Author Archive | ahorn

Recording Artists Project: the foundation to my success at HLS

[Originally published October, 25, 2017 on the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs blog]

By Jennifer Marr J.D. ’18

Group photo of RAP students

My participation in the Recording Artists Project (RAP) has been my most important experience at Harvard law School. In fact, it was one of the reasons I came here in the first place. I had a fledgling interest in the music industry and RAP offered a hands-on opportunity to explore that interest while helping real industry clients. I have always felt music is a foundation of our culture and artists are accordingly vital stewards to protect. Moreover, it’s one of the only Student Practice Organizations at HLS with a practical focus on transactional legal training – hard to find in a law school classroom.

My first client was a musician seeking to release a multi-artist album on his newly founded label. My team and I drafted a form agreement that our client used to license the works from each of the album artists. My second semester at HLS we represented a band that was breaking up. Based on a pre-existing band agreement, we drafted a memo advising the members of their various rights with regards to their discography. Both semesters, I was a Team Leader where I acted as liaison between my team, the client and our supervising attorney. My responsibilities also included setting deadlines and discussing progress with our supervisor – it was a wonderful opportunity to practice client communication.

Jennifer Marr J.D. ’18

Through RAP I’ve gained skills and knowledge in three major areas: 1) entertainment/music industry norms; 2) transactional legal practice; and 3) project management. First, RAP trains its students in the complex business structures that make up the music industry and its key actors. Working with my clients showed me firsthand how different industry actors work together and how important their roles are; and furthermore how actors might take advantage of each other. Second, I learned how to read a contract and understand the relevance of “boiler plate terms” to real transactions – something which proved valuable in my 1L and 2L summers. Last, I gained practical skills related to project management including setting timelines, managing group dynamics, and client communication.

I expected RAP to be a fun way to learn about the music industry, get some transactional experience, and fulfill my pro bono hours. I was surprised that instead it became the foundation of my success at HLS. My second year I became the President of RAP – an invaluable lesson in leadership. RAP is the reason I secured my dream internship at Sony Music my 1L summer in New York City, and gave me the confidence to accept an offer to practice transactional entertainment law in Los Angeles after graduation. When my research paper on music copyright law won a UC Berkeley writing award this past Spring, I owed all my thanks to my RAP supervisor. More importantly, I have been surprised by the breadth of individuals RAP has helped, both directly through its clinical work and indirectly through its community work. Through activities like hosting the Boys and Girls Club of America on campus to organizing the Entertainment Law Symposium, I have had the privilege of making important lifelong connections. RAP is proof of the depth that work in entertainment law can offer.

TLC Client Tech Goes Home

Tech Goes Home is featured on Boston’s Fox25 News

Fox25 News Sept 12, 2017

BOSTON – A local non-profit is giving families in need a brand-new computer, internet access and training, all for less than the cost of a pair of sneakers.

The program is called tech Goes home, and co-Director Theodora Hanna says they’re expanding outside of Boston.

“Technology is changing faster and faster and that means if you don’t have access to it, you are getting left behind at a faster and faster pace,” she said.

Computers are a necessity, but thousands of families in the greater Boston area can’t afford one. According to Hanna, Boston has the highest level of income inequality.

“Technology is a huge barrier for folks who are caught in a cycle of poverty. Because how do you find a job if you don’t know how to write a resume? If you don’t have a computer to write it on?” she said.

It’s a reality Tech Goes Home wants to change. Program volunteers teach families how to use a computer and the internet. Then, once they complete a 15-hour course, the family has the option of buying a new computer with internet for $50.

“We start with age 3, we serve 3 to 93. Really, everyone needs the internet and needs help leveling the playing field a little bit,” Hanna said.

More than 300 students at McCormack Middle School in Boston have received Chromebooks through the program, and around 25,000 families in the Boston area have benefited.

“My parents? Yes, they got better at it, actually. My dad uses it to do his work for his company and my mom, she uses it to spell things out,” 7th grade student Jomar Baez said.

Now the program is expanding to surrounding cities.

“We have the vision of having all of greater Boston to be the first major metropolitan area in the US to have access to the digital tools that they need,” Hanna said.

HLS thinks bigger than ever

Faculty carry on annual tradition of sharing scholarship, shorthand

Originally publish by Harvard Law Today

June 8, 2017

Credit: Martha Stewart (from left) Bob Bordone, Christine Desan, Phil Heymann, Brian Price and Henry Smith joined the ranks of faculty who have shared their “big ideas” — in a small amount of time — at the annual “HLS Thinks Big” event.

Each May since 2011, Harvard Law School has presented “HLS Thinks Big,” a TED Talks-style event that invites faculty members to present a “big idea” in front of an audience of faculty, students and staff. While the big idea in question can be a distillation of some fully-formed scholarship, faculty members have also presented germs of ideas floated for the first time, hypotheticals up for discussion, and sometimes, topics that look at areas of interest at a more macro level. Whatever the subject, there is only one rule presenters are bound by: Each must deliver their talk in 10 minutes or less.

This year, the event, which is hosted annually by the Dean’s Office and the Office of Human Resources, featured talks by Clinical Professor Bob Bordone, director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program; Professor Christine Desan, co-founder of Harvard’s Program on the Study of Capitalism; Phil Heymann, James Barr Ames professor of law, emeritus; Brian Price, clinical professor of law and director of HLS’ Transactional Law Clinics; and Professor Henry Smith, director of the Project on the Foundations of Private Law.

From Desan’s talk, “The Dollar as a Democratic Medium,” which explored how society can “re-design” money to create “fairness in a world where inequality is escalating,” to Smith’s discussion of “Property as a Complex System,” which focused on the burgeoning field of complex systems in law, the speakers provided their listeners with a great deal of food for thought, guiding them through unfamiliar intellectual terrain, and truly embodying the spirit of the event, which, said Dean Martha Minow (who inaugurated the Thinks Big tradition at Harvard Law School), “underscor[es] the basic idea that learning really happens from many minds — people sharing ideas and actually moving across boundaries.”

Bob Bordone, “Building Conflict Capacity: It’s not just about problem-solving.”

Engagement need not be about finding a common ground, but simply being present in conflict.

Christine Desan, “The Dollar as a Democratic Medium: Making Money a Currency of Social Justice.”

Desan asks whether we can re-design money to deliver more fairness in a world where inequality is escalating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkBfdehthPI?feature=oembed

Philip Heymann, “Comey and Cox, Trump and Nixon.”

There’s much in the lawyer’s job that is never taught in law school, and what’s missing becomes apparent with a close look at major events prominently involving lawyers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxMsrVz7wI?feature=oembed%5D

Brian Price, “The Big and the Little.”

Community development as seen through the eyes of a transactional lawyer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5uYvt8jyEg?feature=oembed

Henry Smith, “Property as a Complex System.”

Reframing property law as a complex adaptive system, rather than just a “bundle of rights.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21p7Ff96ndc?feature=oembed

“My Clinic experience affirmed my desire to be a transactional attorney and helped prepare me for practice after graduation.”

[Original Posted on the Office of Clinical and Pro-Bono Programs Blog, March 27th, 2017]

MARCH 27, 2017

By Asheley Walker, J.D. ’17

Asheley Walker, J.D. '17

Asheley Walker, J.D. ’17

I enrolled in the Transactional Law Clinics primarily because I wanted practical legal experience. I came to law school knowing I wanted to be a transactional attorney, but few, if any, of my classes gave me much insight into what it would be like to practice transactional law. I also wanted to work directly with clients. I worked in sales for startups and larger technology companies before law school, and I missed regular interaction with clients, including learning about their businesses, identifying how I could create value for them, and becoming a trusted advisor, not just a salesperson.

My experience in the Clinic delivered on both of those points. Because the Clinic operates like a small law firm, I interacted with clients directly and managed my own caseload of four to five clients each semester. While the learning curve for substantive issues was steep at times, I enjoyed the challenge and received more than adequate support from the Clinic. I researched legal issues independently, bounced ideas off of other student advocates, and discussed conclusions and lingering questions with my supervising attorney to get feedback before presenting my findings to the client.

I worked on a wide range of transactional issues during my two semesters in the Clinic. I counseled clients in choosing the right entity form for their business and goals, formed for-profit and nonprofit LLCs and corporations, drafted bylaws, and educated clients as to their ongoing corporate formalities requirements. Unexpectedly, I became somewhat of an expert about the eligibility requirements and application process for tax-exempt status, and I plan to harness that knowledge and experience in the pro bono work I do going forward. I spent the majority of my time drafting contracts, including privacy policies, terms of service, service agreements, and commercial real estate leases. I discovered that I love the jigsaw puzzle-like nature of contract drafting: taking the individual pieces and figuring out how to put them together to make the final product look (or work) the way that I wanted it to.

The Clinic serves a diverse set of clients, and I had the opportunity to work with clients ranging from Harvard students running startups to members of the Boston community looking to start a small business or nonprofit. I found it incredibly rewarding to draw on both my professional experience and my legal education to help underserved populations address legal challenges, mitigate risk, and identify ways to achieve their goals. My Clinic experience affirmed my desire to be a transactional attorney and helped prepare me for practice after graduation.

Creating opportunities through the Community Enterprise Project

[Published March 29, 2016 on the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs Blog]

By Lauren Maynard, J.D. ’16

Lauren Maynard, J.D. ’16

I came to law school with a weak vision of what I wanted to do. Just like everyone else, I wanted to affect positive change in the world. The problem was, and to an extent continues to be, that I am not sure how to do that. In an effort to find an answer, I have taken a variety of public interest oriented classes and clinics. I learned a lot and did some important work in those, but nothing quite fit the bill. Now, through my work with the Community Enterprise Project (CEP) of the Transactional Law Clinics, I feel like I have found a starting point.

My goal in life is to help create opportunity for those who do not have a chance. I grew up in a region burdened with three major problems: low educational attainment, poverty, and high rates of drug abuse. I could focus my work on any of the three, but I thought the ideal solution is one that addresses them all. I believe this is possible through economic development; we can build a thriving economy that encourages educational attainment and curbs drug abuse.

CEP has provided me with a forum for thinking creatively about community development. For example, this semester we are hosting presentations to help worker cooperatives navigate their unique legal landscape. Local cooperatives are doing great work in their communities, and a growing number of entrepreneurs are looking to this model. It is exciting to see community members empowered to strengthen their economies from the ground up, and I’m glad that, through my work with CEP, I can help make the legal regulations more accessible to them. I am grateful that I got to work in this clinic, and that I finally found a basis on which to build my future career.

Steven Salcedo ’16 honored with ethics award

[Originally posted by Harvard Law Today, April 6, 2016]

Salcedo_Photo-200x300 Harvard Law School 3L Steven Salcedo is among 12 law students recognized by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC)-Northeast for “exemplary commitment to ethics in the course of their clinical studies.”

Salcedo was nominated for the award by Harvard Law School Lecturer on Law Amanda Kool, who supervised Salcedo during his more than three semesters of clinical work with the Transactional Law Clinic’s Community Enterprise Project. In her nomination letter, Kool praised Salcedo for his work drafting a guide for immigrant entrepreneurs and helping immigrant clients on issues related to their business ownership, tasks which raised complex ethical issues.

“Put simply, I’ve never met a student more committed to the ethical rules than Steven Salcedo,” wrote Kool in her nomination. “He is far from reckless, but neither is he afraid of blazing (calculated, well-researched) trails to the effective delivery of legal services to the most vulnerable of clients, using the ethical rules as his roadmap each step of the way.”

Salcedo jumped into clinical work through his participation in the Community Enterprise Project of the Transactional Law Clinics (CEP), which allows HLS students to help small business owners, entrepreneurs, and community groups create businesses, obtain permits and licenses, and negotiate contracts and other transactional (non-litigation) services. During his first semester with CEP, he and a fellow student proposed creating a legal resource for immigrant entrepreneurs and those who work with immigrant entrepreneurs. The project was accepted and Salcedo continued with the clinic for an additional semester to see the project to fruition as the project team leader. The first-of-its-kind guide, A Legal Overview of Business Ownership for Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Massachusetts, was published last fall.

As a result of his work on the publication, Salcedo built a reputation for expertise and decided to stay on for a third semester of clinical work with CEP to continue representing immigrant entrepreneur clients.

In a recent Harvard Gazette article on the CEP, Salcedo said, “Lawyers can’t make economic development happen by themselves, but we can contribute to help solve poverty by enabling people to do what they want to do. We’re like a bridge; we take them from where they are to where they want to be.”

Salcedo is also a recipient of a 2016 Skadden Fellowship. After graduation, he will work at Western New York Law Center in Buffalo, New York, providing transactional legal services to low-income entrepreneurs with the goal of generating jobs, goods and services in under-resourced neighborhoods.

Salcedo will receive the award at a gala reception for the honorees on Monday, April 25, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, in Boston. Each recipient of a Law Students Ethics Award will also receive a $1,000 check from the ACC-Northeast Chapter.

The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) is a global bar association that promotes the common professional and business interests of in-house counsel who work for corporations, associations and other private-sector organizations through information, education, networking opportunities and advocacy initiatives. ACC-Northeast, sponsor of the annual Law Student Ethics Awards, serves the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

CEP Year In Review

Harvard Community Enterprise Project

2015 Year in Review

All,

It’s hard to believe that 2015 has come and gone, but here we are, well on our way into the new year. Here at the Community Enterprise Project (CEP) of the Harvard Transactional Law Clinics (TLC), we have already completed our first couple of weeks of the Spring 2016 semester and can already feel the excitement around our latest cases and projects. Before we get too far into 2016, however, we thought now would be a good time to recap our accomplishments in 2015, announce – at last! – the official release of our worker cooperative legal guide, and while we’re at it, provide links to some of the useful resources we’ve created over the last year..

Without further ado, here is our 2015 year in review:

2015 Project Highlights

Publication for Immigrant Entrepreneurs:

During the Spring 2015 semester, a team of students collaborated far and wide to develop A Legal Overview of Business Ownership for Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Massachusetts. What started as a local effort quickly became a national endeavor and a year later, we are still working with partners across the country to increase access to this valuable knowledge and support efforts to create similar resources in other states for immigrants and those who work with immigrants. If you or someone you know might be interested in creating a similar resource for your state, please contact us!

*This document has recently been translated into Spanish and will be made available on our website within the next couple of weeks. If you are interested in the Spanish version, check back here (scroll to the bottom) periodically.

Workshops for Veteran Entrepreneurs:

Also during the spring, a team of students partnered with the amazing technology-access organization Tech Goes Home to deliver valuable and interactive legal education at the Microsoft Store at the Prudential Center in Boston to military veterans who are starting businesses. CEP’s partnership with the Harvard Veterans Legal Clinic, the Veterans Enterprise Initiative, continues to flourish and direct military veteran entrepreneurs towards quality legal assistance.

Trip to Sustainable Economies Law Center:

Over the summer, CEP’s director, Amanda Kool, and CEP student Matt Diaz ‘16 traveled to Oakland, California to meet with Janelle Orsi and other members of the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) to cement a partnership between CEP and SELC regarding the organizations’ shared efforts on issues related to immigrants and worker cooperatives. While there, Amanda and Matt were able to take part in one of SELC’s acclaimed Legal Cafés, where volunteer attorneys gather at the SELC offices to provide direct legal advice, host workshops, and engage in general discussions with community members about legal issues.

*Just Announced – Publication for Worker Cooperatives:

During the fall, a team of students, in partnership with SELC as well as a host of local organizations, created Tackling the Law, Together: A Legal Guide to Worker Cooperatives Generally and in Massachusetts. Though this email constitutes the first official release of the document, the “launch party” for the publication was held in December at the Equal Exchange Café in Boston, where dozens of worker cooperative members, enthusiasts, and technical assistance providers gathered to listen to the students as they presented highlights of the resource. *A reader-accessible Word version of this resource is available on our website. CEP at SELC

Presentations for Creative Entrepreneurs:

Also during the fall, a team of students worked with the Fairmount Innovation Lab, a Dorchester incubator space for local residents in the creative economy, to deliver a series of workshops on legal topics relevant to creative entrepreneurs. The presentations left plenty of time for questions and were followed by one-on-one legal counseling sessions for attendees.

2015 CEP in the News

Amanda Kool, (red jacket) clinical instructor at Harvard Law School teaches a clinic to teach students how to provide legal services to people who want to start their own small businesses inside 6 Everett Street in the Wasserstein Hall in the Harvard Law School at Harvard University. She is seen with here HLS students, Matthew Diaz, (from far left) Carolyn Ruiz, and Steven Salcedo. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Taking people ‘to where they want to be,’ law school students help small-time entrepreneurs flourish (Harvard Gazette, January 22, 2016; Harvard Law Today, January 27, 2016; Harvard Clinical and Pro Bono Programs News, February 1, 2016)

Clinic develops first-of-its-kind guide for immigrant entrepreneurs (Harvard Law Today, October 9, 2015)

Harvard Law’s Community Enterprise Project Heads to Oakland, Forges Partnership with Sustainable Economies Law Center (Harvard Clinical and Pro Bono Programs News, September 30, 2015)

You Help Me, He Helps You: Dispute Systems Design in the Sharing Economy (Harvard Clinical and Pro Bono Programs News, September 28, 2015)

All of this is in addition to the 40+ clients we served last year in CEP alone, not to mention all of the great client work, outreach, and presentations completed by the staff and students of the rest of the Harvard Transactional Law Clinics!

On Deck for Spring 2016

Presentations for Worker Coops

Our worker coop team will be carrying forward the great work from last semester and will be delivering a series of presentations related to worker cooperatives.. Stay tuned for details about dates and locations, and if your organization is willing to host one of these presentations sometime in March or April, please let us know!
Boston Ujima Project

We also have a team of students working with the Center for Economic Democracy on the Center’s Boston Ujima Project, which is bringing together local stakeholders to model new ways for community businesses and residents in a specific geographic area to engage in locally-controlled investment, production, consumption to promote economic democracy.
We hope you are as excited about the promise of 2016 as we are. Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and fulfilling new year!

Taking people ‘to where they want to be’

[Published in the Harvard Gazette, Jan. 22, 2016, and in Harvard Law Today, Jan. 27th 2016]

Law School students help struggling small-time entrepreneurs flourish

By LIZ MINEO/HARVARD STAFF WRITER

Hailing from Buffalo, a once-prosperous city in upstate New York, Steven Salcedo knew how a lack of continued economic development can hinder families and mire people in poverty and hopelessness.

But it was only after he took a course at Harvard Law School that Salcedo realized that lawyers could help foster better times for communities.

“Lawyers can’t make economic development happen by themselves,” said Salcedo. “But we can contribute to help solve poverty by enabling people to do what they want to do. We’re like a bridge; we take them from where they are to where they want to be.”

The class Salcedo took, “Community Enterprise Project of the Transactional Law Clinics,” allows HLS students to help small business owners, entrepreneurs, and community groups create businesses, obtain permits and licenses, and negotiate contracts and other transactional (non-litigation) services.

Other transactional law clinics offered at HLS deal with business and nonprofits, entertainment law, and real estate.

Amanda Kool, an HLS lecturer on law and clinical instructor, directs the Community Enterprise Project. Under her supervision, students work out of HLS’s Legal Services Center in Jamaica Plain, dividing their time between assisting clients and partnering with community organizations on projects that address broader legal barriers to economic development in the community.

The course benefits both students who are interested in pursuing social-justice work and community members who need their services, said Kool. Since 2013, students have produced legal toolkits compiling laws and regulations that govern worker cooperatives, condominium associations, and food trucks, and staged legal workshops for military veterans who are starting small businesses and for entrepreneurs in the creative economy. Last October, they published a first-of-its-kind legal guidebook for immigrant entrepreneurs.

“A lot of the social ills that result in crimes tied to poverty could be cured through economic development,” said Kool. “Our work has a strong public purpose.”

By helping people who want to start small enterprises but lack the moneys to hire an attorney, students promote business development and job growth, said Kool. For many students, the fact that lawyers can help people overcome barriers to economic development comes as a something of a surprise.

That was the case for Matt Diaz, who registered in the course with a desire to do transactional law but without knowing what to expect. He worked with clients who wanted to start a landscape worker cooperative and as a result, helped write a worker coop guide and the guidebook for immigrant entrepreneurs.

“I’m a nerd for tackling new and unresolved legal issues,” said Diaz. “The course was like a rabbit hole for legal research. I had tons of fun.”

For Carolyn Ruiz, the course offered an opportunity to plunge into a neighborhood far from campus and interact with community organizations.

“In law school, everything is hypothetical,” she said. “This gave me the chance to work with real people in the real world.”

The course also helped her practice her Spanish skills with Salvador Esteban, a client who comes from Mexico.

“We wouldn’t have been able to help him” otherwise, said Ruiz, a Texan of Mexican descent. “He only spoke Spanish.”

A father of two, Esteban, 45, runs a hot-dog cart near the Boston Common, and needed help with licensing and permitting.

“I didn’t know how to pay taxes or how to apply for permits with City Hall or the health department,” he said.

Students relish the opportunity to be immersed in a workaday community. Because their clients work during the week, students sometimes spend weekends and evenings meeting with them at their homes or businesses near Jamaica Plain.

Salcedo took the course three times because he found his calling. It changed more than his career path, he said.

“It did change the course of my life,” he said. “I entered law school because I wanted to help underrepresented people. I was unsure of how I wanted to do so, though. I learned that law can empower low-income entrepreneurs who are working to revitalize their neighborhoods and provide for their families.”

Salcedo was awarded a prestigious Skadden Foundation Fellowship to create a program like the Community Enterprise Project to help small entrepreneurs in his hometown. After graduation, he plans to go back to Buffalo to work at the Western New York Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal services in civil matters to low-income residents.

“I can’t imagine a more fulfilling way to use my legal education,” he said.

Startups: How I Channel My Entrepreneurial Interests at HLS

[Published Oct. 29th, 2015 on the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs Blog]

By Eli A. Shalam J.D. ’16

By the time my first semester at HLS began, I was chomping at the bit to work with the Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project (aka “HLEP”—pronounced aitch-lep). By early October, I was placed on a team with three other law students researching the impact of independent contractor and employee classifications on a company’s business model. Our client was a company that facilitated the booking of housekeepers to clean customers’ homes*. The main issue was that the company wanted strict standards to ensure the quality and consistency of the customer experience, but did not want to risk any sort of liability if, for example, a housekeeper started a major fire in a customer’s home, a customer’s pet severely injured a housekeeper, or a housekeeper accidentally spilled cleaning supplies on priceless curios. Our job was to advise the company on whether, and how, to classify the housekeepers as employees or independent contractors.

The project began to get very real for me when one of the attorneys assigned to our team suddenly perked up during the client intake meeting and realized that her husband had just used the client’s service to hire a housekeeper during the prior week! This company was already operating in the Boston area and my team and I were in a position to directly influence their business!

That January, I applied for a seat on the Executive Board and became the organization’s Vice President of Operations—managing the team assignment and administration process, from collecting client, attorney, and law student applications, to assigning everyone to a team within their top few preferences, and ensuring that projects were completed without a hitch and to the clients’ satisfaction. One year later, I became President of HLEP during a period of huge growth. In my first semester with the organization, we had 54 students working with 12 attorneys on 14 client-projects. This past semester we had 133 students working with 39 attorneys on 30 client-projects. And every semester, as I review the wide array of client applications that we receive —an entrepreneur wildly passionate about selling his favorite beverage, two separate companies trying to build power generation plants, an alternative ice-cream store, numerous pharmaceutical companies, and investment funds — I remember the project that got me started in HELP, where I was able to work with two great entrepreneurs to revolutionize home cleaning services and the 90 other companies that we have helped since then.

*The nature of the client’s business has been altered to protect the client’s privacy.

Recording Artist Project provides pro bono representation to musicians

[Posted Oct. 27th 2015, on the Office of Clinical and Pro-Bono Programs blog]

By Terron East, J.D. ’17

Within the last decade, the music industry has shifted from an entity reliant upon physical goods, such as CDs and vinyl, to a business largely dependent upon internet streaming via companies such as Spotify and Apple Music. Although the traditions of the music industry have changed, the need for legal representation has remained constant, as artists must build their brands and protect their interests in their work while not infringing upon the rights of others. By advising clients on many aspects of entertainment law, the Harvard Law School’s Recording Artists Project (also known as RAP) has provided valuable pro bono representation to musicians in Boston and beyond since its inception in 1998.

While RAP cases focus upon the legal needs of musicians and others involved in the music industry, the specific legal work involved in each case varies widely. In recent semesters, students have had the opportunity to negotiate record contracts, draft work-for-hire and band partnership agreements, clear samples used in new works, register copyrights for compositions and sound recordings, and register trademarks for band names, among other legal tasks. The services of RAP have further been assisted by participation of students from the Berklee College of Music. These students, often musicians themselves, aid in client representation by providing advice based upon their classroom instruction and first-hand experiences with music business, recording, and performing.

In conjunction with providing direct legal services, RAP plans to expand its community outreach this year through a partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston (BGCB). This collaboration will connect RAP students with members of various BGCB “Music Clubhouses” to educate the young musicians about music law, including copyright law, music publishing, and the role of record labels in an artist’s career. This collaboration will also give HLS students a chance to interact with teens from the Boys & Girls Club to provide mentorship and insight into the daily lives of law school students, with planned visits to a local Music Clubhouse as well as an event on the law school’s campus.

Although I was initially unaware of RAP upon entering HLS, the opportunity to join the program as a 1L seemed hard to resist. While I enjoyed the litigation, case-based approach to law that was employed in my core classes for the first year, I found that RAP provided much needed insight into the transactional spectrum of law. Moreover, RAP served as my first foray into entertainment law–a subject with which I was enamored since my time serving as music director for my undergrad college’s radio station years ago. After serving as team leader during my first two semesters with RAP, I sought to become director of the organization to not only participate further within the daily proceedings of the organization, but to also assist in making RAP more visible on both the HLS and Berklee campuses. Using the extensive alumni and faculty connections provided by RAP, I hope to allow interested students to use the program as a first step to establish themselves within the diverse and promising field of entertainment law.

← Previous 1 … 3 4 5 Next →

Top

Navigation