Minutes of the March 1, 2006 Meeting of the Entertainment Section Executive Committee

In attendance:

Dave Bortman davesq@earthlink.net 
Judith Dornstein jdornstein@adelphia.net  / Judith@dornsteinlaw.com
Miles Feldman miles@brownewoods.com
Pamela Forster pamelaforster@earthlink.net
Jason Gross jasgross@gmail.com 
Joel Grossman joel@grossmanmediation.com
Eric Harbert ericharbert@yahoo.com
Kia Kamran kia@tunelaw.com
Leigh Leshner venturepub@aol.com
Susan Rabin srabin@spattorney.com
Caroline Raufi craufi@stroock.com
Marissa Román mroman@akingump.com
Joe Schleimer schleimerlaw@msn.com
Adam Siegler@sieglerlaw.com
Mark Staenberg mstaenberg@bhba.org
Greg Young g.young@sternbergleon.com

The meeting was CALLED TO ORDER at approximately 8:40 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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PRELIMINARY/ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
Marissa Román began the meeting by praising the February Program, which addressed artist/talent/manager representation issues, including a discussion about the controversies surrounding the agent/manager/ attorney relationships and various cases. Many thanks to Joe Schleimer and Ken Freundlich for their firm's ad promotion of the program: four ads in the Hollywood Reporter. The program was a success with approximately 130 persons in attendance.

Next, the Ex Comm discussed the upcoming Fall Southwestern Law School/Beverly Hills Bar Association joint Entertainment Law Symposium. This will be the second such collaborative effort, the first having been the November 2005 “Entertainment Without Borders: Practicing Entertainment Law in a Global Environment,” which was a success. Marc asked for three Ex Comm members to join the planning committee for the program; Eric Harbert, Caroline Raufi, and Pamela Forster volunteered to participate on the planning committee. The date of the program TBD. The first planning committee meeting will be held on March 14 at 8:30 am in the Beverly Hills Bar Association (BHBA) Conference Room.

ENTERTAINMENT LAWYER OF THE YEAR EVENT
Next, Ex Comm members discussed the upcoming Entertainment Lawyer of the Year (ELOY) event honoring Kenneth Ziffren, which will be held on Thursday, April 27, 2006, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Marissa announced that the BHBA would be mailing formal invitations to the event next week: six weeks prior to the event.
Jay Leno is confirmed as Master of Ceremonies of the ELOY event. Ellen Ziffren will be producing the ELOY “tribute” video for the event.
There have already been sales, with MGM purchasing a Gold Sponsorship and ICM purchasing the back cover of the Tribute Book.
Judith Dornstein will contact Ilsa Jouette regarding her and Susan Rabin's assistance with phone calls regarding promotion of the ELOY event.
* * *
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Next, Ex Comm members discussed upcoming programs.

MARCH 15, 2006
Pamela Forster is organizing the March program, a 1.5 hour program that will address collaboration agreements and ethical considerations, with an emphasis on issues that arise when collaboration agreements are terminated. There will be 1 hour of ethics credit. Confirmed speakers are: Vincent Waldman, former longtime Partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips; Stephen Saltzman, Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP, and Lisa Nitti, Greenberg Traurig. Pamela will moderate the program.

APRIL 19, 2006
Kia Kamran and Leigh Leshner are organizing the April program, "Digital Delivery of Music," which will address music content providers in the context of deal-making and media convergence. The IP Section will co-sponsor (on a non-revenue sharing basis) the program. The Panelists will include Gary Stiffelman and Tuhin Roy, leading digital media industry attorney and founder of the Digital Rights Agency (DRA). Kia will check with Cole Sternberg regarding NARAS / Grammy Foundation Entertainment Law initiative sponsorship of the program.

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 (on a non-revenue sharing basis) the program. Confirmed panelists are Nathan Goldberg (Plaintiff side) and Adam Levin (Defense side). Joel provided a further update on the pending case: Oral arguments were heard on February 14, 2006. The CA Supreme Court should render its opinion 90 days from February 14, the timing of which would likely benefit the program. Adam Levin will give a PowerPoint presentation; and there will be TV clips shown at the program, which have been cleared for use.
Marissa reminded Joel to give Pam Weston and Yuri Motruk advance notice of the use of PowerPoint at the program.

JUNE 21, 2006
Susan Rabin and Judith Dornstein are organizing the June program, which will address an update on the rights of publicity. The IP Section will co-sponsor (on a non-revenue sharing basis) the program. Confirmed panelists are: Jeremy Williams, Warner Brothers; Lawrence Heller (Defense side); Thomas White, a consultant/expert witness who represents the estates of celebrities; and Bela Lugosi, Jr. of O’Brien Zarian. Susan will moderate the program.

JULY 19, 2006
David Bortman will organize the July program. Helen Kang will not be liaising since she has taken an attorney position in San Francisco. Miles Feldman offered to co-chair the program with David. The program 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. David Freeman, The Freeman Group, Game Designer/Writer Consultant will be a panelist. His bio includes working or having worked as a designer and/or writer on games for Sony, Activision, Ubisoft, Atari, Microsoft, Vivendi Universal Games, and others. David Bortman will secure a lawyer and someone from Electronic Arts to speak on the panel. George Rose, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Activision, was suggested as a possible speaker to target. David will be inviting Robert Dowling of the Hollywood Reporter to moderate the program. Further program details TBD.

AUGUST 16, 2006
Greg Slewitt will organize a program on Branded Entertainment. A brief discussion ensued, led by Joel Grossman, about the Jerry McGuire film product placement debacle and lawsuit that followed: Reebok v. Tristar, a prime example and good topic for discussion about a product placement deal "gone south." Reebok claimed breach of its product placement deal to promote its products in Jerry Maguire. The premise of the lawsuit: A positive Reebok commercial was supposed to have been part of the film's ending. Instead, the filmmakers included a disparaging reference to Reebok. Further program details TBD.

SEPTEMBER 2006
Joe Schleimer will organize the September program on the nuts and bolts of entertainment litigation for non-litigators, which will include a discussion about the use of investigators. Marissa suggested a co-sponsorship with the Litigation Section. Further program details TBD.

OCTOBER 2006
Miles Feldman will organize the October program. Topic and further details TBD.
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CLOSING COMMENTS
Next, Kia suggested the BHBA consider selling blocks of tickets to its programs. Marissa said she'd discuss the matter further with Marc Staenberg, but pointed out that if you commit to a certain number of CLE programs, you will receive a discount.
Marissa introduced a new guest, Greg Young, a talent entertainment attorney, primarily working in music but expanding into the film and television areas.
Marissa reminded the Ex Comm members to purchase a ticket for the ELOY event.
* * *
FUTURE EX. COMM. MEETINGS
The April meeting will take place at 8:30 a.m. on April 5, 2006 (on the regular meeting date of the first Wednesday of the month).
* * *
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting ADJOURNED at approximately 9:28 A.M.