Guest of Honor - Power Players 2026

Jay Dougherty is a solo practitioner and legal consultant specializing in entertainment and media transactions, rights analysis, copyright, trademarks, and the emerging legal landscape of artificial intelligence. Mr. Dougherty offers clients a rare combination of experience: decades of high-level studio executive management, "Big Law" counseling, and distinguished academic leadership.

Studio Executive & In-House Leadership: Mr. Dougherty’s corporate background includes executive leadership at major media companies. He served as Senior Vice President of Production and Worldwide Acquisition Legal Affairs at Twentieth Century Fox, where he managed the legal department and oversaw all aspects of clearance, development, production, and distribution. He moved to Fox after serving as Senior Counsel at United Artists Pictures and Vice President/Senior Production Counsel at MGM/UA Communications Co., where he supervised legal matters for high-budget motion pictures, including music business and legal affairs for several motion pictures.

He also served as Assistant General Counsel for Turner Broadcasting System (handling Turner Pictures) and Vice President of Business Affairs for Morgan Creek Productions.

Private Practice & Consulting: Following his in-house career and concurrently with his academic tenure, Mr. Dougherty maintained a sophisticated legal practice for over 25 years. He served as Special Counsel at Kaye Scholer, LLP from 1999 to 2013, and subsequently as Of Counsel at Hogan Lovells LLP from 2013 to April 2025. In these roles, he handled complex development, financing, and distribution agreements, as well as copyright, chain of title, and clearance matters. He has served as an expert witness in rights and service contract matters, and as a neutral expert to analyze copyright infringement for major motion picture studios. He is the West Coast Ombudsman for ASCAP.

His legal career began in the music industry as a legal assistant for the General Counsel at Arista Records in New York. After graduating from Law School, he joined the Entertainment Department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, representing Broadway composers and authors, among others, and analyzing and advising on copyright matters. Upon moving to Los Angeles, he was an associate in the Motion Picture/Television Department at Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, representing production companies, talent and studios, while simultaneously working with the Music and Records department, representing record labels and recording artists.

Academic Authority, Scholarship & Speaking: Mr. Dougherty is Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the Entertainment & Media Law Institute at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where he led the program from 1997 to 2020. A sought-after speaker, he has lectured on copyright and entertainment topics for many organizations, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Los Angeles Copyright Society, the Copyright Society of the USA, Los Angeles County Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Korea Copyright Commission, the Max Planck Institute, the Association of Media & Entertainment Counsel, the Loyola Marymount School of Film & Television and others. Prior to Loyola Law School and while working in-house, he was an Adjunct Professor at University of Southern California Law School, teaching Copyright & Introduction to Entertainment Law. In Europe, Mr. Dougherty taught courses in International Entertainment Law, International Copyright & Performers Rights, and I.P. in the Creative Industries for Loyola Law School, San Diego Law School, Whittier Law School and the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center, and has had articles published in German and Chinese translation.

He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. from 2011 to 2020 and is a co-author of the textbook Entertainment Law (3d Ed., Lexis Nexis). His scholarship includes articles in the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts and the UCLA Law Review, as well as chapters for books on Moral Rights, Performers Rights, intellectual property law for journalists and others.

Recognition & Education: Mr. Dougherty has been the President and a Trustee for the LA Copyright Society, a Trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA, and Chairman of the Entertainment Law & Intellectual Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. He received the Association of Media & Entertainment Counsel’s "Counsel of the Year Award" in 2014 and the Beverly Hills Bar Association Annual Entertainment Law Award for Outstanding Academic Scholarship in 2002. He holds a J.D. from Columbia University Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and member of the Columbia Law Review. He earned his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale College. He is admitted to practice in California and New York. He is also a professional musician and singer-songwriter.