“Master Class” on Legal and Business Issues in TV Offers Skills, Expertise

By Maria Iacobo

"Master Class" on legal and business issues by entertainment industry pros

USC Gould School of Law will host some of the entertainment industry’s top practitioners for a two-day “master class” on legal and business issues. The seminar, for second- and third-year law students, is entitled “Television Transactions: Direct from the Experts” and is overseen by Jeffrey Schneider ’91, executive vice president of business affairs and general counsel for Shine America and an adjunct professor at USC Gould.

“Jeff has assembled an impressive lineup of guest speakers from the television industry,” said Prof. Jonathan Barnett, academic director for USC Gould’s Entertainment and Media Law Program. “Our location in Los Angeles allows us to draw on lawyers who are practicing in some of the most successful television and media companies.”

Jeffrey Schneider '91

Participants in the seminar include Jamie Canniffe, senior vice president  for U.S. development and alternative programming at Sony Pictures Television; Brian Lazarus, senior vice president for business affairs at MTV; Catherine Sugar, head of TV business affairs at William Morris Endeavor; Beth Roberts, executive vice president for business operations at NBC/Universal Cable Entertainment; and Jody Zucker, senior vice president and general counsel at Warner Brothers Television.

USC Gould’s Entertainment and Media Law Program offers students a unique opportunity to acquire the diverse skills and knowledge required to represent clients in rapidly changing content markets. Students earn a Certificate in Entertainment Law upon completing a rigorous curriculum exposing students to the legal and business issues facing practitioners in entertainment and media industries.

“The Hollywood Reporter” ranked USC Gould the top entertainment law school in the country last spring.