Episode 6:Sistahs in Diverse Representation
Charity G: [00:00:00] Hey, y'all! Thank you for joining me for episode six of the Sistahs in Law podcast. This is a podcast featuring intimate conversations with Black women in law. Every other week, we will listen to stories from Black women about their trials, triumphs and tribulations navigating careers in the legal field.
Today I have a fun episode for you all after my little hiatus. I'm excited to introduce you all to Jaia Thomas. If you haven't heard of her yet, after hearing this episode, you'll be glad you became acquainted with her.
Jaia Thomas is a Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment attorney. With over 10 years of experience [00:01:00] on both coasts, Jaia has been quoted as a legal expert in publications, such as the New York Times and USA Today. She has served as a panelist for the Los Angeles County Bar Association and Beverly Hills Bar Association, and a speaker for several sports and entertainment law conferences throughout the country. She has several articles published in journals, including Pace I.P., Sports and Entertainment Law Journal, Journal of Sports Media and the American Bar Association. Jaia is currently an adjunct professor at UCLA where she teaches a course titled "Copyright Law and the Entertainment Industry" and all-day seminar titled "The Nuts and Bolts of Starting a Law Practice." Prior to her appointment at UCLA, she was an adjunct professor at American University in Washington, D.C. where she taught graduate students about the inner workings of production company formation. She has guest lectured at several colleges and universities, including Stanford Law School, and Georgetown [00:02:00] Law School. Jaia is also a contributor to Forbes where she writes about the intersection of diversity and the entertainment industry.
Jaia recently launched Diverse Representation, a company aimed at increasing the exposure and hiring of Black agents, attorneys, managers and publicists in the sports and entertainment industries. In addition to providing the first ever comprehensive database of Black agents, attorneys, managers, and publicists in the sports and entertainment industries, Diverse Representation also hosts various events and programs. For more information, please visit www.diverse representation.com. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Jaia Thomas is a graduate of Colgate University and the George Washington University Law School. She also holds a certificate in Television, Film, and New Media Production from the University of California, Los Angeles. All right after all of these bonafides let's get into this interview
[00:03:00]
Hello, Jaia. Welcome to the Sistahs in Law podcast.
Jaia T: [00:03:21] Hi, thanks for having me.
Charity G: [00:03:23] I'm so excited to talk to you today! Ever since I read your recent guest column in the Hollywood Reporter, I've wanted to pick your brain.
Jaia T: [00:03:32] Well, thank you for reading it. And thanks for having me. I'm super excited for this conversation and I love the name of this podcast, so I love everything about it.
Charity G: [00:03:40] Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. So, I like to start with this first question to kind of get acquainted with my guests, to see a little bit about their origin story. So, what is your origin story and where are you and your people from.
Jaia T: [00:03:55] I am from the Midwest originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. My [00:04:00] people are not from the Midwest. My parents are transplants. My dad is from Tuskegee, Alabama. So, my entire side of his family still lives in Tuskegee. And my mom is from Georgia. She's from a small town called Montezuma, which is about 30 minutes outside of Macon, Georgia.
And so, my parents are Southerners and they moved to Cincinnati, right after they got married. So, my people are from the South, but I am from the Midwest.
Charity G: [00:04:25] I'm from Georgia too. So, shouts out to Georgia!
Jaia T: [00:04:28] Awesome. Have you ever heard of Montezuma? It's super small. Have you ever heard of it before?
Charity G: [00:04:33] I think so like randomly once, but I wouldn't be able to tell you where it was. So, I'm glad you, you gave everyone that geographic reference.
Jaia T: [00:04:42] It's very, it's very quaint. And she went to school in Georgia, too. My mom went to undergrad at Savannah State and then grad school at Clark Atlanta.
Charity G: [00:04:50] Very cool. Yeah, definitely a Georgia girl.
Jaia T: [00:04:54] Absolutely!
Charity G: [00:04:56] Yeah. So, kind of jumping into your law [00:05:00] school experience, why did you decide to attend law school? And then why did you choose the law school that you ultimately went to?
Jaia T: [00:05:08] Sure, great question. So, I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer, ever since I was probably like in junior high school. Whenever I found out what a lawyer is, that's when I knew that's what I wanted to be. Just because I felt like that was the way to help people. And that's something I was always passionate about doing, especially helping people who look like me.
And it felt like the legal industry was one way to do that. So ever since I was like 13 or 14, I wanted to be a lawyer and I really just stayed on that path throughout high school college. And I went to college in upstate New York in a small town in upstate New York. After college or when I was trying to decide where I wanted to go to law school after kind of being in this small town for four years, I decided, okay, now I want to be in a big city.
I, you know, it was great for undergrad cause it helped me to really focus, without a lot of distractions being in the small town, but it was like for law school, I needed to be in the city. So that really narrowed down the schools I was gonna apply to. And I [00:06:00] really applied to schools in Chicago, Washington, DC, New York City.
And I ended up going with George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC because Washington DC is kind of the epicenter of the legal industry. And so, I felt like if I'm in DC, you know, I'm going to have access to all of this information and all of these legal resources since DC is the capital.
And the other thing I liked about GW when I visited is it didn't feel sterile. You know, a lot of other law schools feel a little stuffy, a little sterile. When I visited GW, it's like right in the heart of DC everyone just seemed a lot more relaxed, laid back and I just really enjoyed the time I went to visit.
So those are kind of the main reasons why I decided to go to GW. And honestly, I had a great experience those three years. So, it was an amazing time.
Charity G: [00:06:45] Hmm. Wow. Not many people can say that honestly.
Jaia T: [00:06:50] I hear all these horror stories like, oh my God, it was horrible. Just like we were kinda kicking it. Like we had, we had a good time. We had we had a lot of fun. It was, it was a good three years.
[00:07:00] Charity G: [00:07:00] Wow. That's amazing! So off of that if you had any advice for yourself back in law school, what kind of advice would you give.
Jaia T: [00:07:09] I think there are two pieces of advice I would give myself. One is to do a better job of networking. That's something I didn't do a great job of when I was in law school. I kind of found my friends like the first week of school and that's who I was kind of with all three years. I didn't venture out a lot outside of my circle to really try to network with like other students at the law school. And GW, I think is like the third largest law school in the United States. And, you know, I definitely didn't walk away with as many friendships and contacts as I probably should have. I really kind of just stayed close with my, my group, my circle. And in retrospect, I probably should've done a better job of meeting other students at the school, you know, while I was there. So that's probably one piece of advice I would have given myself. And the next piece of advice is to kind of ignore, what a lot of people tell you is the right route to go. You know, I think when you go to law [00:08:00] school, they kind of give you this blueprint of what you should do. You know, you go to law school, you try to work at a big firm, you get the check the end. You know, and I think there are so many other paths to go down, um, that hopefully, you know, I'm a little older, I've been out for a while. Hopefully law schools are doing a better job, but this now really just introducing a myriad of different career paths to students because there's no one right way to be a lawyer or to pursue the legal industry.
That's something I wish I would have; you know, I wish I would have just explored different things and listened to my own instinct as opposed to listening to what career services says or what the deans say you should do. You know, I should've just done what I want it to do, which to an extent I did, but I would have done it even more.
Charity G: [00:08:44] Yeah. I guess law school culture is very conformist so
Jaia T: [00:08:49] 1000%. It needs to be flipped upside down. Completely.
Charity G: [00:08:54] Yeah. I don't think they moved on that much since you've been in school, but [00:09:00] they're trying, I guess,
Jaia T: [00:09:02] Yeah, that's a good, I guess. Yeah. It's the Latin needs to be changed for sure.
Charity G: [00:09:06] Yeah, but we'll, we'll get into that a little more later. So, you started your career out in Big Law and now you're a solo practitioner. Can you kind of describe your journey from being a, a big law associate to now having your own.
Jaia T: [00:09:22] Yeah, so it was definitely, definitely was not a straight path. I definitely made a lot of twists and turns along the way throughout my career to kind of where I am now. And I won't bore your listeners with all the twists and turns that my career has taken over the years, but with regards to starting my own practice, honestly, that was never my goal to have my own practice and at a certain point after practicing for a while, I remember just being at a crossroads with my career and trying to figure out what I wanted to do. If I wanted to go in-house somewhere, if I wanted to do something completely different, or if I wanted to start [00:10:00] my own practice. And I remember being at this crossroads and talking to my parents about it, and they were actually the ones who encouraged me to start my own practice and they were kind of like, you know, you can keep making these white men wealthy, or you can make yourself wealthy you know, you can build their empire, or you can go to your own empire. And they were like, you should just go out and start your own firm. You know, there needs to be more Black women in ownership positions, you know? So, it was really that.
And my dad's an entrepreneur. He's not a lawyer, but he is an entrepreneur. So, they were actually the ones who encouraged me to start my own practice. It wasn't something I had really planned. And, and they were really the ones who pushed me like, why don't you just do your own thing? instead of making these white folks rich.
And, um, so yeah, that was kind of the impetus behind it. It was never my plan, but you know, it ended up working out well.
Charity G: [00:10:42] That's awesome. and so how would you describe your journey as a Black woman in the legal field so far over the course of, your career?
Jaia T: [00:10:51] Yeah, I mean, for the most part in my, my journey as a Black woman has been... it's definitely had its [00:11:00] challenges. And I think that's any Black woman in any field though, you know? So, I don't think being a Black woman in the legal industry is any different from being a Black woman in any industry.
And you know, I, I can't point to a ton of situations where it was kind of like the latent racism or blatant discrimination, but it's like a lot of the daily microaggressions or a lot of the daily you know, subtle ways in which people will treat you as a Black woman in this industry is something that I've definitely faced.
And even in the sports and entertainment industry, you know, when it comes to the legal side of the sports and entertainment industry, that side is still very dominated by old white men, you know, who have represented these athletes and represented these entertainers for ages. So there definitely been challenges dealing with that.
I've had Black talent, Black entertainers come up to me and explicitly say, I want a Jewish lawyer. I don't, I don't want a Black lawyer. So, you know, just things like that. Little microaggressions, little subtleties, little comments here and there, you know, is something that I've dealt with [00:12:00] throughout my entire career.
Charity G: [00:12:02] Right, right. And yeah. Like kind of getting into the nitty gritty of what you're speaking about in your Hollywood Reporter guest column, recently Jason Bolden and Law Roach had an IG Live discussion about the lack of diversity in fashion, especially behind the scenes with stylist, publicists, et cetera.
And then back in June, you wrote this insightful article about diversity in Hollywood, more generally about behind the scenes roles of even lawyers, managers, publicists. Can you talk about the issues relating to having diversity in representation in these, behind the scenes roles? And kind of like why you decided to approach this topic in this way.
Jaia T: [00:12:50] Sure. So, there are a lot of different reasons I decided to approach this topic. Well let me start with the why it's important to even talk about this. [00:13:00] Um, you know, a lot of Black athletes, a lot of Black entertainers nowadays will tweet for hours about Black Lives Matter. And I'm so pro Black and I love Black people, you know?
And then it's like, you look at their team and you don't see any Black people, you know? So it's like this constant disconnect for me, where your, your words are saying one thing, but your actions are saying something else. At the end of the day, I don't really care what you tweet about. I don't really care what you put on IG.
I want to know who are you putting money into their pockets? Who are you giving opportunities to? Who are you helping elevate? To me, that's much more important than what you put on social media and what you, you know, declare every other day. And I think there's just a huge disconnect between what people say and what people do in this industry.
And I would like to bring attention to it, you know. And call it out, call it for what it is, because if you're saying you're this, then your actions should reflect that. So that's number one. Number two for me when it comes to [00:14:00] representation on the backend, the agents, the lawyers, the publicists. For me, more than anything, it's also a financial issue.
You know, this is, this is a money piece that we're talking about. In sports and entertainment, we dominate as Black folks a lot of these industries, you know, the NBA we're over 70% of the players. The amount of money that we're pouring into white people every day, by having white agents, white lawyers, white managers is astronomical.
And the ways in which our communities could benefit from that money being circulated within our own communities is mind blowing. And how some athletes and entertainers don't see that is confusing to me. Um, and, and I'm going to keep. Yeah, and I'm going to keep bringing attention to it until I see more people step up to the plate. There's no reason all these entertainers and athletes should be making all of these, you know, white people, literally billions of dollars a year.
To me, it just makes no sense when there are overly qualified Black attorneys, agents, managers, and publicists, that can be on your team [00:15:00] period. So those for me are like the two big issues. You know, and also the other issue is. And this was kind of an obvious issue is I'm just tired of when we talk about diversity, only talking about it from one perspective, I feel like we, we talk about diversity from a very surface level perspective.
We hire one Black person. Oh, we, Ooh, we did the diversity thing, you know. Or in entertainment, we put on one Black show. Ooh, we diversity. Yes, we did that. You know, and it's like, it's such a surface. These are such surface level conversations, and these are such surface level approaches to the problem that I want us to start digging deeper.
Yes, there's a Black show on television, but who are the executives behind that show? You know, who is the team behind the show? I want us to peel back all those layers. I don't want us to just look at diversity from a surface level. And I feel like that's what we've been doing all these years.
I want to see diversity at every level. I want to see Black people succeed at every level, not just one level. And so, I'm really trying to [00:16:00] open up these conversations to make sure that they are more well-rounded when we're talking about diversity and sports and entertainment, we're not just talking about the faces we see on screen or the people we see on the court.
I want to know who's in the offices. I want to know what that ownership looks like, you know, and I want to make sure there are Black people in all those spaces. So those for me are the big issues and the reasons why I I'm so adamant about it and such an advocate for, you know, what I speak up about.
And for me, the reason why I decided to start these conversations and to start Diverse Representation was for the reasons I just mentioned. It's something that I've thought about for years as a Black attorney in the sports and entertainment space and something I've just seen firsthand, you know. A lot of my clients are Black, but oftentimes sometimes the only Black person on their team, you know, on their lawyer, but it's like the rest of the team are white men.
And, I started to ask my clients like, why don't you have more Black people in your team? What's going on? You know, let's, let's talk about it. Um, Yeah. You know, and I think that's what we have to do. We have to hold people [00:17:00] accountable. And so I will hold my clients accountable and ask those questions.
And so something that I've always had an issue with and so I finally just decided to do something about it because that's one of my other issues. When we talk about diversity in these spaces is that there's a lot of talk, but there's not a lot of action, you know? And so, I feel like we talk about these issues until our faces turn blue, but where's the action behind it? And so, for me, you know, one day I decided, you know, I can keep complaining about this. I can keep talking about this, or I can do something about it. That's when I decided to start Diverse Representation because I wanted to create a resource for people looking for Black representation and it started off as just a website listing Black agents, Black attorneys, Black publicists so that no one could ever use the excuse anymore of I can't find them. I don't know where they are. Here's a free website that lists them. So now, what's your excuse? You know, that's a little bit of the backstory.
Charity G: [00:17:49] Yeah, that's amazing. And speaking of pulling back the layers and actually doing the work, can you describe to the audience how they can get connected to [00:18:00] Diverse Representation and what the initiative is all about?
Jaia T: [00:18:03] Sure. So, then the mission of Diverse Representation is to increase the hiring and the exposure of Black agents, attorneys, managers, and publicists in the sports and entertainment industries. So, my ultimate aim is to make sure that more athletes, more entertainers are hiring Black representation, but also that more studios networks, teams, and leagues are doing the same.
You can find out more information by going to the website, diverserepresentation.com where we do have, a list of Black reps. We also post our different events. We do a lot of different events and programs throughout the year and we post all that information on our website. I would recommend people sign up for a newsletter.
We have a newsletter that goes out every month, where we do in depth interviews with different Black reps. We share different opportunities. We highlight Black reps in these spaces. So those are the best ways, you know, sign up for our newsletter, go to our website. We're also on social media, Instagram and Twitter as well.
Charity G: [00:18:55] Wow! That's awesome! Creating a big community there. I love [00:19:00] it. I. Recently was listening to another podcast that you were on and you were talking about how you unapologetically refer Black. And oftentimes in our community, we don't share opportunities as much as we should, or as much as many other communities do. So why do you think it's important to refer Black, especially in the entertainment industry and how can we counteract some of these internalized ideas about anti-blackness in our own community?
Jaia T: [00:19:31] Great question. I unapologetically refer Black because first of all, if I don't do it, who will? I think at the end of the day, if we don't look out for each other, honestly, I don't think a lot of other people are, so I mean, just to be frank. So yeah, you know, I'm going to always look out for people who look like me and be unapologetic about it.
Cause honestly that's what a lot of other communities do. And I, and I think we should do the exact same. So yeah, I just feel like if I don't look [00:20:00] out for people who look like me, who will? And I don't know. I mean, there's also just no reason not to, I just know too many, like overly qualified, Black, anything you name it and.
I can refer somebody, you know, in that space. That's also side note, another one of my goals with Diverse Representation isn't just to make sure that the athletes and entertainers know who we are, but also that we know who each other are. I think it's really important for Black attorneys to know who the Black agents are to know who the Black publicists are.
I think for a long time, we've kind of operated in our own circles. You know, the attorneys have been over here. The managers have been over here, but I think it's important for all of us to know each other so that we can all refer business to each other and really kind of create this ecosystem amongst each other.
But what can be done to counteract, you know, us not referring each other? That's a good question. It's something I probably have to think about a little bit more because honestly, I think. Some of us have just been so ingrained. It's just been so ingrained in a lot of us mentally to sometimes [00:21:00] think that the white man's ice is colder. And that's like a completely separate podcast.
Yeah. That's like, it's completely separate situation that honestly, I don't know. And you know, it's, it's something I would have to think about, but I think the more people that do it, the more that it will become not a trend, but almost like an obvious thing to do. You know? So, my hope is that like, Yeah.
The more people that do it, the more that it just becomes the norm. And that's all I can hope for. And similarly, the more Black athletes that have Black representation, the more Black entertainers that have Black representation and the more that it can become the norm, is my hope.
Charity G: [00:21:41] That is a bright future for sure. So, since lot of my audience skews towards law students want to get some advice in here about and getting into the entertainment industry. And you literally wrote the book on pursuing a legal career in the entertainment [00:22:00] industry. So, what advice do you have for law students and young attorneys trying to break in into entertainment?
Jaia T: [00:22:07] Sure. Yeah, you know, entertainment is a tough industry to break into. Everybody wants to get into it. And it is it can be difficult to, to break into. And I got into the entertainment industry, not through any connections, not through knowing anybody. I moved to Los Angeles with a one-way ticket not knowing anybody when I got here. And so, it can be challenging. That's one of the first pieces of advice I would give is to make sure that you had the tough skin and you have really the ability that just to stick it out, because it's not something that is going to manifest tomorrow.
It's not one of those careers that tomorrow you're going to be like the top entertainment attorney in Hollywood. It takes time. So, you know, just keep that in mind. To understand the industry. I think that a lot of people get into the industry but don't really even understand how it works. they have a law degree and, and they even law school doesn't really teach you how to be a lawyer most of the time, or even how to be an entertainment lawyer.
[00:23:00] But just because you go through law school doesn't mean that you're equipped tomorrow to be an entertainment lawyer. It's important to understand the legal side, but it's also really important to understand the practical side. Like you need to understand just how the industry works in general. So, if I, if I asked you, well, how is the TV show made, you should know, you know? And so, I think it's important to study that and to stay up on trends in the industry and to understand kind of what is just going on as a whole in digital and TV and film and in whatever space. Cause entertainment is a big word. So, for any students thinking about getting into the entertainment space, I would start, it's not something you need to decide today, but start thinking about what facet of the entertainment industry you want to get into because entertainment can mean fashion.
It can mean music. It can mean television. It can mean a lot of different things and most entertainment lawyers have a specific lane. So, my lane is TV, film, and sports and my sports clients are at the intersection of TV and film. They're asking to have production companies or, create content.
But that's my lane. If someone came tomorrow for a fashion agreement, [00:24:00] I'd refer it out. I don't know what that looks like. So that's something else I would say if you're thinking about getting into entertainment, think about the specific area within this space that you're interested in.
And the last thing I would say is I can't stress the importance of networking enough. And I know they say that in law school, like network, network, network, but it's even like doubly important in the entertainment industry because it's a smaller space. A lot of it is about who, you know, a lot of the work you're going to get is from people you know, a lot of the opportunities you get are going to be from people you know. There are a lot of jobs in this industry that are never posted online. They're purely just based off someone sending an email out to their network. And so, it's really important to network, build your network and be strategic about networking.
Put some thought into your emails when you're sending an email to an attorney. Don't just say, Hey, I'd love to pick your brain. You know, those will get deleted really, really, really be thoughtful about what you're asking, if somebody and what you want from somebody and be thoughtful about what you want that relationship to look like.
[00:25:00] So. I just can't stress the importance of like networking enough in this space.
Charity G: [00:25:03] Yeah, that's really great advice. I'm sure. that will be very much appreciated. And kind of going back to your original talk about how you started your boutique firm. Can you talk about legacy building and where you see the future of your career going?
Jaia T: [00:25:21] Ooh, I'm sure. In terms of where I see the future of my career going. You know, in addition to, to my law practice, I now oversee Diverse Representation. And I really foresee that we're only about two and a half years old, so we're still very new, but I do see the company growing tenfold. Right now, we had to pause it a little bit because of COVID, we're still doing things, we're still very active, but once this COVID situation is over, I do see us growing tenfold.
And I do have a small team, but I see the team growing even bigger. And in an ideal world 10 years from now, I see Diverse Representation [00:26:00] being the go-to place for Black entertainers, for Black athletes, looking for Black representation. And yeah, just more Black representation across the board in sports and entertainment, so I see that company growing tenfold. With the rest of my law practice. Honestly, I like to keep it small. it's not, I don't want it to, I actually don't want it to be like a firm that has 30 offices all over the world. I kind of like that it's boutique. And I like that. I have really good relationships with my clients and that I'm very hands-on with them and very accessible.
And I would like to keep it that way. It's gotten to the point now where, when I first started my practice, I was just like taking on anybody to just have some clients. But now I'm a lot more selective about who I bring on. And so, I like having a smaller number of clients that I have great relationships with as opposed to just having like a ton of clients that, you know, I barely really even talked to. So that's kinda what I see you know, with regards to my career. And I also teach, I teach at UCLA. And I teach a few courses there, [00:27:00] one course that I wanna always continue to teach whether there or at different universities is a course on how to start your own law practice because I think that's really important. Something law school did not teach me and something that my law school actually didn't even offer. Like I said, at the time, I didn't even know that this is what I wanted to do, but if I even knew for sure, GW didn't have a class like that to even prepare students.
And I think it's important for every law school to have a course like this. So that's something that I want to continue to build out and teach, you know, whether UCLA or really anywhere, students who are interested in starting their own practice. How to go about doing that.
Charity G: [00:27:32] Wow. That's awesome. Master of all! Black women just have so much magic going on!
Jaia T: [00:27:39] Yeah
Charity G: [00:27:41] Let's be real.
Jaia T: [00:27:46] We'll get there.
Charity G: [00:27:48] So I like to end the podcast with this question it's kind of like the trademark question of the podcast, but who is your Sistah in Law? And this can be [00:28:00] anyone from a colleague to a celebrity lawyer for lack of a better word or any legal queen that you admire.
Jaia T: [00:28:08] That's a good question! Someone that I admire an attorney that I admire would probably be I'd have to go with Kamala yeah! I would say, and Michelle, I admire both of, of what they've done with their career and the way they've been able to maneuver this industry. And branch out, you know, I, I admire the fact that they didn't just like start in one place and stay in that place the entire time that they got comfortable being uncomfortable in trying new things and blazing new paths for women who look like them.
And so, I think that's amazing. And they're also, they're also just like really. Cool women, you know I think it's great to have a great career and to be great at your career, but I think it's also great to have a great personality. You know, like I said, when I look at people, I don't just look at them to admire like what they've done, but I also, you know, look at their personality.
Like, do they [00:29:00] actually have one? You know, are they.
Charity G: [00:29:03] That can be important.
Jaia T: [00:29:04] Are they nice people? Do they have fun? Do they smile? Do they laugh? You know, so I would say those two are probably my top.
Charity G: [00:29:11] Wow. Those are two great icons to end on. but I really appreciate you being part of this podcast. do you have social media or how can the audience follow your work?
Jaia T: [00:29:22] Sure. So, I am on social media. I am on Twitter @ Jaia Thomas, J A I A T H O M A S. I'm on Instagram with the same handle Jaya Thomas. And if you want to follow Diverse Representation it is on Instagram @DiverseRepresentation. And then on Twitter @DiverseRep and also for law students who are, just a little plug at the end, for law students who are listening in for Diverse Representation, we also have a lot of programming for law students as well. last year we did, we started a masterclass series, a virtual masterclass series to educate young people about different careers in sports and entertainment. So last year [00:30:00] we did a masterclass on how to be a sports lawyer between Black sports attorneys.
This year, we're going to be doing a big one on how to be an entertainment attorney featuring Black entertainment lawyers really walking people through the steps of this is what it takes to be an entertainment lawyer. Last year we also did a partnership with Netflix where we paired Black lawyers and Black law students with attorneys at Netflix to have one-on-one sessions with them to learn the ins and outs of what does it take to be a Netflix attorney?
What do I need to do if I want to apply for a job at a place like Netflix? And so we're going to be doing more of those sessions this year for lawyers and law students. We do have different programs and events for law students. Just want to put that out there for any. Of your listeners interested in the sports and entertainment space.
Charity G: [00:30:40] A great program. I wish I had it when I was in law school. Thank you for sharing.
Jaia has such a profound and critical perspective about the entertainment industry. I hope you enjoyed our discussion. Please continue to follow her work with Diverse Representation. And if you're interested in [00:31:00] starting a career in entertainment or sports law, make sure you get connected to the masterclass series.
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