Brooks Kraft LLC/Corbis via Getty Images
Langdell Hall Library on the campus of Harvard Law School, where law students offer music clients pro bono advice on topics from copyrights to contracts.
Behind the success of every hitmaker are the lawyers, fielding the deliberations, deals and disputes that are a constant part of today’s music business.
While attorneys have always been important to artists and music companies, new business models, from brand licensing to streaming, have only increased the need for legal expertise. The scope of that expertise is also wider than ever, moving beyond issues of contract law to questions of intellectual property in the digital age.
At which law schools do the top music lawyers gain that expertise? These 10 stand out as the alma maters of the majority of the music industry’s most accomplished attorneys.
HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
Cambridge, Mass.
For the past two decades, aspiring attorneys at Harvard Law School have offered pro bono legal advice to young musicians, producers and other music professionals through the student-run Recording Artists Project. RAP has an affiliation with Boston’s Berklee College of Music and offers its students guidance on matters from contracts to copyrights. Among those who have benefited is Berklee alumna Esperanza Spalding.
Alumnus: Horacio Gutierrez, general counsel, Spotify
Filed in: In the News, Pro Bono
Contact Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs
Website:
hls.harvard.edu/clinics
Email:
clinical@law.harvard.edu