Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section

Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section

The New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section welcomes Section members and visitors. EASL Section’s more than 1,700 members represent varied interests, including some of the sexiest issues grabbing headlines being debated in Congress and being heard by the courts. The EASL Section provides substantive case law, forums for discussion and debate and information-sharing in the EASL e-community.

The section has a large, active and diverse membership, with lawyers occupying every corner of the entertainment, art and sports law fields, at every level, from law students and first-year attorneys to senior partners at leading national and international firms and senior legal and business affairs executives at multinational media corporations. While the majority of our members are located in New York City and around the state, we also have members in 28 other states and 20 countries, notably in Canada, China, most European countries and the UK, Japan, Korea and throughout the Pacific Rim.

The section is comprised of 28 committees, chaired by the members of the Executive Committee—all leading entertainment, art and sports law practitioners—and each committee hosts frequent, outstanding, and frequently oversubscribed CLE programs.

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Contact the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section Liaison

To learn more about this Section, please contact Sharmin Woodall
[email protected]
(518) 487-5686

Please do not contact the Section liaison with a request for legal advice or an attorney referral. You can instead visit our ‘Public Resources’ or ‘Lawyer Referral Service’ page for this type of request.

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Ethan Bordman

Ethan Bordman is the Chair of the Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section (EASL) of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA).

Ethan Bordman is an entertainment attorney who represents Emmy® award winning producers and directors, screenwriters, actors and authors. Before starting his practice, he was an Assistant Executive Director with AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). At AFTRA, Ethan worked on projects with networks including ABC, CBS, FOX, TNT, Canadian Television and Lifetime Networks.

Ethan has been active with the NYSBA and EASL since becoming a member, holding several positions. He has served as First Vice-Chairperson (2020-2022) and Secretary (2018-2020) of EASL’s Executive Committee. He most recently served as Co-Chair of the NYSBA EASL Cowan-Bresler Scholarship Committee, (2020-2022) which gives law students the opportunity to earn scholarships by writing about issues in entertainment, arts, sports law and related areas. He has also served as Co-Chair of EASL’s Motion Pictures Committee (2016-2022) and Co-Chair of EASL’s Membership Committee (2012-2013). He encourages EASL members to become active with the section.

Online Community

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Section Publications

Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal – Vol. 34 No. 2

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EASL Journal Archive

Diverse opinions contribute to the vitality of the law, and for every topic there are many issues to be addressed. The Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal is a forum for ideas and a repository for legal analyses and theories. The EASL Journal presents topics that EASL attorneys address on a daily basis, and provides comprehensive overviews of both large issues that affect a majority of the EASL Section membership and analyses of more specific issues that affect only a few. In addition to contributions from practicing attorneys, the EASL Journal accepts articles from laypersons involved with issues that affect many in the EASL fields. Edited by Elissa D. Hecker, Esq., the EASL Journal is published three times a year by the Entertainment, Art and Sports Law Section and distributed to Section members free of charge.

The EASL Journal is published as a benefit for members of the Entertainment, Art and Sports Law Section and is copyrighted by the New York State Bar Association.

The Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal encourages article submissions on topics of interest to members of the Section. Writing an article for a NYSBA Section publication is a great way to get your name out in the legal community and advertise your knowledge. Our authors are respected state-wide for their legal expertise in such areas as copyright law, protection and infringement; orphan works; music publishing; estate planning for art collectors; and celebrity contracts.

Submit an article for future publication

Author Guidelines

NYSBA has created comprehensive author guidelines, with information regarding our reprint policy, style guidelines, and obtaining MCLE Author Credits.

View the author guidelines

Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section Committee

Scholarships

Law students, take note of this publishing and scholarship opportunity: The Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section of the New York State Bar Association (EASL)’s Phil Cowan – Judith Bresler Memorial Scholarship, named after two esteemed former EASL Chairs, offers up to two awards of $2,500 each on an annual basis in Phil Cowan’s and Judith Bresler’s memories to law students who are committed to a practice concentrating in one or more areas of entertainment, art or sports law.

Learn more about the The Phil Cowan – Judith Bresler Memorial Scholarship

Mentorship Program

The NYSBA Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law section is launching its Mentor Program in October 2022 to help the future generations of attorneys in the entertainment and sports industries. The program’s goal is to provide mentees with the opportunity to gain knowledge from experienced attorneys.

Learn more about the EASL Mentoring Program

Program Archive

2017 Music Business and Law Conference

Law Resources

Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section Blog

NEWS SOURCES

New York Law Journal

LEGAL RESEARCH

Berne Convention
Find Law Legal Subjects: Intellectual Property
Legal Information Institute (Law About Intellectual Property)
UDRP Opinion Guide (Harvard Law School’s Searchable Database of Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy Decisions)
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
Stanford Law Library Copyright and Fair Use Index (Fair Use Resource)
U.S. Supreme Court

GOVERNMENTAL SOURCES

Federal Communications Commission (Regulation of Interstate and International Communications by Radio, Television, Wire, Satellite and Cable)
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Domain Name Issues)
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (The Executive Branch’s Principal Voice on Domestic and International Telecommunications and Information Technology Issues)
United States Copyright Office (Procedures, forms, statutes, forms and searches)
United States Department of Commerce
United States Patent and Trademark Office
World Intellectual Property Organization

JOURNALS

INDUSTRY CONTACTS

ABA Intellectual Property Law Section (Review of Recent IP Law and Analysis)
Actors’ Equity
American Federation of Musicians of the U.S. and Canada (Labor Union)
ASCAP (Performance Rights Society)
Association of American Publishers (Trade Association of the Book Publishing Industry)
The Authors Guild (Society of Published Authors)
BMI (Performance Rights Society)
Copyright Clearance Center
Copyright Society of the USA
Dramatists Guild of America
Graphic Artists Guild
National Endowment for the Arts
National Music Publishers’ Association, Inc. (Trade Association for U.S. Music Publishers)
Ocean State Lawyers for the Arts
Screen Actors Guild
SESAC (Performance Rights Society)
The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (Information Source, Clearing House and Monitoring)
The Recording Industry Association of America
The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers

Law Student Resources

How Can The Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section Benefit Me?

For students the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section can provide a terrific opportunity for students to become well-versed in the legal issues facing the entertainment and sports industries. Section events can provide unique opportunities for students to network and be introduced to potential employers. The Section’s Law Student initiative giving law students a chance to publish articles both in the EASL Journal as well as on the EASL Web site. Click Below to learn more about what EASL has to offer.

Law Student Initiative

The Phil Cowan Memorial Scholarship