Law Times

Law Times • June 4, 2018 Page 11 www.lawtimesnews.com No clear trail to follow Lawyers help artists with unique legal needs BY MICHAEL MCKIERNAN For Law Times P aul Sanderson stood out among his colleagues at Osgoode Hall Law School in the early 1980s. "A lot of them had fallen into law and didn't really know what they wanted to practise," he ex- plains. "But I was laser-focused. I was there to make the plight of musicians and other artists bet- ter, and there was nothing else I was interested in." Without a well-worn trail to follow, Sanderson blazed his own, taking any seminar he could that touched on entertain- ment law, and even convincing a film law professor to let him write his paper on the law as it affects music rights. Outside the classroom, he could be found in local bars, ply- ing his other trade as a guitarist. In fact, he'd only made the leap to law after trying out a string of part-time jobs in order to make ends meet while attempting to build a following as a perform- ing artist. One of those tempo- rary gigs saw Sanderson work- ing as a legal messenger at Bor- den and Elliott, a predecessor of Bay Street giant Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. "It made a big impression on me because I could see that the lawyers were paid a lot of re- spect, which was something I was short of in the bars where I was trying to make a living," he says. "I thought if I could marry those two disciplines it would be perfect because I could continue to play while at the same time practising in a field I was inter- ested in." More than three decades later, the principal at Sanderson Law in Toronto has established himself as a leader in the field of arts and entertainment law, in part through his authorship of the seminal legal text Musicians and the Law in Canada. Mean- while, you can still catch him performing live this summer at a variety of festivals as part of the group Blue Room. "I've been able to get some economic stability and be the patron of my own arts," says Sanderson, who is also a pub- lished poet and award-winning photographer. Sanderson co-founded Art- ists' Legal Advice Services, a legal clinic providing free sum- mary advice, with the aim of helping younger artists across all disciplines, but he says his dual role as legal professional and performer also lends him cred- ibility with his more seasoned clients as he helps them navigate the challenges of a changing landscape. "When I first started, record deals were mainly geared toward vinyl records. Since then, we've cycled brief ly through cassettes and into the CD era, which be- gan around 1989 and ran its course into the 2000s. They're still around, but [they] have been overtaken by downloads and now streaming," he says. "It all affects the deals, which is what we're all about in an entertain- ment practice. "In many ways, those in the music industry have been canar- ies in the coal mine for the way that people consume digitally and online," Sanderson adds. Similar issues have vexed some of the media production clients of Ottawa-based Ed- wards PC. "Technology has changed very rapidly, and the result has been some very significant changes in the business models around the creation, financing and distribution of entertain- ment products," says Mark Ed- wards, the firm's principal. "The producers, who are most fre- quently our clients, are scram- bling to try and find out where the market is, and even if they can find one, how to turn it into production funding. "The Copyright Act strug- gled a little to keep up, and the same can be said of some of the tax credits," he adds, noting that it's only in the last year that the Canadian Audio-Visual Certifi- cation Office, which administers tax credit programs run by the federal government, announced a reinterpretation of its enabling legislation to extend eligibil- ity to productions exhibited on- line, rather than exclusively on more traditional outlets, such as mainstream broadcasters or movie theatres. Both Edwards and his col- league, fellow entertainment lawyer Byron Pascoe, draw on their own experience in the cre- ative industry when advising clients. After his undergraduate degree, Pascoe co-founded an independent production com- pany focused on TV and new media, while Edwards took a break from private practice to join a client animation company and then founded a game plat- form for professional and colle- giate sports before returning to the practice of law. "They appreciate our legal FOCUS See Organization, page 13 Paul Sanderson says he became a lawyer 'to make the plight of musicians and other artists better, and there was nothing else I was interested in.' Technology has changed very rapidly, and the result has been some very significant changes in the business models . . . Mark Edwards Powered by • Writing for Digital Channels • Harnessing the Digital Medium • Integrated Marketing • The Age of Analytics • Using Social Media to Gain a Competitive Advantage SEATING IS LIMITED JUNE 12 | TORONTO www.legalmarketingmasterclass.com Climb higher with digital marketing Your clients are online and they're increasingly social. To grow your firm you need to build and harness your own personal brand and maximize traffic to your digital assets. Untitled-4 1 2018-05-31 4:44 PM

• Cover