Movie studio execs to speak at Tulane entertainment law conference
Some of the biggest names in the entertainment business will explore the future of film and television among other topics Friday, April 6, as part of an entertainment and sports law conference at Tulane Law School.
Titled Geaux Create: Disruption, Continuity and the Role of Law in Creativity, the conference will feature a keynote discussion between Sanford Panitch, president of Columbia Pictures and a 1989 graduate of Tulane University, and Jeff Frost, president of Sony Pictures Television Studios and a 1989 graduate of Tulane Law School.
The conference, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., followed by a reception, at Wendell H. Gauthier Moot Court Room 110, John Giffen Weinmann Hall, 6329 Freret St.
“It’s an important moment where we see new business models, user-generated content and preservation efforts all working across film, television, sports, music and other creative disciplines."
Elizabeth Townsend-Gard, Jill. H and Avram A. Glazer Professor in Social Entrepreneurship
“We’re excited to bring some of the most influential figures in the entertainment industry to Tulane to discuss the dynamic changes reshaping sports, media and entertainment,” said David Meyer, dean of Tulane Law. “New Orleans has long been an engine of creativity in music, art, film, and entertainment broadly, and it’s fitting that this important conversation should take place here.”
The conference will explore powerful forces disrupting and remaking the industry, from new technologies and distribution channels to virtual reality and a melding of sports, media, and entertainment content.
In addition, Kevin Yorn, a founding partner of Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner & Gellman in Los Angeles and a 1990 graduate of Tulane Law, will lead an informal lunch discussion on the role of talent. Yorn’s firm represents such celebrities as Ellen DeGeneres, Zoe Saldana, Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Zach Galifianakis.
Other speakers include executives from Amazon Studios, Fox Networks, Showtime, Microsoft, PlayStation and Xbox, the National Football League and the World Wrestling Federation. They will discuss such areas of entertainment and intellectual property law as distribution, protection of creative content, copyright and patent law.
Tulane Law professors Gabe Feldman, director of the Tulane Sports Law Program, and Elizabeth Townsend-Gard, Jill. H and Avram A. Glazer Professor in Social Entrepreneurship and director of the Tulane Center for IP Law and Culture, and the Copyright Research Lab will serve as panel moderators.
