Hollywood ’25: Survive or Thrive

49th Annual Entertainment Symposium

Friday, June 27, 2025 | Schoenberg Hall, UCLA

Keynote: Dana Walden, Co-Chairman, Disney Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company

Hollywood ’25: Survive or Thrive confronts a defining moment for the entertainment industry. In a year marked by rapid disruption—AI’s reckoning, production flight from Hollywood, and the shifting ethics of defamation law—this year’s Entertainment Symposium brings together the key players shaping what’s next. Anchored by a keynote conversation with Dana Walden, Co-Chairman, Disney Entertainment at The Walt Disney Company, the day features urgent, incisive discussions on crisis management on set, the monetization of creative IP in the age of generative AI, and whether California can reclaim its role as the heart of global production. As business, creative and legal stakeholders grapple with industry headwinds, this is where strategy meets survival, and where a path to thriving hopes to emerge.

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9:30 to 9:35 AM (PDT)

Welcome & Dean's Remarks

Presenter:

• Dean Michael Waterstone, Dean and Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

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9:40 to 10:25 AM (PDT)

The Future of Content in the Post Pay TV World

Presenter:

• Michael Nathanson, Founder, MoffetNathanson

Follow-up discussion with:

• Lucas Shaw, Managing Editor, Bloomberg News
• Interviewed by Elsa Ramo, Founding and Managing Partner, RAMO

CA General MCLE Credit: 0.75 Hour
NY Areas of Professional Practice Credit: 0.5 Hour

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10:30 to 11:25 AM (PDT)

Hollywood v. the World: Competing Incentives and the Future of Production

Are empty Hollywood sound stages the new normal? Hollywood has traditionally been the center of the universe when it comes to making top quality film and television shows. And the United States remains the dominant market with respect to the consumption of content. In recent years, however, fewer productions are actually produced on the stages of Hollywood studios. As the studios and independent producers chase tax credits in other states and foreign countries, has Los Angeles lost its luster as the film production capital of the world? Many states and countries continue to lure productions with aggressive tax credits, infrastructure investments and workforce training programs—at LA’s expense. What can we do to keep the production and jobs in California that bring in billions to the local economy? Is it too late?  This panel will assess the path forward to return film and TV production to California, and what real reforms are needed to stay competitive.

Moderator:

• Sophia Yen, Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Panelists:

• Ali Jazayeri, Managing Director, Head of Global Lending, TPC
• Dee Dee Myers, Senior Advisor to Governor Newsom, Director, Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz)
• Hal Sadoff, Producer | Strategic Advisor in Media & Entertainment

CA General MCLE Credit: 1.0 Hour
NY Areas of Professional Practice Credit: 1.0 Hour

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11:25 AM to 11:35 AM (PDT)

Networking Break

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11:35 AM to 12:35 PM (PDT)

Keynote

• Dana Walden, Co-Chairman, Disney Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company
• Interviewed by Ken Ziffren ’65, Co-Founder and Partner, Ziffren Brittenham LLP

CA General MCLE Credit: 1.0 Hour
NY Areas of Professional Practice Credit: 1.0 Hour

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12:35 to 1:45 PM (PDT)

Lunch & Networking Break

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1:45 to 1:55 PM (PDT)

A Few Words about Tumult

Presenter:

• Doug Lichtman, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law & Faculty Director, Ziffren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology & Sports Law

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2:00 to 2:55 PM (PDT)

With Reckless Disregard: the Evolution & Ethics of Defamation Claims in a Polarized Era
The John H. Mitchell Panel on Ethics and Entertainment 

As our society becomes more polarized and media scrutiny intensifies, high-profile defamation cases are pushing the limits of legal ethics, public discourse and constitutional protections. Our panel of experts will dive into the world of media and celebrity defamation litigation, exploring the delicate—and often explosive—balance between zealous advocacy and ethical responsibility. This discussion will also spotlight the growing movement to challenge New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that gave us the “actual malice” standard that insulates publishers from many defamation claims. Is Sullivan still good law—or good enough?  Or does the actual malice standard enable publishers to go to press with thinly researched stories that fail under the weight of factual scrutiny? And what are the ethical responsibilities of attorneys that vet these stories prior to publication to ensure truthfulness and accuracy and once published, must litigate these claims when they turn out to be untrue and damaging to their subjects?  This panel will examine the crossroads among law, ethics, media and free speech to find balance between truth, reputation and the First Amendment.  

Moderator:

• Eriq Gardner, Founding Partner, Puck

Panelists:

• Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., Partner, Gibson Dunn
• Camille Vasquez, Partner, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

CA Legal Ethics MCLE Credit: 1.0 Hour
NY Ethics and Professionalism Credit: 1.0 Hour

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3:00 to 3:55 PM (PDT)

Entertainment First Aid Kit: Crisis Prevention, Protection, Management & Mitigation

There’s been a development on set, perhaps a terrible accident or a conflict between performer and director and one of them has walked, or some other calamity. Now what? This panel will discuss how to manage and mitigate production risk through contractual protections including how to insure against catastrophic losses, what to look for in the so-called boilerplate, the types of insurance available and other strategies that may save the project. And what to do if you find yourself in the position of having to deal with an accident on set, an insurance claim or a shutdown. Whether you are or represent the leading talent on a Hollywood franchise, the studio trying to meet a network air date, or  the financier on an indie film, what should you do and when should you do it if and when the unexpected, and unfortunate, happens during production.  

Moderator:

• Dori Lerner, Senior Vice President, LBW Insurance and Financial Services, Inc.

Panelists:

• Yolanda T. Cochran, Head of Production, Imagine Entertainment & Jax Media
• Bryan Freedman, Founding Partner, Liner Freedman Taitelman + Cooley, LLP
• Dan Stutz, Owner, Stutz Law Corp.

CA General MCLE Credit: 1.0 Hour
NY Areas of Professional Practice Credit: 1.0 Hour

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3:55 to 4:10 PM (PDT)

Networking Break - Schoenberg Hall Terrace

UCLA Law Alumni Networking - Room 1325

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4:10 to 5:05 PM (PDT)

To License or Not to License: Is That the AI Question?

Who gets paid when AI gets trained? In the aftermath of copyright cases filed by authors and owners of intellectual property against generative AI companies that make platforms like ChatGPT, Claude (Anthropic) and Cohere, a burgeoning licensing marketplace has emerged. Without surrendering completely, the theory and defense that free use protects against copyright claims for AI “training,” many AI companies have now begun to license content as source material to train AI models. Major players—from The Atlantic to News Corp., Vox Media, Shutterstock, and Reddit—are striking licensing deals with AI companies, ushering in an entirely new marketplace for content rights in the age of machine learning.  Behind the scenes, industry clearinghouses are forming to represent the interests of publishers, studios, songwriters, and other rights holders across every form of media. Join our experts as we unpack this fast-moving and high-stakes frontier in IP law and digital economics. We’ll explore the structure of these groundbreaking deals, what’s at stake for creators and tech giants alike, and how IP owners get paid for the use of their work in an AI-powered world.

Moderator:

• Andrew Wallenstein, President and Chief Media Analyst, Variety Intelligence Platform

Panelists:

• Trip Adler, Co-Founder & CEO, Created by Humans
• Seth Goldstein, General Counsel & Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs, Music AI
• Varun Shetty, Head of Media Partnerships, OpenAI

CA General MCLE Credit: 1.0 Hour
NY Areas of Professional Practice Credit: 1.0 Hour

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5:10 to 5:15 PM (PDT)

Closing Remarks

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CA MCLE: You may earn up to 5.75 total MCLE credits (4.75 hours of General credit & 1 hour of Legal Ethics credit)

NY MCLE: You may earn up to 5.50 total MCLE credits (4.5 hours of Areas of Professional Practice credit & 1 hour of Ethics and Professionalism credit)

UCLA School of Law is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. This session is approved for  5.75  hours of MCLE credit.