How do you know which law schools produce the most/smartest/best/most powerful entertainment lawyers?
Like any ranking, IT DEPENDS.
If you're interested in the 100 "most powerful" Hollywood lawyers as defined by The Hollywood Reporter (the industry bible in... Hollywood), you can go look at this list.
Keep in mind that "entertainment law" is a big umbrella, so the list might look different if it were focused on, say, sports law or musical theater or the written oeuvre of Stephen King.
I love the little blurbs they give for each person, including "the most surprising budget line item I’ve fought over" (Jamie Feldman of Lichter Grossman: "Pole dancing trainer." Lev Ginsburg of Ginsburg Daniels Kallis: "A streaming platform’s policy against reimbursing its own executives for their subscriptions to that platform.”) Huh.
I also love that they identify each person's law school, so you can get a sense of the depth and breadth of institutions attended.
By my count, here are the most represented schools among the Hollywood Reporter's Top 100 Power Lawyers 2024:
UCLA: 15
Harvard: 14
Columbia: 7
USC: 6
Berkeley: 5
Southwestern (L.A.): 5
Georgetown: 4
NYU: 4
Cardozo (NYC): 3
Loyola (L.A.): 3
Michigan: 3
Stanford: 3
BTW, if you ever want to hear about the nightmare that was working on the film finance deal for possibly the worst movie ever made — Battlefield Earth — hit me up. It will be triggering for me, but perhaps enough time has passed. 😂