the agent/manager/ attorney relationships and various cases. Joe Schleimer is finalizing the panelists for the program. Further details TBA.

MARCH 15, 2006
The March program is being organized by Pamela Forster and will address drafting collaboration agreements across the film, television, and music industries, with a concentration on issues that arise when collaboration agreements are terminated, including conflicts of interest when representing multiple collaborators. The program will be a 1.5 hour program and will provide an ethics credit. Pamela has confirmed Vincent Waldman, former longtime Partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and longtime Entertainment Law professor at UCLA extension, as a panelist. She is finalizing the other two panelists. Pamela will moderate. Further details TBA.

APRIL 19, 2006
The April program is being organized by Kia Kamran and Leigh Leshner and will address film, television, and music content providers in the context of deal-making and media convergence, addressing mobile phones and such issues as voice and ring tones, games, etc. Leigh and Kia are flushing out the program and panelist details. Caroline Raufi offered to provide Leigh and Kia with materials in the coming weeks that are relevant to the program.
As an aside, Caroline brought up the hot topic of branded entertainment and suggested the ELS organize an upcoming panel. Marissa suggested August or September for such a program. Greg Slewitt will follow-up with Robert Darwell (a partner in Sheppard Mullin’s Century City and New York Offices, who heads the transactional side of the firm's Entertainment and Media Practice Group) as a potential panelist.
Leigh mentioned that there is an upcoming branded entertainment seminar being held in Los Angeles and offered to research the name, date, and location of the program for the Ex Comm.

MAY 17, 2006
The May program is being organized by Gordon Firemark and Joel Grossman and will address the "Friends" TV show sexual harassment case pending in the CA Supreme Court. By way of background, Joel remarked that, to date, the case has been on the pleadings with summary judgment granted to Defendants on a business necessity argument, then later reversed by the Court of Appeals. The case is now pending in the Supreme Court with no date set yet for oral arguments. Joel confirmed that the Labor and Employment Law Section would co-sponsor the program. Adam Levin, on the defense side, is confirmed as a panelist and will deliver a PowerPoint presentation with clips from the “Friends” television show. Other panelists TBD.

JUNE 21, 2006
The June program is being organized by Susan Rabin and Judith Dornstein and will address an update on the rights of publicity. Further details TBD.

JULY 19, 2006
The July program being is organized by David Bortman (with Helen Kang liaising) and will address video game publisher trends by such players as Electronic Arts (EA), the largest video game publisher, to develop games based on film titles. A brief discussion ensued about the make-up of the panelists. Carolyn suggested in-house counsel from EA as a panelist. After a brief discussion, the Ex Comm determined that there will be one lawyer and two business and/or creative persons on the panel. David suggested Robert Dowling, former Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, who is speaking at the January ELS program, as a moderator for the July program, given his superb moderating skills. Marissa reminded David that the panel should be kept at 3 panelists plus moderator. Further details TBD.

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS

Vintage Bouquet Event

A member of the Vintage Bouquet Committee (VBC), Leigh Lushner discussed the VBC’s gift bags to be distributed at the next Vintage Bouquet event. They are looking for items to include in the gift bags. In the last Ex Comm meeting, there was some discussion about including CDs. Leigh also mentioned that the VBC is looking for Broadway, jazz, or blues performers with name recognition/drawing power to perform two or three numbers at the event. Caroline suggested jazz performer Sandra Booker. Marissa suggested Leigh contact Cole Sternberg regarding the music.

Entertainment Industry Business Council

David Bortman revisited last month’s Ex Comm meeting discussion about the Entertainment Industry Business Council (EIBC), currently a venture between the Chambers of Commerce of Beverly Hills, Century City, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood, and West Hollywood, comprised of entertainment-related professionals and entrepreneurs. To recap, the EIBC focuses on (1) entertainment industry programs, and (2) legislative efforts to promote the entertainment industry. The EIBC is now going to include Bar Associations in their promotion of the entertainment industry.
David mentioned that the Century City, San Fernando Valley and Santa Monica Bar Associations all want to join the EIBC. David hasn’t spoke to the LA County Bar Association yet. David addressed Marc Staenberg about the BHBA joining the EIBC, suggesting the benefits would be the coordination of (rather than competing with) entertainment programs. Marc pointed out that the BHBA is already a member of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce. Marc briefly discussed the BHBA policy concerning advertising programs or events sponsored by outside organizations, previously described in past Ex Comm meetings. Marc and David will discuss the EIBC matter further at a later date.

BHBA Resolution and Legislation Committee

Marc Staenberg briefed the Ex Comm members on the BHBA’s Resolution and Legislation Committees. Marc informed Ex Comm members that the Resolution Committee seeks to adopt and/or change existing California law. The committee deals with promoting primarily state legislation derived from successful resolutions sponsored by the Resolutions Committee of the Beverly Hills Bar Association at the Conference of Delegates of California Bar Associations at the Annual State Bar meeting. Marc announced that the BHBA is one of the most active and successful Bar Associations in this regard. He welcomes Ex Comm members to attend a meeting or contact the committee if anyone has an idea to amend the law. Next, Marc discussed the Legislative Committee, which has the role of promoting prospective legislation, monitoring legislation, and acting as a non-political resource for legislators in Sacramento by providing legal background on a given issue. Marc noted that the BHBA was the only Bar Association other than the State Bar of Delegates that had its own paid lobbyist. The BHBA is again considering hiring a paid lobbyist to work on its behalf.
 

Council of the Committee Chairs Meeting

As Chairman of the BHBA's Council on Section and Committee Chairs, Gordon concluded the meeting by reminding the Ex Comm leadership that there is a Council on Section and Committee Chairs on January 21, 2006 requiring their attendance. Marissa will be at the Sundance Film Festival so she will not be present at the meeting.
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FUTURE EX. COMM. MEETINGS
The February meeting will take place at 8:30 a.m. on February 1, 2006 (on the regular meeting date of the first Wednesday of the month).
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There being no further business to discuss, the meeting ADJOURNED at approximately 9:17 AM.

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