Faculty Bio
Lionel Sobel
Visiting Professor of Law
- JD, 1966, University of California, Berkeley
- BA, 1969, University of California, Los Angeles
Areas of Expertise
Professor Sobel teaches international entertainment law.
Professional Experience
Sobel practiced at Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles, and he was a founding partner at Freedman & Sobel in Beverly Hills. He has testified twice before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee about Major League Baseball’s exemption from antitrust laws. He has also testified before the California Assembly Judiciary Committee about then-pending right of publicity legislation, and before California Senate Select Committees on the Entertainment Industry and the Regulation of Talent Agencies regarding remedies for the breach of music industry recording contracts and the Talent Agencies Act. He has served as an expert witness before the United States Tax Court on intellectual property law and international licensing practices in the motion picture, music and computer software industries.
Honors and Affiliations
Sobel is profesor emeritus of Southwestern Law School. He chaired the American Bar Association's Forum Committee on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, and in 2011, received the "Texas Star Award for Outstanding Contributions and Achievement in the Field of Entertainment Law" by the Entertainment and Sports Law Section of the State Bar of Texas. He was editor of the UCLA Graduate Journal.
Key Works
Sobel's publications include "DRM as an Enabler of Business Models: ISPs as Digital Retailers" in 18 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 667 (2003); and "The Law of Ideas, Revisited" in 1 UCLA Entertainment Law Review 9 (1994).
