ESLS Culture Week: Alison Lima

On Tuesday, we had the honor of having Alison Lima, Head of Business and Legal Affairs at DreamWorks Animation, speak to us at lunch. It was especially nice to have her speak as Ms. Lima is a '96 grad of King Hall. She mentioned that when she went here, not only did the school have a newspaper, but she wrote snarky TV reviews of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place. Anyone want to resurrect this? Because I am definitely on board.

Some of you may remember reading about Ms. Lima in the UC Davis magazine sent out last Christmas.  Here is a pdf version of the magazine, her feature occurs on page 26, and is a great read

https://www.law.ucdavis.edu/publications-broadcasts/files/Counselor-2013.pdf

Her presentation began with an introduction to DreamWorks Animation. First, we watched a sizzle reel celebrating their 20th anniversary. It included clips from all 28 features they've made to date. I didn't even realize DreamWorks did "Chicken Run" until seeing it. She has been at the company for 14 years, so she has been involved with a great deal of their films.  Ms. Lima also mentioned that Dreamworks has been on the list of Top 100 Places to Work for the past 5 years, and after hearing her presentation, we can all see why.

Ms. Lima then discussed her path to DreamWorks. While working at a firm, she was assigned to a case involving a dispute between Jeffrey Katzenberg and Walt Disney Company. She said that over the 2 years she worked on that case, she came to realize that a) she didn't like litigation, and b) that she really liked the people at DreamWorks. She took one of the employees out for lunch, and asked for a job. Thankfully, a position opened up, and she went to work for them.  Early on the job, her superior quit, leaving her with all of the responsibility and relatively little experience in studio contracts. After having to take over, someone told her to pay attention to four things in a contract: 1) No injunctive relief, 2) Insurance clause, 3) Indemnity clause, and 4) Works for Hire/ownership language.

Next, she gave us a little Studio 101.  She discussed the differences between business and legal affairs at most studios. Business affairs are generally the deal-makers. They negotiate deal points: how to pay, who is being paid on the back-end, material terms with talent, etc. Legal affairs, on the other hand, draft the long form agreements, serve as production counsel, and are responsible for contract compliance. She said that the best attorneys in business affairs once worked in legal affairs, because legal affairs deal with very fine details.

She also gave general advice for students. She emphasized that you should always behave like you are interviewing for your dream job. She discussed the importance of firm experience, good grades, understanding of contracts, and not giving up if you are initially passed over for a position.

Ms. Lima concluded her presentation by talking about some of her proudest franchise deals. First, she discussed How to Train Your Dragon. DreamWorks initially only purchased the motion picture rights for the first book, but before the film was released, the studio bough the rights to the entire thirteen-book series. Due to this, they were able to create a franchise, complete with viking ship displays in Wal-Marts, and two seasons of a TV show that is meant to bridge the time between the two films. Ms. Lima also talked about buying the copyright in Troll dolls, which are soon to be known as DreamWorks' Trolls. And she ended with the preview for the upcoming film, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, which she helped negotiate the deal for over 8 years ago. You can check it out here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy6oD7BZw50.

Ms. Lima continued what has been an excellent culture week for ESLS. We wanted to thank her again for coming back to Davis and speaking to us.

ESLS Culture Week: Woodie Dixon

This week is ESLS's culture week, and we have three phenomenal speakers lined up at lunch, so if you missed today, be sure to come Tuesday and Wednesday.

Our first speaker was Woodie Dixon, the General Counsel for the Pac-12 Conference. Mr. Dixon spoke at our culture week in the Fall of 2011, which was just after the Pac-10 added Colorado and Utah and became the Pac-12. It was also the year the Pac-12 launched their network. As you can imagine, it was a great event and incredibly topical. Mr. Dixon is an amazing speaker, and this year is no exception.

After giving us a brief biography of how he came to become a lawyer in sports and entertainment (hint: work out at a gym with potential future athletes/models/actors), he spoke about three topics of current relevance to NCAA football.

<Disclaimer-- Mr. Dixon was clear before beginning his discussion, that his talk reflected solely his own personal views and opinions, not the views or opinions of the Pac-12 conference, nor the NCAA>

 

First, he discussed the ramifications of Warren Buffet's offer of a 1 billion dollar prize for a perfect March Madness bracket. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/01/21/warren-buffett-offers-1-billion-for-perfect-march-madness-bracket/) Aside from the potential issue with student athletes partaking in this contest through family members, friends, or significant others, and potential sponsorship issues for the NCAA, the main problem with this prize is the risk of fixing games. Mr. Dixon discussed how this prize, being $1 billion, presents a huge incentive to insure you get a perfect bracket. Essentially, with a prize that huge, it is very easy to pay people large sums of money to ensure the contest is won. This problem is amplified after the first round of games are played, as there will only be a handful of people left with perfect brackets. As one can imagine, at that point there is significant temptation to make sure the bracket plays out the way it was picked.

Second, Mr. Dixon spoke about pay-for-play for college student athletes. He mentioned the EA class action lawsuit involving using student athlete likenesses in video games. EA ultimately settled paying each athlete roughly $135. He questioned whether the student athletes really wanted this, or whether they'd prefer to be in a video game.  Mr. Dixon also spoke about O'Bannon v. NCAA and Northwestern unionization case. (Here's a link to an update on the O'Bannon suit http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/02/ed_obannon_lawsuit_update_ncaa.html) He questioned whether pay for play is really what the athletes want, and also how Title 9 may be affected if student athletes were paid.

Lastly, he spoke about the issues concerning concussions primarily as they occur in football. In discussing this, he spoke about how the burden in an assumption of risk determination may be changing, as evidenced by the recent NFL payout. In a nice review for all of us who are well-removed from torts, he discussed the elements of assumption of risk, focusing on whether certain risks are inherent to the sport, and whether a participant must be as informed as the D in what exactly are the potential risks.

Ultimately, it was a great way to start off our culture week. We wanted to thank Mr. Dixon for coming to speak to us again, and we hope to have him back in the future.

Sacramento Kings Game

Well it has been a semester or so since I lasted posted on this blog, but we’re back! And rest assured, this spring, ESLS has a lot of exciting activities planned. This first post is dedicated to our annual tradition of attending a Kings game. Last year, we were unsure of whether they would stay in Sacramento, but thankfully they did. On Friday, January 24^th,  the Kings played the Pacers, and against all odds (the Kings are rounding out the bottom of the Western conference, while the Pacers lead the Eastern), the game went into overtime! Unfortunately, the Kings lost 111-116. But the game was really exciting, and if not for an ill-timed foul on a 3 point shot in the final seconds of the 4^th quarter, the Kings would’ve won. Scroll down for photos from the event!

Most important to ESLS; however, is just how many people came out to attend the game. We tripled our numbers from previous years! So thank you to everyone who came out and supported our organization, we hope to see you all next year. Lastly, we wanted to thank Jen for getting us onto the court again this year (I’ve posted the bigger photos below so everyone can see themselves, even though the spacing is off).

Kings-Suns Game Pic

Hey guys! Hope everyone is enjoying their summers. I just wanted to update the blog with the picture of our group on the court at the Kings-Suns game back in March. The Kings are here to stay, so make sure to come to our event next year! Another big thanks to everyone who came out. 

Culture Week Recap

Welcome back from Spring Break everyone! We wanted to thank everyone who came out to our culture week events the week before spring break, it was a big success.

On Monday, we had two events. First, at lunch, James Rothbart spoke to us about working his way up from the mail room to an assistant for an agent at UTA. He is currently the Director of Business and Legal Affairs at Twentieth Television. He shared some amazing stories with us, many sounded right out of an Entourage script! Mr. Rothbart ultimately told us that working in the entertainment business require a lot of hard work and dedication-- as is clear from his choice to work in the mail room after leaving his job in litigation. His talk was a great start to the week!

Second, on Monday we also had a screening of a documentary from the Freedom Writers Foundation about the true story of their time at Wilson High School in Long Beach. Erin Gruwell came to King Hall to show us a rough cut of the documentary, "Stories from an Undeclared War." Ms. Gruwell and her students wrote a book called "The Freedom Writers Diary" which is a compilation of her students' stories written as journal entries. The book became a bestseller, and inspired the movie starring Hilary Swank, "Freedom Writers." If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, check them out, it is a really inspiring story! The documentary was composed of actual footage of the student in their classroom and writing the journals that eventually became a part of the book. The Foundation is hoping to get the film out to festivals soon, so keep an eye out for the new documentary.

On Wednesday, we had USC law professor Lance Grode talk about how to make yourself a better candidate for a job in entertainment law. Mr. Grode had a lot of valuable advice in how to approach an interview (hint: anticipate questions and know how to differentiate yourself from the other candidates). He made some great points about being informed as to what is going on in the industry you want to be a part of, whether that be film, TV, music, or intellectual property, etc. Since Mr. Grode has significant experience in music law and entertainment in general, he told us we should read the "weeklies"-- even just the headlines-- to become more versed in current developments. These include: The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, The Wrap, and Variety.

Lastly, on Thursday, we had Russell Naymark come to talk about IP issues as they relate to the entertainment industry. Mr. Naymark worked at SAG (Screen Actors Guild) for several years on union issues.  He talked about how new platforms for viewing (such as online content providers like Hulu) affected the way networks looked at their programs. It was a significant issue for actors as well, as to how they would be given residuals.  Mr. Naymark also talked about how copyright infringement and illegal downloading is being combated by the unions.

As you can see, we had an awesome culture week! Thanks again to everyone who came out. We hope to see you on Sunday, April 7th for the Dr. Ives Basketball Tournament.

Sacramento Kings Game

On March 8th, ESLS went to the Sacramento Kings-Phoenix Suns game for a close game between the two western conference teams. In the end, the Kings edged out the Suns for a win of 121-112.

We took over a few rows in our section. Sammy was the lone Suns fan. Joel and DJ were really into the wave. And thanks to Jen, we were able to get a photo on the court at the end of the game!

We wanted to thank everyone who came out for the game! We had so much fun and look forward to going to another game next year (provided the Kings stay in Sacramento).

Come to the Kings-Suns Game!

We're doing another ESLS sponsored Kings game! Come out and support the hometown Sacramento Kings play the Phoenix Suns, in what should be an interesting game-- considering they are rounding out the bottom two positions of the Western Conference.

A bunch of us have already bought tickets in Section 207, so we advise calling Michael Ramos at (916) 928-3634 and asking to sit in that section with ESLS so that all the law students can be relatively close to one another.

Hope to see you there!