Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Brenner

J.D. Practicum 1090 | 3 credit hours

This is a practicum course in entertainment law. It will combine seminar lectures with field work experience in the entertainment industry.

In the seminar, students will review entertainment industry structure, function, and contracting; investigate standards for establishing contract standards for licensing creative content; explore “standard terms and conditions” for real meaning for participants; and analyze content exploitation through traditional and digital media. Students will meet with in-house counsel to discuss details of work and seek assignments that may be useful to the in-house counsel as well as attend meetings with in-house counsel as appropriate from trade associations and government agencies with related agenda (e.g., Copyright Office, FCC, National Endowment for the Arts, Kennedy Center). The goal of the course is to strengthen a student’s understanding of the economics of the entertainment industry: which entities have leverage in negotiations, which industries will become the main players in content distribution going forward. Copyright and/or Entertainment Law recommended but not required.

Prerequisites: Students must complete the required first-year program prior to enrolling in this course (part-time and interdivisional transfer students may enroll prior to completing Criminal Justice, Property, or their first-year elective).

Students may not concurrently enroll in this practicum course and a clinic (except Street Law) or another practicum course. Students may concurrently enroll in this practicum course and an externship.

THIS IS A PRACTICUM COURSE.

This is a 3 credit course. 2 credits will be awarded for the 2-hour weekly seminar and 1 credit for approximately 5 hours of supervised work per week, for a minimum of 11 weeks. Both the seminar portion and the supervised work will be graded.

Students who enroll in this course will be automatically enrolled in both the seminar and practicum components and may not take either component separately. A student wishing to withdraw from the course will be withdrawn from both the seminar and field work components.