Sheena Tehrani (LLM 2020) marches to the beat of her own drum. That’s clear from her educational and employment choices.
Her JD, earned in 2018 from Southwestern School of Law, is in the entertainment and media law track. Her Master of Laws, earned at USC Gould School of Law, is in the international business and economics concentration. For the past four years, Tehrani was at AltView Law Group LLP, a boutique Beverly Hills entertainment firm.
In April, she started at new position as an associate with Garrell Cohon Kennedy LLP. The small downtown civil litigation firm specializes in labor and employment law.
Tehrani doesn’t see the two jobs as unrelated.
“Entertainment law is so broad, you get to dip your toes into everything,” says the 32-year-old Glendale native. “A lot is transactional, but there’s also litigation. I dealt with intellectual property, copyright cases, trademark, defamation, business disputes, breach of contracts.”
Once dead-set on entertainment law, Tehrani at some point realized that “you’re really doing the same thing any civil litigator does. You’re just doing it with reality stars and entertainers.”
Making hard choices
Tehrani has known she wanted to be a lawyer since fourth grade. Her path forward wasn’t smooth, however. 
The child of Iranian immigrants, her parents divorced when she was a toddler, and her mother, Shahnaz, raised three daughters on her own.
Young Sheena was always “very serious” about her studies, but financial uncertainty kept the family moving from apartment to apartment, and the sisters had to switch schools several times. Happily, all three landed on their feet. The oldest, Kiana, is currently in medical school; middle sister Violet is a doctoral student in clinical psychology.
Tehrani was admitted to UC Santa Barbara for college, but she opted to enroll at Pasadena City College for financial reasons. She transferred to USC in 2013 on scholarship, majoring in philosophy, politics and law.
She loved the program, which set her up to succeed in law school. Pre-law courses through USC Dornsife included Nomi Stolzenberg’s “Concepts of American Law” and “Constitutional Law” with political scientist Richard Barrett. She also profited from an advanced legal writing seminar taught by James Brecher.
Feeding her appetite for creative writing, Tehrani pursued a minor in screenwriting on the side. In high school, she had amused herself by writing friends into fan-fiction episodes of their favorite TV shows and sharing her scripts in weekly newsletters. At USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, she became managing editor of Scribe, a student-run online literary journal.
Upon graduation, Tehrani faced a dilemma.
“I wanted to be a writer, but I also wanted to be a lawyer,” she says. “And then at some point, I realized, ‘Wait, I can do both! I can combine the two and be an entertainment lawyer.’”
As before, she had offers from higher-ranked schools, but Tehrani chose a partial scholarship and low-cost housing at Southwestern, racing through an accelerated two-year JD program.
In hindsight, the accelerated program “was challenging,” she says. “I wish I’d taken my time. I didn’t give myself the opportunity to make the right connections.”
The highlight of her JD program was moot court. A budding oralist, she earned semi-finalist and quarter-finalist honors at competitions held at Southwestern and at William & Mary Law School.
“I realized I love arguing, and that litigation is the way to go for me,” Tehrani says. “But I basically only had two quarters of moot court. If I’d given myself an extra year, I could have developed better relationships.”
The idea of pursuing an LLM came to her on the day of her bar exam. She fell into conversation with another exam-taker who had applied to USC Gould’s postgraduate program as “a cushion” in case she didn’t pass on her first try. Tehrani decided to do the same and then opted to enroll in the program even after passing the bar.
Her undergraduate experience at USC had been so satisfying, she couldn’t wait to return.
“I love the way USC professors teach,” she says.
Everything about her LLM program clicked, starting with Yaphett Powell’s “International Business Transactions” course. Powell is a senior attorney with the Walt Disney Company, and Tehrani was thrilled to find him incorporating his entertainment experiences into lectures. “It was perfect,” she says.
At every level, she encountered kindness and support.
“My cohort was very sweet,” she says, of her classmates, “and the professors were super encouraging. The LLM was only a year, but I feel like I gained so much.”
A conversation with Franita Tolson still rings in her ears.
Self-doubt over educational comprises she’d made for financial reasons had brought Tehrani to her “Election Law” professor’s office hours. Tolson, who is now dean of USC Gould, had reassured her: “‘We do things for all kinds of reasons. It’s nothing about you,’” Tehrani recalls her saying. “And I thought: ‘Oh my god, somebody gets me and my decisions!’”
Time and again, the Career Services office connected Tehrani with resources to advance her professional goals.
At their recommendation, she volunteered remotely with San Francisco-based Legal Aid at Work in her first semester, gaining valuable experience in employment litigation. In her second semester, they steered her toward a judicial externship in a U.S. District Court-based patent pilot program, assisting six judges in the Central District of California. That externship was the highlight of her LLM program, providing invaluable courtroom exposure, and setting her up for a job offer with West Coast Employment Lawyers. This was in 2020, at the height of the Covid lockdowns when many firms had frozen all hiring.
Tehrani was also active in the Women’s Law Association during her LLM year. Now as a proud USC Gould alumna, she’s a rising leader in the Trojan Entertainment Network, chairing the high-profile affinity group’s engagement committee. She’s also involved in the Los Angeles Copyright Society and the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Law Association.
Reflecting on her educational journey, Tehrani says, “my path was a little slower and more winding than other people’s, but I feel very lucky to have ended up where I am.”
Staying true to herself
When it comes to making all the right moves, Tehrani now takes a philosophical view. She’s keen to hone her skills as a well-rounded litigation attorney, but she’s also intent on savoring life in the early stages of her career.
She spends time at the Huntington, rambling the garden paths and painting watercolors. She takes long hikes with her longtime boyfriend, Michael, an aspiring screenwriter. They go to many screenings at the historic Eagle Theater in Eagle Rock. The members-only space, owned by the nonprofit Vidiots, is a quirky hub for filmmakers and afficionados.
Lately Tehrani has been immersing herself in Persian culture.
She was only 9 when the September 11 attacks occurred, and her heritage suddenly felt like a burden. While she pulled awa from her Middle Eastern identity as a child, she now laments her limited Farsi language skills.
“I’m actually trying to learn it again,” Tehrani says, brightly. “I’m taking Farsi lessons online. My goal is to be able to have a full conversation with my mom by the end of this year.”
Tehrani also loves to cook. Her specialty is ghormeh sabzi—a hearty stew made with fresh herbs, kidney beans, dried lime, spinach and lamb—considered the Persian national dish.
‘Treat yourself with kindness’
Based on her experiences, Tehrani’s advice to USC Gould students is: Don’t rush it. Take your time.
“Yes, focus on your studies, but make room to enjoy your youth,” she says. “Make lasting friendships. Treat yourself with kindness. Find balance. If there’s something you missed academically, you can always fill in later.”
After four years in entertainment, Tehrani is excited for what comes next.
“I’m still at the beginning of my career,” she says, “so I’m figuring things out and enjoying the ride while I’m on it.”
She feels very lucky.
“I was worried that after working as a lawyer for a year, I’d say, ‘I hate it.’ But that hasn’t happened. I love what I do, and that’s pretty rare.”
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