April 2, 2025 – State of Music Publishing 2025 with David Israelite

AIMP LA’s annual marquis event at Lawry’s the Prime Rib with special guest, NMPA President and CEO David Israelite, as he discusses current music publishing matters.

Download David Israelite’s Presentation Slides here.

David M. Israelite is President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), a position he has held since February 2005. Israelite is responsible for overseeing all aspects of NMPA’s operations, from legal strategy and implementation to government affairs and advocacy. His leadership has produced revolutionary successes on behalf of publishers including the largest CRB rate increase in history, groundbreaking industry collaboration in royalty rate agreements, landmark settlements and model licenses with streaming platforms, and ultimately raising the profile of the publishing community. Additionally, Israelite was instrumental in guiding the effort to modernize copyright laws culminating in the Music Modernization Act (MMA) and the subsequent creation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). He has been named to Billboard’s Power 100 multiple times and serves on the boards of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Country Music Association and Special Olympics DC. He also serves as the President of the NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation (Supporting Our Next Generation of Songwriters) which supports songwriters through funding scholarships and direct services, among other assistance. Prior to leading NMPA, Israelite held senior positions in various capacities for the U.S. government including at the Department of Justice where he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General of the United States and was appointed Chairman of the Department’s Task Force on Intellectual Property. He also worked in the U.S. Senate where he was Administrative Assistant (Chief of Staff) for Missouri Senator Kit Bond. Previously, Israelite also practiced law in the Commercial Litigation Department at the firm of Bryan Cave, LLP in Kansas City, Missouri. Israelite earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri and his undergraduate degree from William Jewell College.

With Amelia Binder (NMPA), Morna Willens (NMPA), and moderator Michael Lau (AIMP)

We hope you will join us for a very special luncheon featuring “Legal Luminary” Jay Cooper, Esq. who will be interviewed by his son and music industry attorney, Todd Cooper, Esq. Speakers:
• Jay L. Cooper, Esq. is the founder of the Los Angeles Entertainment Practice and focuses his practice on music industry, motion picture, television, Internet, multimedia, and intellectual property issues. He represents individuals and companies on intellectual property matters and contract negotiations, including recording and publishing agreements for individual artists and composers; actor, director, producer, and writer agreements in film and television; executive employment agreements; complex acquisitions and sales of entertainment catalogs; production agreements on behalf of music, television, and motion picture companies, and all entertainment issues relative to the Internet and digital services. Among his Clients are Grammy, Oscar, Tony and Emmy Award recipients.
• Todd Cooper, Esq. is Of Counsel with Greenberg Traurig’s Entertainment Practice Group. His practice focuses on music industry, multimedia and intellectual property issues. He is experienced in a wide range of music and multi-media transactions and has represented individuals and companies on intellectual property matters including recording artists, songwriters, producers, personal managers, event producers, models and record executive employment agreements. Mr. Cooper has negotiated recording, distribution, and various other agreements with both major and independent record labels as well as negotiated co-publishing, sub-publishing and songwriter agreements with music publishers and has experience in complex acquisitions and sales of entertainment catalogs. Previously, Mr. Cooper worked as a recording engineer for a major Los Angeles recording studio, as a road and production manager for various touring artists as well as a personal manager for a prominent Los Angeles-based company. Todd earned his J.D. at Loyola Law School and holds a B.A. in History from UCLA. He is admitted to practice in California.

In this panel we’ll look at the latest on some high profiles copyright infringement cases including Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You,” Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” and Dua Lipa’s “Levitating.” We’ll talk about where this rash of infringement cases has come from. We’ll also discuss the new CASE Act, which is basically a small claims court for copyright infringement and what it means to you. And we’ll tie all this in to issues of social justice; past, present and, hopefully, with some solutions for the future.
Speakers:
• Heather A. Antoine, Esq. is a Partner and Chair of the Firm’s Trademark & Brand Protection practice and Co-Chair of the Privacy & Data Security practice group. Heather’s practice is focused on protecting a company’s intellectual property; a fundamental feature of every business. Her practice includes trademark clearance and selection, domestic and foreign trademark prosecution, enforcement, proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), licensing, trade secret protection, copyright, rights of publicity, domain names disputes, and counseling on brand and IP strategy. Heather believes in supporting companies at each stage – from due diligence when choosing a name, to ongoing brand management, to ensuring portfolios are safeguarded and ready for sale. Heather is also focused on guiding businesses through the ever-expanding patchwork of privacy laws, both domestically and internationally. This includes drafting privacy policies, and guidance on how to comply with specific privacy regimes, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Heather works with companies to design and strengthen their privacy and data security policies and practices, to help them prevent data security breaches, and to minimize the risk of a data breach. Heather serves as Chair of the California Lawyers Association Intellectual Property Section. Heather frequently speaks and writes about IP, Internet, tech, and privacy issues. She has been quoted in publications such as the Los Angeles Times and CNBC. Heather has been recognized by her peers for excellence in her practice, having been selected by Thomson Reuters as Southern California “Super Lawyer®” and “Rising Star®.”
• Judith Finell is a musicologist and the president of Judith Finell MusicServices Inc., a music consulting firm in New York and Los Angeles, founded 25 years ago in New York. Since then, she has served as consultant and expert witness involving music copyright infringement, advised on artist career and project development, and a wide variety of music industry topics. Recently, Ms. Finell was honored to be the 2018 commencement speaker at UCLA’s Herb Albert School of Music. She was also interviewed by NBC/Universal for a 2018 documentary entitled “The Universality of Music,” in which she discussed the ways in which she sees music as being an international language that can bridge cultural barriers that spoken language does not. Judith was the testifying expert for the Marvin Gaye family in the milestone “Blurred Lines” case in Federal Court. She has testified in many other notable copyright infringement trials over the past 20 years. She and her team of musicologists regularly advise HBO, Lionsgate, Grey Advertising, CBS, Warner, Disney, and Sony Pictures on musical works for their commercials, films, and television series. Ms. Finell also frequently advises attorneys, advertising agencies, entertainment and recording companies, publishing firms, and musicians, addressing copyright issues, including those arising from digital sampling, electronic technology and Internet musical usage. Judith was invited to teach the first course in the country on forensic musicology at UCLA in 2018. She holds an M.A. degree in musicology from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from UCLA in piano performance. She has written numerous articles and a book in the area of contemporary music and copyright infringement and has appeared in trials on Court TV and before the American Intellectual Property Law Association. She is a trustee of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., and has appeared as a guest lecturer at the law schools of Harvard University, UCLA, Stanford, Columbia, Vanderbilt, George Washington, NYU, and Fordham, as well as the Beverly Hills Bar Assn., LA Copyright Society, and the Association of Independent Music Publishers. She is co-founder and editor of Your Inside Track, a music copyright newsletter.
• Kevin J. Greene joined Southwestern’s faculty in 2020. Professor Greene is a nationally recognized entertainment and intellectual property law scholar and an expert witness consultant for copyright, trademark, publicity rights, and entertainment contract disputes. He is a highly committed, outstanding teacher as well as a passionate leader and an IP law influencer. He teaches Contracts and Copyright Law. Professor Greene was most recently a tenured Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. In addition to Contracts and Copyright, he has also taught IP, Entertainment Law, Music Law, Publicity Rights, International Entertainment Law, and IP in the Cannabis Industry.
Moderator:
• Eric Polin, Sr. VP, Music Publishing, Universal Pictures & LA Chapter Board Member