F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great-granddaughter has been watching over his literary estate for years. She now brings a legal lens to her work.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great-granddaughter E. Blake Hazard (JD 2022) is a woman who keeps reinventing herself. From playing guitar in New York subways as a teen, she emerged as a recording artist and half of the successful indie-pop duo, The Submarines. For nearly two decades she worked as a professional musician and singer-songwriter.
Then in 2016, she stepped into the role of literary trustee to the Estate of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. And in 2022, she fulfilled a longtime goal of becoming an attorney.
Not a moment too soon, as it happens.
April 2025 marked the centennial of The Great Gatsby, first published by Scribner in 1925. It’s arguably the busiest moment in the estate’s history, and Hazard is still catching her breath. The world is celebrating this major milestone with festivals, conferences and new stage adaptations of the Jazz Age classic widely regarded as the great American novel.
She anticipated that her legal education would make her a better literary trustee, and that expectation has borne fruit. “Just about every aspect of the law — intellectual property, contracts, gifts, wills and trusts, estate planning, (though luckily not criminal law) — have all come into play in my work as a trustee,” she says.
Three years after earning her JD at USC Gould with dual certificates in arts, entertainment and media law and in business law, Hazard describes herself as “an attorney, but not currently practicing.”
She has not yet had time for a traditional 9-to-5 role. “The centennial of Gatsby created a lot of interest and activity for the estate,” she says.
Hazard is one of three Fitzgerald Estate literary trustees, the others being her mother Eleanor (née Lanahan) and Chris Burns, a Vermont-based former literary agent. Together, they work closely with the WME Agency and F. Scott’s original publisher, Scribner (now owned by Simon & Schuster).
Her responsibilities as a literary trustee include coordinating between agents and publishers, consulting on film and television projects, fielding permissions requests, working on new editions and collections, giving interviews and speaking at literary conferences.
The role is time-consuming, “but I really enjoy it,” Hazard says. “It’s very satisfying work.” Sometimes work spills into play. “People who love Fitzgerald love a party,” Hazard says, smiling. In late June, she attended the Fitzgerald Society’s weeklong conference in New York, featuring a speakeasy cabaret and a reception at the Irish consulate.
There’s no boilerplate for literary estates. With the Fitzgerald Estate, the literary trust handles the publishing aspects of the business, while commercial licensing is run through a separate entity, the Fitzgerald Estate Limited.
Hazard is one of eight great-grandchildren to F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Scottie, their only child, was Hazard’s grandmother. Each branch of the family — descendants of Scottie’s three surviving children — is represented on the board of the Fitzgerald Estate Limited, of which Hazard is now president. She oversaw the estate’s recent partnership with global licensing firm IMG for future projects.
Among the first literary trustees to the Fitzgerald Estate was the late author’s son-in-law, Samuel “Jack” Lanahan, a prominent Washington tax attorney and founding partner of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.
“He made amazing deals for the estate that are still in place—really elegant legal work that added to the legacy so beautifully,” Hazard says, of her grandfather. “I’ve gotten to see and better understand what he did as we work with these original agreements. He really inspired me to become an attorney.”
Hazard’s mother, Eleanor, is an artist and writer. Her father, Rowland, is an emeritus professor of orthopedics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. Hazard along with her twin brothers grew up in the college town of Burlington, Vermont. She studied literature at Sarah Lawrence and Harvard before embarking on a career in music.
With creative partner John Dragonetti, Hazard formed The Submarines in Boston, later moving the duo to Los Angeles, where they recorded three studio albums. Hazard also released two solo albums in 2013 and 2017. For years the band toured internationally and licensed its songs for exclusive use in film, television and advertising, including two Apple iPhone commercials.
“You’ve probably heard us in the background of your life somewhere if you walked into a Starbucks or watched TV or popular films in the aughts and 2010s,” Hazard says. The Submarines are in hiatus now, but some royalty checks come in. “Apparently people still listen to our music, which is awesome,” she says.
Hazard’s experience as an artist in the music industry deepened a pre-existing appreciation for the law.
“Some of my most important relationships were with music attorneys,” she says, pointing to New York-based entertainment lawyers Richard Grabel and Jonathan Horn. Grabel “guided the start of my career brilliantly,” helping Hazard avoid a bad deal early on. Thanks to Horn, whom she calls “a helpmate and an inspiration,” The Submarines still retain ownership of their catalogue, with lasting financial and artistic benefits.
For Hazard, becoming a lawyer had always been the long-term plan. “One dreams of being able to make art forever, but I knew there would be a full second chapter of my life, and I really wanted to do something challenging and exciting. I knew law school was my next step.”
She’d intended to become a music attorney, but at USC Gould she developed an unexpected taste for estate planning, trusts and tax law — subjects she’d erroneously assumed to be dry and only of use to the wealthy.
“It turns out there’s quite a lot that can be done in the policy world to help create generational wealth more broadly,” she says. “I’m very much focused on equity, and by the time I finished law school, I was certain this is what I’d try to do.”
Ironically, it was her success as a musician that held Hazard back.
“Every so often I would say, ‘The music is going well. I’ll give it two more years.’ This kept going for quite a while.”
The timing was finally right in 2018 — the same year she married Amazon Music executive Stephen Brower. Though not himself an attorney, Hazard’s husband regularly huddles with music attorneys and knows the business thoroughly. He encouraged her throughout the process of earning her JD. The couple is expecting their first child later this summer.
It was a visit to Professor Jodi Armour’s classroom that clinched Hazard’s choice of law school.
“I looked around the room — the way people were interacting, joking around and supporting each other — and I just knew these are my people,” she recalls.
With USC Gould as her target, she applied early decision— “which I now feel slightly evangelical about,” she says. “I’m always telling people about this unbelievable opportunity, where you receive a half-tuition scholarship if accepted.”
Hazard also took advantage of USC Gould’s summer pre-law bootcamp to help settle her academic jitters after years away from the classroom.
Her time at USC Gould was filled with surprises. Muscling through the isolation of pandemic lockdowns and remote learning, she got involved with Spotlight, USC Gould’s entertainment law journal, rising from articles editor to editor-in-chief. She was also president of the Music Law Society and active in the Entertainment Law Society.
All the while, her literary trustee work hummed along in the background. As a 1L, she played a major role in adaptations of The Great Gatsby for a graphic novel and an Apple TV series.
A summer internship in the entertainment group at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP plunged Hazard into the weeds of movie production and music contracts, book-to-film deals, literary option purchase agreements, and the like. “The incredible variety of deals I was exposed to was really exciting,” she says.
Among her favorite USC Gould courses were Michael Chasalow’s business law offerings and Clare Pastore’s “Civil Procedure.”
“I went in very much on an entertainment track but I also fell in love with business and tax law,” she says. “I certainly didn’t see that coming.”
With the centennial of Fitzgerld’s magnum opus winding down, Hazard is turning her attention to new projects. She’s currently consulting on an adaption of Tender Is The Night for Fox Studios led by Pachinko creator Soo Hugh and produced by LuckyChap.
Hazard hopes to start practicing law soon, though it remains unclear in what context. Big law has its attractions but so does working in a creative capacity.
Her legal training continues to come in handy.
“Even on the creative side, it really helps me organize my thoughts and be concise,” she says.
Becoming an attorney hasn’t muzzled her inner artist. Though Hazard no longer performs in The Submarines, she continues to sing and compose music.
Only now, as with Gatsby’s rare smiles, there’s “a quality of eternal reassurance” that hovers around her.
Previous Article
