WHO’S WHO IN LAW – Russell J. Frackman

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The Business Journal raises the curtain on the legal stars who work in L.A.’s entertainment industry.

RUSSELL J. FRACKMAN, 64

Firm: Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP

Law School: Columbia University

Selected Clients: Recording Industry Association of America Inc., Motion Picture Association of America Inc., UMG Recordings Inc., EMI Music, Warner Music Group, NBC Universal, Take 2 Interactive, Jack Nicholson, Coldplay.

Years in Practice: 40

Most Challenging Case: A&M Records Inc. suit against Napster Inc. for illegal downloads.

Best Career Moment: Walking up to the podium when the judge announced she was going to issue a preliminary injunction against Napster. She asked me how soon the injunction should become effective. When I stalled by glancing up, she said, “I see you are looking at the clock, and not the calendar.”

Worst: One day after the issuance of the Napster preliminary injunction when the Court of Appeals issued a stay. (It was later vacated.)

Highlight From Past Year: Four appeals in the Ninth Circuit involving novel issues: the copyright first-sale doctrine; the standing under the Copyright Act; contractual limitation provisions; and enjoining the auction of thousands of pirated recordings.

Longest Workday: Several all-day and all-nighters to finish briefs in the Napster case.

How My Practice Is Changing: The Internet has and continues to change my practice by revolutionizing the nature, magnitude and ramifications of infringement, and by requiring the courts and lawyers to attempt to adapt traditional copyright principles to ever-changing technologies not anticipated by the law.

If I Weren’t an Attorney: I would be a history professor or unemployed.

My Colleagues Don’t Know: I played baseball with my boyhood idol, Phil Rizzuto, at the New York Yankees’ dream camp.

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