If You Need Free Legal Advice — UCLA Law Students Are Available

Like in years past, the UCLA School of Law is providing free legal advice to Los Angeles-area music artists through its Music Industry Clinic (MIC).

The school is currently accepting applications through their website until the end of January. After this, they will accept clients on a rolling basis as space permits. The clinic itself runs from January to May of this year.

The clinic provides the opportunity for artists and others in the music industry to receive free legal advice from UCLA law students regarding an array of real-life transactional issues. Experienced music attorneys will supervise all work conducted by the students.

Those interested in receiving advice have the following two options:

1. They can receive a one-time consultation relating to general questions that they may have regarding music industry legal matters. This is helpful for those who do not have a specific legal issue or transactional matter needing help with at the moment, but would instead like to receive general legal advice as it relates to the music industry.

2. They can receive longer-term legal assistance for specific transactional issues that they face. These matters can include band agreements, management agreements, producer agreement, indie recording agreements, sample clearances and co-writer agreements.

It is important to note that MIC has a limited capacity, so they will not be able to accept all qualified applicants. They also can only handle transactional matters and not those involving litigation, such as a copyright infringement lawsuit. MIC will further require all clients to sign an agreement that stipulates all terms and conditions of their representation, and they will also perform a check beforehand for any conflict of interests that may occur. Because of this, they request that clients provide them no confidential information until a contract is signed.

Finally, those who want to participate in future clinics can add their names to MIC’s mailing list by sending a message to [email protected]