Featured Guests:
 Howard Blum
Author of American Lightning: Terror, Mystery,
the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
www.amazon.com
 Steve Murphy
Host & Executive Producer
Law Business Insider
Marilyn G. Haft joined Duval & Stachenfeld as a partner in 2004 to establish and now co-chair the Entertainment and Media Practice Group of the Firm. She specializes in the business and legal affairs of the multimedia and communication industries, including the film, television and publishing sectors. She represents film and television production and distribution companies as well as individuals in those businesses, with a specialty in structuring financing for those enterprises. In addition, she maintains impressive credentials and diverse contacts in the entertainment and political fields. Marilyn has been a law partner at a number of firms and was a test case constitutional law litigator at the national level for six years when she litigated in the State and Federal courts across the country including the U.S. Supreme Court.
She has served as General Counsel and Managing Director of a financial services company that provided short-term funding requirements for major film studios, independent film producers/distributors, cable and record companies. She was responsible for co- creating the financing structure of the transactions, and conducted due diligence on all contractual and cash flow related matters. Marilyn was also General Counsel to a publicly traded multimedia acquisitions company, where she was responsible for all aspects relating to acquisitions, including intellectual property issues involving patent, copyright, trademark and trade secrets. She is an award-winning independent film producer and has worked at NBC News and ABC News on content and production and as a producer on Peter Jennings’ specials. She was Executive Producer of an American Playhouse feature film, as well as an Emmy award-winning documentary on Preston Sturges for “American Masters” on National Public Television. She acted as a co-producer of “Grace is Gone,” the John Cusack movie that won the Audience Award and Best Screenplay Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently she acted as a co-producer on two films chosen for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, “Diminished Capacity,” starring Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen and Alan Alda, and “ Birds of America,” starring and co-produced by Hillary Swank.
Marilyn served the Carter Administration as Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison in the White House, Deputy Counsel to Vice President Walter Mondale in the White House and as a U.S. Representative to the United Nations. She was the head of the New York City primary campaign for Carter/Mondale in 1980. She was an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film and TV, where she taught entertainment law and business to third year graduate students. She is an author of general non-fiction books, including legal works. Marilyn is a graduate of the New York University School of Law where she taught as an adjunct professor, and she is a member of the Bars of New York State, the District of Columbia and the US Supreme Court.
Howard Blum, bestselling author and contributing editor for Vanity Fair, captivates readers with his latest book, American Lightning, which examines October 1910 bombing of the offices of the Los Angeles Times. The bombing killed 21 people, and seemed to portend that the vicious battle between capital and labor would escalate into the United States' second civil war. Howard analyzes the event and its aftermath from the perspective of three legendary men of the period, each of whom would "permanently transform the nature of American thought, politics, celebrity, and culture." The first, detective William Burns, led a painstaking investigation that revealed a conspiracy by the Iron Workers Union to set off bombs around the country -- the Times was targeted for its fierce anti-labor campaign. The second, famed attorney Clarence Darrow, reluctantly agreed to represent the defendants despite his belief that an acquittal would be impossible; in the low point of a distinguished career, Darrow, seen passing money to an associate who then bribed a juror, was subsequently tried for jury tampering. The third, director D. W. Griffith, had no real connection to the case, but Howard argues that his epic Birth of a Nation was informed by the events in L.A. While he doesn't provide ample evidence for that assertion, Griffith's inclusion still seems somehow fitting: Howard's true-crime drama plays out like an old movie, complete with complex heroes, mustachioed villains, and lusty dames.
Hosted by Steve Murphy.
Brought to you by "America's Premier Lawyers"
Contact:
Marilyn Haft
Partner, Duval & Stachenfeld LLP
www.dsllp.com
Howard Blum
Author of American Lightning: Terror, Mystery,
the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century
www.amazon.com
Steve Murphy
Executive Producer & Host
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