Koslyn Law

Koslyn has been practicing law since 1985, and established her own firm in 1990. She has litigated a wide variety of entertainment disputes, including recording artists suing their bandmates, recording artists being sued by their bandmates, recording artists suing their record labels, music publishers being sued by their songwriters, personal managers being sued by recording artists, recording artists suing their personal managers, soundtrack producers suing their distributors, former trademark owners being sued by their trademark buyers, joint copyright owners being sued by their co-owners, copyright and trademark owners suing alleged infringers, and alleged infringers being sued by copyright and trademark owners. One of the first cases she worked on involved the novel claim that religious scripture could be protected as trade secrets (RTC v. Wollersheim). Wollersheim pitted RTC (the Church of Scientology's trademark owner which controlled the Church's scripture), against, among others, newspaper reporters using the "reporter's privilege" to avoid disclosing their sources. A recent 2014 victory in another case involving religion was a California Constitution claim filed in Pismo Beach. Koslyn sued the City Council on behalf of the Freedom of Religion Foundation and an atheist resident of the City because the City appointed an official City Chaplain and opened their City Council meetings with prayer. Most often, these prayers were Christian prayers. Koslyn got the ideal settlement that included all the relief sought in the complaint: the City agreed to stop prayer and to terminate the position of City Chaplain, plus paid Koslyn's and the FFRF"S lawyer's attorneys' fees. The settlement was also remarkable because it happened fast, within a few weeks after the lawsuit was filed. Koslyn's most noteworthy trial resulted in winning a $14.3 million jury verdict against Marion "Suge" Knight and Death Row Records on behalf of a music producer and a music publisher (who happened to be in jail at the time for cocaine possession) who owned the rights to music of the rap artist Kurupt. $10 million of this $14.3 million jury verdict was punitive damages, and this was the 8th largest punitive damage award in California during 2000. The appellate court affirmed the trial court's ruling in favor of Koslyn's client. She has been quoted on legal issues in national publications USA Today and People, and has appeared on industry panels at the DIY Convention and University of Southern California, the KPFK radio show Samm Brown's For the Record, and on television shows Entertainment Tonight, the E! Entertainment special, "Women on the 'Net" and web television show "Asked and Answered." Pro bono work includes litigation for the Feminist Majority (Rock for Choice) and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and transactional work for CineWomen, International Global Corps, the Exceptional Children's Foundation, and Center for Inquiry. Community and pro bono involvement includes grading the California Bar Exam, judging moot court competitons at UCLA and at Pepperdine Law School, and answering a huge and rather ridiculous number of questions on Avvo.com.