IP・Sports and Entertainment Law Conference at Las Vegas

”Bright Lights, Big Opportunities – Best Bets in IP, Sports, and Entertainment Law”

Last week, from November 14th to 16th, I attended the above conference hosted by the ABA (American Bar Association). The title is also kind of sparkly, and it seems appropriate for a sports and entertainment conference. For details, please see this link. The reasons for the participation were: 1. I want to go back to the basics of what made me want to become a lawyer – I wanted to be an entertainment lawyer and now I want to focus my future practice on entertainment and IP, and 2. As I wrote in the announcement as separate blog, the three of us are starting a law firm in LA (There are lots of entertainment corporations in LA, so we couldn’t think of anywhere else in California other than LA for the place of incorporation), and we are considering practicing in entertainment as one of our specialties, so I thought it was worth to meet lawyers who currently involved in entertainment and found out what the current issues were.

Additionally, as I wrote in my blog before, the reason I decided to take the US Bar exam in the first place was because I was inspired by meeting many American lawyers at the ABA Annual Event in 2011, but I’ve never attended an ABA event even after I became a solo practitioner from an ABA associate member. I listened to the advice of female judicial scriveners and immigration law specialists who attended similar types of conferences despite their busy schedules, and decided to attend the event even I only spent 4 nights and 6 days for this event.

1. Conference Program

The three-day event was managed by an app called Eventsential, starting from the morning reception. You can enter the venue as you like after selecting the event you want to attend and tapping ‘check-in’ from 15 minutes before. The app also includes reference materials for the program, so you are free to view them or download and save them. At two programs of morning or afternoon session, there are three programs prepared at the same time, so it was hard to decide which one to attend. I mainly chose to participate in events related to my practice, such as music, copyright, issues related to contracts and AI, the latest cases of trademarks, and how to negotiate performance contracts. Although it depends on the ability of the moderator, most of the programs were interesting and informative, so I’m glad I attended.

However, one thing that comes with such events is the opportunity to network. There were about 200 participants, half of whom were panelists, about 30 were law school students, and the rest were generally acquaintances of the panelists. At the reception, breakfast, paid lunch, and other events on the first day, students introduced themselves to the speakers, but I didn’t see any first-time greetings like them. I think the only another person from overseas who attended besides me was a Canadian lawyer, so it was pretty tough to communicate with other attendees. I was worried about how to blend in, but on the morning of the second day, I happened to be in the elevator with Diane Kurausz, an entertainment lawyer from New York, who introduced me to a lawyer she knows, which I was really grateful for. Since I thought it was too much for her to stuck all the time, so I kept a reasonable distance and worked alone and took notes most of the time. If I participate next year, I’ll have to bring someone with me.

2. Usher’s Live Performance

Before coming to Las Vegas, I was looking for events on the second and third nights (I finally decided to go ahead to LA on the third night because the hotel fee was two times in the weekend and I had to get up at 3am for the flight ahead to LA). I discovered that Usher was going to be performing at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the 15th and 16th. At first, I was hesitant about going to this kind of concert alone, thinking that I would stand out from the crowd (I imagined that there were almost no white nor Asian people there), but I encouraged myself to go because I was going to an entertainment conference and would regret it if I didn’t go to his concert afterwards. Fortunately, I could get a resale ticket for about 12,000 yen, so I decided to go. I had seen posts saying that I would have to wait until the artist himself appeared, but since the venue was huge (20,000 people capacity), I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get to my seat unless I got there early, so I arrived by Uber at 7:30pm when the concert was scheduled to start at 8:00pm. However, Usher’s appearance was announced at 9:00pm as scheduled, and until then the DJ was livening up the venue, and the arena turned into like a huge club. It was fun, but I was concerned about what time I would be able to go back to Hotel. But once Usher appeared right after 9 o’clock, the singing, dancing, and stage composition were really super excellent and the audience was really into it. I left the venue almost two hours later, but due to traffic congestion, I didn’t get to the hotel until after 12 o’clock and I was too excited to sleep even after I went back. It is absolutely best way to see American artists’ live performances in the US – the performance and audience attitudes are totally different.

3. About Las Vegas

The program on the last day of the conference was the end at 1pm, so I had about two hours before going to the airport, so I went to a shopping mall called Fashion Show on the main street. It’s convenient because it has stores like Anthropologie (so called the select shop like Beams that you never get bored of looking at) and Victoria’s Secret (I can’t wear sexy nylon underwear because I have allergies, but this place actually has a wide selection of cotton items, including stylish pajamas). There’s also a drugstore CVS next door of the mall, and I realized this was really a comfortable than LA. At Las Vegas, we do not have to use a car, just walk for minutes then can reach the stores.

Also, last time I went to LA, I was experienced how LA became more dangerous area, and a junkie took my smartphone while I was on the bus, so I was pretty careful this time. However, it seems Las Vegas is pretty safe, with 24-hour buses running even at night, and it’s okay to walk along the main street. I used Uber to get to and from Usher’s concert. When you call Uber, it will come right away. It’s interesting that a city famous for its casinos is safe because there are so many tourists who come to play in the casinos, but I didn’t see any homeless people or junkies, and although it’s a bit cold at night, it’s comfortable during the daytime. In addition to the event I attended (the conference was held at here and I stayed at Hilton), there are hotels and convention centers with conference spaces, and they’re doing F1 this week, so I think it’s successful as a place to attract customers. I didn’t use the casino at all this time as well as before, but it’s convenient for shopping and eating, so I thought it would be nice to go again. Just note that the program with the ABA label will be held in a different place next year, which is a bit disappointing.