My Background
As a Loyola Law alumnus from the class of 2010, it is my pleasure to share my experiences in school and what I’ve been doing with my degree thereafter. For the past year and a half, I have been working as the General Counsel and Producer for a production company based in Toronto and Los Angeles. More on that to come…
As far back as I can remember, I knew I wanted to be involved in the film industry. Movies were always a passion of mine and I even cited a movie quote on my personal essay in my law school applications. I knew if I wanted to combine my interests in the creative with a business skill, law school would be an ideal situation. In enrolling in law school, I anticipated honing skills in negotiation, becoming more structured in my writing and, of course, learning the laws and legal theories in a variety of core and elective subjects. I was correct about all of those things, and moreover, I took away some lifelong friendships, mentorship and a level of self-confidence that was completely new to me.
Why Loyola?
Firstly, on a superficial note, it was important to me to attend any grad school in a big city. Growing up in Toronto, Canada, I was used to the metropolitan life and I was eager to maintain that. Loyola’s law school campus couldn’t be in a more exciting area. I moved to Chicago with very little knowledge about the city and no friends to provide any guidance. What I learned was that Chicago is a phenomenal city with endless opportunities for fine dining, theater and, most importantly, films both big budget and independent.
As for the school itself, I could see that Loyola offered a wide array of courses and I felt confident I would be able to graduate with an intensive understanding of the fundamentals important for every lawyer. In addition, there were many interesting specialized tracks, including the intellectual property, tax and estate planning packages.
How was it to be interested in ‘soft’ IP?
Beyond the core classes, I soon decided that the most instructive courses for my trajectory into the entertainment world would be in Intellectual Property. However, I had absolutely no training nor aptitude for anything scientific. In short, that meant patents were probably not in my future. Nonetheless, I was very interested in the other Intellectual Property topics: Copyright and Trademark. Not only did this demand case readings involving situations of paramount interest to me- movies, music, branding and writing- it also allowed me to investigate circumstances that directly relate to my current position. I knew learning about Copyrights and Trademarks would be essential to my future practice in entertainment law and I was encouraged to select the IP classes despite my non-technical background. I did not ignore the patent component, as this played a substantial role in the introductory IP class, taught by Professor Cynthia Ho. Professor Ho’s teaching methods allowed the non-scientific students to understand the purpose and procedure of the patent without being mired in the technicalities of a particular patent application.
In addition to the courses offered in each of the IP components, Professor Ho also led an extra-curricular lecture series for students to come together and learn about timely and burgeoning issues in all areas of IP. This Chicago Intellectual Property Colloquium is now available as a class for course credit. For more information, please visit here. Taking this opportunity was one of the highlights of my time at Loyola. We were exposed to critical thinking about the ways in which IP issues were evolving in the face of globalization, online presence and the increasing popularity of derivative works. It was also a great pleasure to meet some of the leading thinkers on the subjects, as the authors of new articles guest-lectured alternating Symposium meetings.
Favorite Loyola Class?
I knew I was meant for the transactional side of law, as I am much more comfortable in a writing and analytical position. However, I also wanted to graduate with as much of a well-rounded legal education as I could. To that end, I made the uncharacteristic decision to enroll in the intensive trial advocacy course, which was held between semesters. Painfully shy when I first arrived at Loyola, slowly, through the demands of class participation, I developed a far improved ability to present myself. As a tangent, this also led to my application as a legal writing tutor, for which I was required to make several lectures to the first year students, something I never thought I would be able to do. The trial advocacy class was exponentially more fun and interesting than I expected, and instead of coasting by for the class credit, I actually found myself competitive about the mock trials and my performance. Last year, with three of my colleagues, I spoke at a seminar on North American entertainment business in Tokyo, Japan. This would not have been possible without my time at Loyola.
For more information feel free to contact Samantha at Samantha [at] landedentertainments[dot] com
Check back next week for part ii, when Attorney Herman discusses her current position.