hleib@tourolaw.edu

Entertainment Law

Howard Leib is an intellectual property and entertainment attorney, an educator and a consultant with his own practice in both New York City and Ithaca, NY. He offers a full range of legal services, with specialties in entertainment, corporate, trademark and copyright law, including litigation.

Through the years, Leib has worked with artists such as Whitney Houston, B.B. King, Kiss, BeBe & CeCe Winans, Bobby McFerrin, and Judy Collins. Corporate clients have included MCA, BMG, Atlantic Records, Arista Records, Rhino Entertainment, Shout Factory Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. As a consultant, Leib has worked with companies such as Nickelodeon, Rhino and Golden Books Family Entertainment. Leib acts as attorney for many companies and individuals in the entertainment industry and as a consultant for individuals and companies seeking an understanding of the children's entertainment market and where it is going.

Howard has served on the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association Entertainment and Sports Law Section, where he was chair of the Music Committee and editor of the section newsletter. He has been a member of the Board of Contributing Editors of "Entertainment Law and Finance." He teaches both Entertainment Law and Music Law at Cornell’s College of Law and Trademark Law at Syracuse University’s Law School. He also teaches Entertainment Law at Touro College’s College of Law. He has taught “Entertainment Law for Producers” at New York University’s School of Professional Studies and Media Law for Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. Leib teaches and has taught for a variety of educational institutions on line. These include National Paralegal College, National Juris University and Kaplan University.

As an entertainment lawyer and consultant, Leib has built a specialty for himself in the field of children's entertainment. Over three decades ago, while at one of our country's top entertainment law firms, Leib became involved in the children's entertainment industry. He has represented such acts as Raffi, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Lightyear Entertainment (producers of the award-winning "Stories to Remember" series), Kid Rhino, and Bob McGrath of "Sesame Street."

In 1997, Leib, created the BrainCamp conference, providing a forum for those at the top of the kids' entertainment industry to meet, exchange ideas and socialize in an informal and informative environment. For over a decade, BrainCamp was the only high-level, cross-media conference geared to major players in children's entertainment. Leib also founded and published BrainCamp News, a weekly e-mail newsletter on issues of import within the kids' entertainment industry, which was distributed to more than 5,000 people in over 50 countries.

 

In addition to his work as an attorney, consultant and seminar producer, Leib has always participated in his community. In 2012, he ran for New York State Senate from the 51st Senatorial District. He has been a member of a New York City Community Board, sits or has sat on numerous boards of directors and sang with a chorus made up of lawyers,

judges and other legal professionals. He has been an associate member of the board of the international public television organization INPUT. Howard also sat on and served as Programming Chair of the Board of Cinemapolis, Ithaca’s not-for-profit art cinema, where frequently created and programed specialty programming events for the theater.

Leib occasionally ventures into the creative world. He hosts “No Soap Radio,” on WRFI-FM, the community radio station in Ithaca, NY. He is student and historian of comedy and has tried his hand as a stand-up comedian, Leib served as producer of Rhino Records' critically acclaimed 4 CD compilation "But Seriously - The American Comedy Box" which traced the history of American recorded comedy from its roots in the early 1900s to the 1990s. Leib has also produced comedy records for Shout Factory and Sony

Wonder's Nick at Nite label, including Bob Newhart's Grammy nominated "Button Down Concert" CD. Leib's releases include "New York Songs" on the Rhino label and “Now That Sounds Kosher” for Shout Factory. On video, Howard produced “The Best of the Electric Company” for Shout Factory. He appeared as a regular panelist on “In Seven Days,” a McLaughlin Group like program on Time Warner Cable in Manhattan with lawyers as panelists.

Leib's work has appeared in various publications over the years. In addition to his previously mentioned weekly BrainCamp News and various articles in Entertainment Law and Finance, where Leib was a member of the editorial advisory board, his articles and commentaries have seen print in such publications as “Billboard,” “The Comic's Bible,” “Goldmine,” and the Children's Music Network's “Pass It On.” He has recently written “How Your Trademark Can Enter the U.S. Market Before You Do” for MCI Law Review of Madagascar (November 2020) and the chapter “Stand Up in Your Classroom” for the book Teach Law with a Sense of Humor: Why (and How to) Be a Funnier and More Effective Law Teacher and Laugh All the Way to Your Classroom? to be published February 2021.

Leib holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and urban studies from Columbia University. He received a Juris Doctor with honors from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he worked on both the Law Review and the Law Revue, while also serving as a member of the Moot Court Board. He lives in Ithaca, NY with his wife Marcie.