Erika Lee: Overture experiences influence her career trajectory in arts and entertainment law
Shari Gasper
The Tommy Awards started me down my career path and opened doors for me.
Watching a not-yet released film documentary on her laptop, attorney Erika Lee scrutinizes all non-original content for possible copyright violations. In her role as assistant director at New Media Rights, a clinical program at California Western School of Law, in San Diego, Calif., Lee provides free and low-cost legal services to creative professionals. She drafts and reviews contracts, assesses various creative works for copyright and trademark issues and defends against infringement claims.
“I do a lot of transactional preventative work, trying to spot legal issues, to set artists up for success,” said Lee. “I help them get their work across the finish line.”
Before earning her Juris Doctorate from California Western School of Law, Lee attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.
All four years at UW-Madison, Lee worked as a marketing intern at Overture Center, where she helped with onsite events before Broadway shows and season announcements, obtained marketing assets for brochures and playbills, worked at tradeshows and even managed a student ushering program for Capitol Theater shows.
“I absolutely loved it,” said Lee. “Working at Overture was one of the best parts of my college experience.”
A graduate of Catholic Memorial High School in Waukesha, Wis., Lee was familiar with Overture Center through its Jerry Awards, then called Tommy Awards, program. As a senior at Catholic Memorial, Lee won an award for her supporting role as Martha Watson in “White Christmas” during the Jerry Awards’ first season in 2009/10. In addition, she won an award for her participation in a three-part harmony with two other female leads, singing “Falling Out of Love Can Be Fun,” which the trio performed at the first annual Jerry Awards Show in June 2010.
“That was really cool as a senior to have my theater career culminate with a performance on Overture Hall stage,” she recalled. “It was such a memorable moment, so meaningful.”
After the show, she approached Tim Sauers, now Overture’s chief artistic experiences officer, to say thank you for the experience, and she mentioned she was going to college at UW-Madison in the fall. Sauers invited her to apply at Overture as an intern.
“The Tommy Awards started me down my career path and opened doors for me,” she said.
According to Lee, working for Overture was very beneficial and provided some of her initial views into arts and entertainment law. One example was learning how marketing assets could and could not be used in printed and digital materials. Also, during a Cyndie Lauper performance in Capitol Theater, she witnessed Lauper stop the concert mid-song to stop a guest from recording her performance on their mobile phone, all in the name of protecting the copyright of her music.
“These were some of the moments that fueled my interest in the area of entertainment law,” said Lee.
Lee had always planned to go to law school after obtaining her undergraduate degree, but finding a way to combine her passion for the arts with law was a bonus.
“While I enjoyed my high school theater days, I knew realistically that I wasn’t going to pursue a career on stage,” she said. “Combining my career in law with my passion for the arts made a lot of sense, and my experiences at Overture solidified my decision to go to law school in this area.”
She joined New Media Rights as an intern while in law school at California Western School of Law, then joined full-time as staff attorney upon graduation in 2017, working her way up to her current role today as assistant director.
“It means a lot to me to serve as a reliable legal resource for creative professionals,” she said. “It’s a fulfilling job, for sure.”
In addition to direct legal services and public advocacy, New Media Rights provides educational resources on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, fair use, trademarks and more.
“Educating people about intellectual property laws is important because the laws are complicated,” said Lee. “We work to translate the laws into plain language for our clients and community, so that they can more fully understand their rights as creatives.”
Overture Center and UW-Madison hold a special place in Lee’s heart, and she will always be thankful for her participation in the Jerry Awards program that led to her internship at Overture, which set the trajectory for her legal career.
As new graduates explore their future career paths, Lee says it’s important to “keep your doors open.”
“Don’t pigeon-hole yourself on one track because you never know what will come your way,” she said. “I didn’t even know arts and entertainment law was an area I could practice until I started law school. It may take a round-about way, but you really can follow your passions and love what you do.”