Lisa Oratz has more than 35 years of experience representing clients at the various intersections of technology, intellectual property (IP), and entertainment law. She currently serves as the co-lead of the firm’s Film & Television industry group. Her practice involves product counseling work for clients, with a focus on IP matters, content liability, and privacy and regulatory compliance. Lisa also routinely helps clients with drafting and negotiating complex commercial contracts (including development agreements), collaboration and strategic partnership agreements, master services agreements, and license agreements. She devotes much of her practice to emerging technologies and is known for her innovative work on legal issues involving artificial intelligence (AI). This includes extensive work in the area of generative AI, including product counseling and developing IP protection and risk mitigation strategies. Lisa counsels clients regarding the clearance, protection, and licensing of copyrights, trademarks, right of publicity, and other IP rights, and assists clients with obtaining, maintaining, and enforcing copyright and trademark rights and registrations. She works with technology, digital media, AI, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR), and traditional companies on a broad range of topics including privacy, name image and likeness, content liability, social media issues, site terms, and contracts. Lisa also represents artists, athletes, authors, and musicians as well as game developers, AR/VR platforms, sports teams, publishers, and individuals on a wide variety of entertainment, sports, and marketing-related matters. Lisa works with a wide variety of clients, ranging from small, cutting-edge startups to Fortune 500 companies and other industry leaders. Representative clients include Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Adobe Systems, Nintendo of America, Magic Leap, The Seattle Mariners, and The Seattle Storm. She is a frequent writer and speaker on IP, licensing, and contracting issues relating to AI and has presented on these topics before major technology companies and leading legal organizations such as the American Bar Association (ABA).

Chad Hummel is a Principal in McKool Smith's Los Angeles office. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been consistently listed in The Best Lawyers in America since 2006. Since 2021, he has been ranked in Chambers USA in Litigation: General Commercial - California. The directory described him as a “highly respected litigator who receives particular plaudits for his courtroom prowess” with clients stating “he's focused on obtaining long-term goals, while at the same time developing and implementing a short-term strategy that was efficient and effective. He's a vigorous advocate and a strategic thinker.” Named among the Top 100 Lawyers in Los Angeles for 2024 by Los Angeles Business Journal, he was also profiled by that same publication as a “Leader of Influence: Litigators & Trial Lawyers” (2020 – 2023). Chad also earned recognition in the 2020-2023 editions of Benchmark Litigation as a leading trial lawyer. He has led the litigation divisions and trial practices at nationally preeminent firms for the past 20 years. Throughout his three decades in private practice, Chad has litigated and tried some of the nation’s highest profile civil and criminal cases in federal and state courts throughout the country, successfully defending mission critical and “bet-the-company” matters and achieving multiple eight-figure verdicts and judgments on behalf of plaintiffs he has represented. His verdicts have been listed among the top defense and plaintiff-side matters in California. Chad has successfully tried civil and criminal cases in the entertainment, media, hospitality, sports, technology, healthcare, financial services, mortgage banking, real estate, airline, video game, and telecommunications industries. For such prominent companies as IMAX, DIRECTV, AT&T, Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures, Steve Madden, Ticketmaster, IAC, Aetna, Guaranteed Rate, Fashion Nova, Cardinal Financial, Accor Hotels, HewlettPackard, American Airlines, Tenet Healthcare, Avis, and Intuit, he has successfully litigated complex commercial cases and class actions antitrust, intellectual property (including patent infringement, idea theft, trade secrets, First Amendment, and right of publicity), consumer protection defense, false advertising and unfair competition, breach of fiduciary duty, profit participation, data theft, RICO, and constitutional issues. In addition to his formal litigation and trial practice, Chad has advised numerous public and private companies in connection with regulatory investigations and actions by governmental agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the CFPB, the SEC, and numerous states’ attorneys general. Chad taught advanced pre-trial procedure and advocacy at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law teaching advanced pre-trial advocacy.

Moiya McTier, Senior Advisor, Human Artistry Campaign: Dr. Moiya McTier is both a scientist (with a focus in astronomy and astrophysics) and a published author with deep expertise in folklore and storytelling. Dr. McTier has given hundreds of talks around the world on a wide range of topics, from the physics of water to global eclipse rituals. Her work sits at the intersection of science and storytelling, fact and fiction, complex concepts, and chaotic creativity. Dr. McTier officially became a doctor of the universe in 2021 as the first Black woman to graduate from Columbia’s astronomy PhD program. Overall, she has four Ivy League degrees including a joint degree in astrophysics and folklore from Harvard University. And she can also be found co-hosting Fate & Fabled, a mythology show for PBS Digital studios, as well as hosting her own podcasts Exolore (about fictional world-building through a science lens) and Pale Blue Pod (about astronomy for people who are afraid of the cosmos). Her debut book THE MILKY WAY: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy was named one of Publishers Weekly’s best books of 2022. In her explainer-in-chief role advising the Human Artistry Campaign, she helps educate policymakers and fellow creatives about the promise and the risks of AI, and the ways effective AI systems depend upon a robust and lasting human creative economy. Dr. McTier’s mission is to help people understand the world around us better through science and is eager to do that across as many platforms as possible.

Jenni Katzman is a lawyer and policy expert who currently serves as a Senior Director at Microsoft where she leads the U.S. Government Affairs policy efforts on intellectual property and digital safety, as well as on issues related to reducing the risks posed by synthetic content. Prior to joining Microsoft, she served as General Counsel and Chief of Domestic Policy for Senator Ron Wyden. She was previously the Director of Policy and Program at the American Constitution Society. She also served in the Obama administration at the Department of Justice, White House Domestic Policy Council, and the Department of Education. Before that, she was the National Voter Protection Counsel for Obama for America, and practiced law at Steptoe & Johnson and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Jenni clerked for the Honorable Brian M. Cogan in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She graduated magna cum laude from Cornell Law School, and earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is the National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator of SAG-AFTRA. In this capacity, he oversees the world’s most influential union of actors and media artists, representing over 160,000 members worldwide who work in film, television, broadcast news, commercials, music, radio, video games, and more. Crabtree-Ireland has played a critical role in SAG-AFTRA’s signature achievements over the past two decades. He was a key leader of the successful merger between SAG and AFTRA in 2012, was the principal architect of SAG-AFTRA’s landmark pandemic safety response and return-to-work initiatives, and led the union’s historic 2023 TV/Theatrical Contract negotiations and strike. Crabtree-Ireland is a strategic and creative chief negotiator who has personally led or overseen contract negotiations for SAG-AFTRA’s Television/Film/Streaming, Video Games, Commercials, Music, Network Television, and Telemundo Spanish-language contracts, among others. Crabtree-Ireland also leads the union’s technology and innovation team, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and its impact on SAG-AFTRA members and the media and entertainment industry generally, and has presented on A.I. and worker topics in forums as varied as CES, the International Labor Organization, the World Economic Forum, the Council of Institutional Investors, and the U.S. Senate, among many others. He is a dedicated advocate for equity and inclusion in the entertainment industry and was honored with the AFL-CIO’s “At the River I Stand” award for his work in the intersection of labor and civil rights, as well as being named one of Out magazine’s 100 most influential LGBTQ+ individuals in 2023. He hosts SAG-AFTRA’s biweekly video streaming series, leading more than 100 episodes, and is the co-host of the SAG-AFTRA Podcast and the SAG-AFTRA Podcast en Español. He previously served as SAG-AFTRA’s longtime Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel.

Paul Lekas, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy, Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA): Paul is an experienced advocate, lawyer, and expert in technology policy, government affairs, regulatory design, privacy, and national security. He has advised senior leaders in business and government for two decades. Previously, Paul served in senior legal and policy positions with the U.S. government. He was the Deputy General Counsel (Legal Counsel) at the Department of Defense, with responsibilities for significant litigation, constitutional issues, privacy, congressional investigations, and certain counterterrorism and cybersecurity matters. He also served as General Counsel of the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Services and as director of research and analysis and senior advisor to National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI). With NSCAI, Paul led all work on foreign policy and developed recommendations that have served as a blueprint for Biden administration initiatives on critical and emerging technologies. His government service followed over a decade in private law practice in New York and Washington, DC, where he represented dozens of individual and institutional clients in litigation, sensitive investigations, and strategic counseling. Paul’s outside activities include membership in the following: Future of Privacy Forum Advisory Board; EdSAFE AI Alliance Advisory Counsel; G7 Task Force on Governance for a Digitized Society; and NIST Generative AI Public Working Group. He is an advisory on foreign policy and AI for the Special Competitive Studies Project and served as national security legal counsel to the Biden-Harris Transition Team in 2020-21. Paul received his A.B. and J.D. degrees from Harvard University.

Peter Csathy, Media, Entertainment, AI & Tech Expert, Chairman, Creative Media: Peter is a leading international media, entertainment, AI and tech expert who has worn just about every “hat” in his 30+ year career that spans both traditional and tech-driven media. He is a frequent speaker, writes a weekly column about media, entertainment, AI and tech in TheWrap, hosts a major music podcast series on Consequence, and has written several best-selling industry books. Peter is Chairman of Creative Media, a boutique media, entertainment, AI and technology business advisory and legal services firm. He previously served as CEO and President of several pioneering media-tech companies with successful exits. He also spent several years as a senior executive at Universal Studios where he negotiated over $3 billion in deals. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and began his career as an entertainment and intellectual property attorney representing major media companies and artists, including ground-breaking rap group N.W.A.