The May meeting took place on Wednesday, May 3, in the BHBA Boardroom.
The meeting minutes are set forth below.

In attendance:

Matthew Belloni mbelloni@hollywoodreporter.com
Dave Bortman davesq@earthlink.net 
Michael Cerrati mcerrati@gmail.com
Judith Dornstein jdornstein@adelphia.net 
Miles Feldman miles@brownewoods.com
Gordon Firemark gfiremark@firemark.com
Pamela Forster pamelaforster@earthlink.net
Joel Grossman joel@grossmanmediation.com
David Helfant david@helfantlaw.com
Nick Kurtz nkurtz@jrllp.com
Leigh Leshner venturepub@aol.com
Susan Pollyea susan.pollyea@sbcglobal.net
Susan Rabin srabin@spattorney.com
Caroline Raufi craufi@stroock.com
Marissa Román mroman@akingump.com
Joseph Schleimer schleimerlaw@msn.com 
Greg Slewitt gslewett@sheppardmullin.com
Mark Staenberg mstaenberg@bhba.org
Cole Sternberg coles@grammy.com

The meeting was CALLED TO ORDER at approximately 8:45 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 MATTERS
Marissa Román began the meeting by discussing the success of the Entertainment Lawyer of the Year (ELOY) event honoring Kenneth Ziffren, held on Thursday, April 27, 2006 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. ELOY attendance was strong; we are still awaiting the final count. Attendance on behalf of the Beverly Hills Bar Association (BHBA) and the Entertainment Law Section (ELS) Ex Comm was high. It was a successful event and Jay Leno was in top form.

Next, Leigh Leshner passed out invitations to the 18th Vintage Bouquet Charity Wine Auction hosted by the BHBA Barristers, and encouraged members to attend the event, which will be held at the Greystone Mansion on Sunday, May 7, 2006, from 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm.

Next, Marc Steinberg asked the Ex Comm members to review upcoming programs, including the next [May 17] program, for BHBA advertising in the Hollywood Reporter.
* * *
CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Next, Ex Comm members discussed upcoming programs.

MAY 17, 2006
Gordon Firemark and Joel Grossman are organizing the May program: "A Little Too Friendly: The “Friends” Sexual Harassment Case and What it Means for the Entertainment Business.” The Labor and Employment Law Section are co-sponsoring (on a non-revenue sharing basis) the program. Confirmed panelists are Nathan Goldberg (Plaintiff side) and Adam Levin (Defense side). Joel will moderate the program. Program flyer revisions are in progress, and circulation of the flyer is expected shortly. Joel informed the Ex Comm that the Supreme Court decided the case: 7 to 0 decision ruling in favor of the defendants. The decision will make for a very interesting program, with an emphasis on what now defines sexual harassment in the entertainment industry.

JUNE 21, 2006
Susan Rabin and Judith Dornstein are organizing the June program: "You May Already be Famous: Developments in Rights of Publicity." Speaking from the artist perspective and companies or studios using talent identities, the program will address the value of rights and how to manage these rights (whether the person is alive or deceased) and litigation issues, with Bela Lugosi, Jr. giving an overview of the law. It will be a good program for both litigation and transactional attorneys. 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. A draft of the program flyer has been forwarded to Pamela Weston. Susan will clear all audio/visual materials with Yuri Motruk.

JULY 19, 2006
David Bortman and Miles Feldman will organize the July program, 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. The Hollywood Reporter’s new publisher Tony Uphoff will moderate the program. Confirmed panelists are: David Freeman, The Freeman Group (Game Designer/Writer Consultant); Dan Offner, Managing Partner, Offner & Anderson; and Philippe Erwin, Collision Studios (leading developer of entertainment-based games across multiple platforms). A final panelist is TBD: a lawyer from Electronic Arts or Activision. The program title is TBD.
Miles indicated that they aspire to have audio-visuals (slides or screen shots from games), which he will be sure to coordinate with Yuri Motruk.

Michael Cerrati’s article on the program topic will be included in the program materials. Michael and Vanderbilt Law School will provide signed releases for article re-print permission.
In order to adequately promote the program, Marissa reminded David and Miles to e-mail the list of panelists, program title, and brief program description to Pamela Weston in the next two weeks, and conform copy (cc) Marissa, Caroline, and Pamela F.

AUGUST 9, 2006
Greg Slewitt will organize a program on Branded Entertainment. Shaun Clark, a partner in the Entertainment and Media Practice Group at Sheppard Mullin, will moderate. Jordan Yospe (former counsel to Mark Burnett Productions) is a confirmed panelist. Other panelists and 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 private investigators. Joe approached the Litigation Section about program co-sponsorship. Panelists and further program details TBD.

OCTOBER 2006
Miles Feldman will organize the October program. The Ex Comm discussed potential topics, including a follow-up program to the September program, a broad copyright oriented program, perhaps encompassing DMCA and compulsory licensing. The Ex Comm decided a follow-up program to the September program be scheduled sometime in 2007. Program topic and further details TBD.
* * *
CLOSING MATTERS:

Coordination of IP Section Topics with the ELS
Next, the Ex Comm discussed the coordination of IP section topics with the ELS. Susan Pollyea suggested a co-sponsorship on a program addressing IP issues in the Porn industry in the context of quirky trademark and copyright issues, Internet/mail considerations. The panel discussion would include the Perfect 10 and Thumbnail cases. In terms of co-sponsorship, Marissa expressed concern about the timing of such a program since any overlap with an ELS program could impact the ELS program attendance. As a result, she suggested it be IP related to gear it toward an IP audience and that there be a two-week buffer between programs.

USC Law School/Beverly Hills Bar Association Joint Entertainment Law Symposium
Next, Judith gave the Ex Comm an update on the BHBA/USC Symposium to be held on September 9, 2006. This year's symposium will cover a range of topics with a focus on new media and new technology and how to maximize revenue from new media, and will include a discussion of Guild topics. Ethics and litigation panels will also be included. Judith expects that the symposium panels will finalized during the next planning committee meeting.

Southwestern Law School/Beverly Hills Bar Association Joint Entertainment Law Symposium
Next, Caroline gave a brief update on the upcoming Southwestern Law School/Beverly Hills Bar Association joint Entertainment Law Symposium to be held in mid-April 2007 - exact date TBD. The planning committee had their second meeting at the end of April to discuss (a) the panel topics in greater detail and (b) potential panelists. The participants from Southwestern Law School are David Kohler and Lon Sobel. The program topics have an international theme and will address the global marketplace; talent immigration and tax issues in the global market; and new technologies. The next meeting will take place the end of June.
* * *
FUTURE EX. COMM. MEETINGS
The June meeting will be held at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 7, 2006, the regular meeting date of the first Wednesday of the month.

Reminder re Summer Ex Comm Meetings
The July Ex Comm meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 12, in light of the July 4 holiday the previous week.
There will be no August Ex Comm meeting.

The September Ex Comm meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 6, the regular meeting date of the first Wednesday of the month.
* * *
There being no further business to discuss, the meeting ADJOURNED at approximately 9:45 a.m.