You may think only celebrities get to call Hollywood or NYC home. It’s the land of stars, so you have to be an aspiring actor, singer, performer or musician to live there, right? Well, think again! While Hollywood and other big cities are known for their celebrity inhabitants, not everyone who lives and works in these areas is famous. In fact, there are many positions where you can work in the entertainment industry, be around celebrities and make a good living while doing so. This isn’t a fantasy profession, and people such as John Branca have figured out how to make it work while practicing entertainment law. It’s a fun and sometimes overlooked field of study within the legal profession, but Attorney John Branca is a testament to its stability and fulfillment as a profession. If you aren’t quite sure what an entertainment lawyer does, here’s a brief rundown of some questions you may have.
Who do these lawyers represent?
You have the choice of who you want to represent within the entertainment industry. Maybe you’ve always loved music and want to work with only musicians, or maybe you love any and all things entertainment and could see yourself representing actors and models, etc. The options are endless, but your main clients would be people in the entertainment business. These creative professionals would need your assistance negotiating contracts, understanding legal steps they can take if they end up in a messy situation, protecting their reputation and arguing on their behalf if someone tries to defame them or steal intellectual property they own the rights to. Being a celebrity comes with a lot of abnormal situations and scenarios that have to be handled with the utmost integrity and knowledge. As an entertainment lawyer, you tackle those problems and help your client stay successfully working in the business.
What challenges are in the career?
Any career has good and bad attributes. While your field of study and expertise is law, you have to be someone with many tricks up your sleeve in terms of marketing and business skills. You have to be able to sell your client to other professionals looking for someone to fill a role. In addition, when business slows down, your workload can slow down, too. That’s why you need good marketing skills to showcase your expertise and skills not only surrounding law but in the entertainment industry as a whole.
If you love any and all things surrounding celebrity life but don’t want to take up too much of the spotlight, being an entertainment lawyer would get you in on the action in a more reserved and subdued way that’s still extremely exciting.
