Associate Attorney Job Description

Why I Choose Entertainment Law

I have been working in entertainment law for well over 10 years now, specifically business and legal affairs for a variety of studios and smaller production companies. I've always liked film and TV so I figured I might as well combine my love of those two things with the business side of it and make a career out of it. Who knew?

How I got Here

After undergrad I started working at a law firm to see if I even wanted to make that my career. Then after experiencing that I went to law school knowing that I wanted to work in sports and entertainment law and focused my internships well in grad school in those fields. So when I graduated I was able to build one of those internships into my first role. 

Entertainment Law Job Requirements

Everyone thinks entertainment is all glitz and glamor, champion wishes, caviar dreams, but honestly once all that wears off, which there are a lot of perks and some fun experiences, it's just like any other corporate or business job that you're gonna have. Any attorney role you're gonna have to go to law school, pass your state bar, and not only that just be a hard worker and attention to detail. 

Paths to Get Into Entertainment Industry 

There's a few different paths working entertainment law. The most common usually is to start working at a law firm, working for a few years, gain experience, cut your teeth, and then you transfer in-house to a production company or studio. Another option is if you're going to agency route you'll start usually in the mailroom. Doesn't matter your degree, you have a master's, PhD doesn't matter, usually always start in the mailroom with the agencies and work your way up to assistant, junior roles, etc. You could try and go the in-house route where you go straight to a production company or studio. This is a lot harder to do and you'll 99% of the time never start as an attorney right away coming out of law school with those companies, but you will start as a junior role and work your way up, which is what I did, and you gain a lot of experience that way. 

Non Attorney Route to Legal Affairs

If you want to be an attorney you have to go to law school, there's really no way around that. But to work in business and legal affairs you don't necessarily need a law degree, you have a business degree, you just have experience in other fields and transfer that over. Business and legal affairs really transfers from different industries and companies and situations you've met before. You don't have to just work and entertain the law to understand it. It helps, but there are definitely easy different ways to get into business and legal affairs.