The February meeting took place on Wednesday, February 1, in the BHBA Board Room. The February meeting minutes are set forth below.
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Minutes of the February 1, 2006 Meeting of the Entertainment Section Executive Committee

In attendance:
Dave Bortman davesq@earthlink.net 
Michael Cerrati mcerrati@gmail.com
Judith Dornstein jdornstein@adelphia.net  / Judith@dornsteinlaw.com
Miles Feldman miles@brownewoods.com
Gordon Firemark gfiremark@firemark.com
Pamela Forster pamelaforster@earthlink.net
Jason Gross jasgross@gmail.com 
Joel Grossman joel@grossmanmediation.com
Kia Kamran kia@tunelaw.com
Susan Pollyea susan.pollyea@sbcglobal.net
Susan Rabin srabin@spattorney.com
Marissa Román mroman@akingump.com
Joe Schleimer schleimerlaw@msn.com
Greg Slewitt gslewett@sheppardmullin.com
Mark Staenberg mstaenberg@bhba.org

The meeting was CALLED TO ORDER at approximately 8:40 AM.
Marissa Román served as 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 praising the January Entertainment Law Year in Review Program. It was a success with approximately 85 persons in attendance. All three panels went well and were very informative.

LAWYER OF THE YEAR EVENT
Next, Ex Comm members discussed the Lawyer of the Year (LOY) event honoring Kenneth Ziffren, which will be held on Thursday, April 27, 2006, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Marissa announced that the Beverly Hills Bar Association (BHBA) would be mailing the “Save-the-Date” cards this week. Marissa circulated the “Save-the-Date” card to the Ex Comm members for viewing, and it looks great. Formal invitations will follow in late February / early March.
Jay Leno is confirmed as Master of Ceremonies of the LOY event. Ken Ziffren’s wife has graciously offered to produce the LOY “tribute” video for the event. There will not be a “live” band, but there will be recorded music played that will reflect the taste and choice of Mr. Ziffren, the honoree.
Susan Rabin and Judith Dornstein have volunteered to assist Ilsa Jouette with phone calls regarding promotion of the LOY event. Pamela Forster volunteered to handle the congratulatory “tribute” letters provided by local politicians. Marissa will create a master target attendee list apart from the regular BHBA and Ken Freundlich’s existing lists. Further details TBA.

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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Next, Ex Comm members discussed upcoming programs.

FEBRUARY 15, 2006
Joseph Schleimer has finalized the February program, which will address artist/talent/manager representation issues, including a discussion about the controversies surrounding the agent/manager/ attorney relationships and various cases. Confirmed panelists are Gerald A. Margolis, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Ronald A. DiNicola, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp. Joe will moderate. Joe’s firm is sponsoring the program, with four upcoming ads in the Hollywood Reporter.
Joel Grossman suggested the Entertainment Law Section (ELS) circulate the program flyer to the ADR Section members since a portion of the program will address enforceable arbitration clauses in personal management contracts. Joe will draft a short paragraph describing that portion of the program and its relevancy for ADR Section members and, in accordance with BHBA protocol, Marissa will contact ADR Chair Michael White for his approval concerning said circulation of the flyer.

Led by Marissa, Gordon Firemark, and Marc Staenberg, the Ex Comm segued into a discussion about ELS programs in general, emphasizing that program chairs should forward a brief description of the program to Pamela Weston as soon as possible for preliminary promotion of the program. Program chairs should strive to confirm the panelists and program details to Pamela Weston no later than the week following the Ex Comm meeting that takes place the month prior to the month in which the program is scheduled (i.e., at least 7 weeks prior to the event), so that the BHBA can draft and circulate the program flyer. Additionally, at least 90 days prior to the scheduled program, the program chair should email a short description of the program to Pamela Weston for posting on the BHBA and West calendars to begin promotion of the program. Written materials and speaker release forms must be provided to Pam at least 1 week prior to the program. Marc also reminded the Ex Comm that, at the start of the programs, there should be promotion of the next month’s program.
Further, in the future, the goal will be to forward program information to all section chairs for notice and a comment period to avoid conflicts. Marc stressed the importance of receiving the program information well in advance. Gordon mentioned that there will be a “forms” link on the BHBA Web site, and it will include a checklist for implementing upcoming programs.

MARCH 15, 2006
Pamela Forster is organizing the March program, which will address drafting collaboration agreements across the film, television, and music industries and ethical considerations. The program will emphasize issues that arise when collaboration agreements are terminated. The program will be a 1.5 hour program and will provide 1 hour of ethics credit. Vincent Waldman, former longtime Partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, is a confirmed panelist. Two other speakers fell through due to scheduling conflicts. Pamela expects to finalize the other two panelists later this week. In the meantime, she will e-mail Pamela Weston a short description of the program for posting on the BHBA and West calendars to begin promotion of the program.

APRIL 19, 2006
Kia Kamran and Leigh Leshner are organizing the April program, the topic of which has been narrowed to “music” content providers in the context of deal-making and media convergence, addressing mobile phones and such issues as voice and ring tones, etc. Two panelists are confirmed: Gary Stiffelman and Tuhin Roy, leading digital media industry attorney and founder of the Digital Rights Agency (DRA). Kia and Leigh are looking for a moderator or, alternatively, Kia will moderate. Marissa asked Kia to e-mail Pamela Weston a short description of the program for preliminary promotion of the program.

Next, Susan Pollyea began a discussion on what she views as the continued overlap of the ELS and IP section program topics, including the April program, and the issue of IP Section co-sponsorship. There was some difference of opinion amongst the Ex Comm members as to whether or not the April program topic was a crossover IP topic, given that the program will address the nuts and bolts of deal-making. Further, there was mention that entertainment law is a sub-area of IP so overlap can be expected, particularly in light of everything in entertainment being digital now. The issue raised was whether the ELS should always be expected to co-sponsor such events with the IP section? Although the issue was not resolved, the Ex Comm agreed that the IP Section will co-sponsor the April and June “Rights of Publicity” programs on a non-revenue sharing basis. It was also agreed that the chairs of the ELS and IP sections would set up a meeting with Marc Staenberg to figure out how to better coordinate their respective programs.

MAY 17, 2006
Gordon Firemark and Joel Grossman are organizing the May program, which will address the "Friends" TV show sexual harassment case pending in the CA Supreme Court. The Labor and Employment Law Section will co-sponsor the event. Confirmed panelists are Nathan Goldberg (Plaintiff side) and Adam Levin (Defense side). Joel provided an update on the pending case: Oral arguments will be heard on February 14, 2006. Joel pointed out that the CA Supreme Court may or may not render a decision by the May 17, 2006 program date. There was mention of TV clips being shown at the program. Joel and Gordon will ensure that such clips are cleared.

JUNE 21, 2006
Susan Rabin and Judith Dornstein are organizing the June program, which will address an update on the rights of publicity. Panelists confirmed are: Jerry McWilliams, Warner Brothers; Lawrence Heller (Defense side); and Thomas White, a consultant/expert witness who represents the estates of celebrities. Further details TBA.

JULY 19, 2006
David Bortman will organize the July program (with Helen Kang liaising), which 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. Further details TBD.

AUGUST 16, 2006
Greg Slewitt offered to organize a program on Branded Entertainment. Further details TBD.

FUTURE PROGRAMS
There was a brief discussion about other future programs, including a program addressing the definition of “producer” in light of the recent credit controversies surrounding the PGA and award nominated films.
Marissa suggested a program on the Guilds in the context of upcoming expirations of union contracts and the impact on the industry. She will find out exactly when the various contracts are scheduled to expire to strategize in determining when to schedule such a program.
Miles Feldman offered to organize an October program.
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FUTURE EX. COMM. MEETINGS

The March meeting will take place at 8:30 a.m. on March 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 9:42 A.M.

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