Find the Best Entertainment Law Jobs in 2023
Always wanted to join entertainment law and work with creative agencies? Check out available entertainment law jobs across the globe!
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Entertainment law jobs are very alluring to fresh law graduates. This is because they offer the prospect of high earnings and dynamic work assignments in a rather exciting environment. Namely, the global media and entertainment industry is one of the largest industries in the world – its revenue is expected to reach $2.5 trillion by 2024. Also, it entails a number of business areas such as film, theater, music, television, publishing, and sports, all of which encompass various legal fields.
However, breaking into this niche is quite tricky, so we suggest you first learn as much as possible about it and then decide if it's right for you.
About Entertainment Law Jobs
Entertainment lawyers are professionals who are legally authorized to deal with entertainment and media legal issues – they represent artists, employees, and companies in the entertainment industry. Depending on their chosen entertainment field and place of work, these lawyers need to be competent in several legal disciplines, including contract law, labor law, intellectual property law, tax law, and defamation law.
You should also know that IT technologies and social media play an important role in this business. Due to the rapid development of these sectors, an entertainment law attorney has to be ready to face frequent changes and can’t fall out of touch with the latest trends in popular culture.
What Do Entertainment Lawyers Do?
Duties
Unlike most other law specialties, which have strictly defined responsibilities, the entertainment law branch entails taking care of a number of tasks that don’t necessarily have to fall into what is typically considered legal work. They can include any number of assignments that have both legal and business implications.
Some of the duties that await you if you pick a career in entertainment law are:
- Drafting and negotiating contracts.
- Reviewing legal documents.
- Helping clients join professional associations such as the American, Guild of Musical Artists, for example.
- Acting as a liaison between artists and agents, networks and venues.
- Defending intellectual property rights in court.
- Negotiating appearance and location releases as well as license agreements.
- Advising clients on pitches and budgets.
- Managing taxes.
- Helping clients new to the industry understand how it works.
Types
Seeing as entertainment law is such a broad sphere, many choose to concentrate on a specific section of it, such as:
- Film and television: Producers, film directors, actors, and other creatives need someone to help them navigate trademark issues, option agreements, production problems, and similar legal matters.
- Music: An entertainment law career can allow you to combine your profession with your out-of-office interests like, for instance, music. Keep in mind, however, that digital technologies have added an extra layer of complexity to this area of business since it’s become easier than ever to publish and download music without the necessary rights.
- Sports: Professional athletes often market themselves and profit from their name, image, and likeness, which involves quite a bit of work for their legal teams. A sports law job can be a great stepping-off point for many other sports-related fields of work.
- Publishing: When it comes to entertainment law jobs in the publishing sector, you’ll most commonly have to deal with copyright disputes.
- Theatre: There’s no lack of performance-oriented legal fires that only a law expert can put out, including rental and co-production conflicts.
- Fine arts: Representing a client in visual arts and design could mean settling issues regarding art in public places, preventing graphic design elements from being misused for products, and arranging artwork sales and purchases.
- Video games: You don’t have to be a gamer to get into the exciting world of video game development and production, but you will need a good grasp of information technology law.
Work Environment
You’ll have the most success looking for entertainment law jobs in Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York City, as they are widely regarded as the entertainment epicenters of the world. However, those are far from being your only options since many film and television studios have begun to move their projects to sites outside of California, Tennessee, and New York due to increasing costs.
Entertainment attorneys usually work in law firms or have in-house counsel jobs at companies in the entertainment industry. That doesn’t mean that you’ll be spending too much of your time inside an office, though, as most creatives prefer to meet up for coffee or lunch. Certain cases will also require you to go to court.
The entertainment law career path can enable you to travel quite a bit as well. Of course, for this to happen, your client’s creations and/or products have to become popular abroad.
Injuries and Illnesses
Although entertainment lawyers aren’t at risk of sustaining any physical injuries at their place of employment, they are often put under a lot of pressure and can eventually suffer burnout. Unaddressed burnout can cause further stress, high blood pressure, alcohol or substance abuse, and insomnia. It can also damage your immune system, making you more vulnerable to illnesses.
As exciting as entertainment attorney jobs are, you can’t let them take over your life. You have to make sure to take time off to relax and socialize.
Work Schedules
Most entertainment lawyers work during standard business hours, but, as is common with almost all law-related occupations, overtime is a frequent occurrence. Some attorneys have to tailor their work hours to their clients’ schedules, which means that they can end up working at odd times and on weekends.
That may not sound very appealing to you, but the better you get at your entertainment law job, the more control you’ll have over your schedule. Not to say that there won’t be any exceptions, but, for the most part, people will be willing to adjust their itineraries to get an expert’s assistance.
How To Become an Entertainment Lawyer
To break into the entertainment industry, you need to learn as much as you can about it. This could mean that, in the beginning, you might have to work on cases pro bono, take lower-paying jobs related to the field, or find entertainment law internships. Knowing people in this line of work could be very helpful as well, so try to attend plenty of conferences and networking events.
It goes without saying that, to pursue this career path, you first need to get the proper education. Below, we’ve described precisely what that entails.
Important Qualities
There are certain personal qualities that all good entertainment law attorneys possess. Before you move on to reading about the degrees you need to obtain, check if the following descriptions can be applied to you:
- Communication skills: Odds are that your entertainment lawyer job is going to involve a lot of negotiating. Hence, knowing how to make people around you feel comfortable while remaining assertive is key.
- Adaptability: As we’ve already mentioned, the entertainment business is very fast-paced, and if you want to succeed in that environment, you have to be able to think on your feet as well as to learn and adjust to new circumstances quickly.
- Ability to multitask: Being capable of juggling two or more tasks at the same time is a trait that people pursuing entertainment law careers need to possess. However, you shouldn’t worry if this doesn’t come naturally to you since it’s a skill that can be developed over time.
- Attention to detail: A part of this profession is drawing up and reviewing many legal documents. When your clients put their trust in you, they expect you to catch all and any details that could potentially be harmful to them or their careers.
- Creativity: A creative lawyer isn’t a lawyer capable of creating music or movies but a professional who can solve problems in an innovative way. A typical entertainment law job description probably won’t mention this as a must-have quality, but it is something that is sure to give you an edge over the competition. That said, being an amateur creative yourself can only benefit you in this line of work.
Education
To begin your journey of becoming an entertainment lawyer, you need to earn a bachelor’s degree. As far as your major goes, you don’t necessarily have to pick pre-law courses – political science, English, and history are valid options as well. These fields of study teach students how to think, critically read, and construct convincing arguments using analytical skills. After you master these skills and graduate, you need to go to law school.
Entertainment law schools are very difficult to get into. They require a high GPA, outstanding letters of reference, and a high score on the Law School Admission Test. The LSAT is a standardized multiple-choice, paper-and-pencil test approved by the American Bar Association. It consists of five parts: logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, reading comprehension, variable section (unscored), and a writing sample.
Some of the top law schools you can apply to are Harvard, UCLA, USC Gould, Columbia, and NYU. While attending law school, you should choose courses that are related to entertainment and media law. If you plan to get into one of the entertainment law careers that require going to trials, you shouldn’t forget to study litigation.
Once you’ve completed three years of law school and earned your Juris Doctor, a graduate-entry degree in law, you’ll need to take the bar exam. Know that the place where the exam is administered is extremely important as it determines where you’ll be able to practice law. Due to this, most aspiring entertainment law attorneys take the exam in California, Tennessee, or New York.
Advancement
You can continue your legal education by attending courses, seminars, and conferences. There are even several states where you can gain credits for online courses and webcasts. You should always strive towards extending your education as it can only be beneficial.
Some entertainment law firms might ask you to continue advancing your legal knowledge so that you can keep improving as an employee, while in some instances, you may be required to do so to keep your license. Of course, you don’t actually have to have a reason to want to keep working on yourself.
Pay
Entertainment lawyers often receive a percentage of the contracts they finalize for their clients, which means that their earnings can equal six figures and more. However, although the average annual entertainment lawyer salary was approximately $117,000 in 2020, it can vary significantly from city to city. An attorney working in Hollywood could make millions on an annual basis, while an entertainment lawyer practicing in a relatively small town shouldn’t expect to earn more than $76,000 per year.
In most cases, entertainment law experts have higher incomes than their colleagues in other legal fields. For instance, those with jobs in tax law earn approximately $120,000, and those in maritime law professions make $75,000 on average.
Job Outlook
Considering how fast the industry is growing, it’s safe to say that there won’t be any shortages of entertainment legal jobs any time soon. Since the beginning of time, people have been finding ways to amuse themselves, and with modern technology at their disposal, who knows what they’ll think of next.
That being said, the majority of law firms based in the three main entertainment centers of the US tend to recruit employees through existing contacts rather than accept applications from previously unknown law graduates. If you’re someone who has recently passed the bar exam, your best option would be to look for entry-level entertainment law jobs in cities with a less competitive climate. In case that doesn’t work, you can try getting a job as a paralegal and working your way up the corporate ladder.
Job Prospects
Aside from working in law firms or media companies, some entertainment attorneys also take on the roles of agents, managers, or publicists. These jobs might require a little less paperwork and a lot more networking. Once you gain enough experience and save up some money, you could even open up your own business.
We shouldn’t forget to mention that not all careers in entertainment law have to entail representing someone. You can always turn to academia and use your knowledge to mold the minds of budding legal professionals.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:
How to be an entertainment lawyer?
A:
To become an entertainment lawyer, you’ll first need to obtain a bachelor’s degree, then take the LSAT, finish law school, and, finally, pass the bar exam. Once you’ve completed all of these steps, you should work on getting into the entertainment industry, which is a bit harder than you might think. At first, you may have to settle for low-level positions or internships, but this is only until you can gain enough experience and connections to move on to the coveted entertainment law jobs in NYC, Los Angeles, and Nashville.
Q:
How to get a job in entertainment law?
A:
To get a job in entertainment law, you need to remain persistent. If you don’t get the first couple of jobs you apply for, broaden your search a bit and keep trying. To get your foot in the door, you could also try taking on an assistant job or doing some work pro bono. In the meantime, you should look for conferences, seminars, or any other events where professionals from your area of interest gather.
Q:
What jobs can you do in the entertainment industry with a law degree?
A:
The entertainment industry offers an abundance of entertainment lawyer jobs since it encompasses a number of subcategories such as film, television, music, publishing, theatre, and fine arts. These different fields can enable you to work in intellectual property law, contract law, labor law, bankruptcy law, tax law, defamation law, and so on. However, some attorneys choose to become agents, managers, or publicists as well. The majority of the jobs for law graduates in the entertainment industry can be found in law firms and entertainment companies.
Q:
Where are entertainment law jobs found?
A:
Most attorneys that specialize in entertainment law look for employment in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville, as these are the entertainment hubs of the US. Aside from applying to as many places as you can, you need to network as well. This means that, in addition to endeavoring to make new contacts, you should inform all your friends and family members that you’re looking for a job. Even if you don’t know a lawyer or someone already working in the entertainment industry, the people close to you might.