Feb. 7, 2008 – Ashley Kelly ’09 has won a Phil Cowen Memorial/BMI Scholarship from the New York State Bar Association Entertainment Arts and Sports Law section for her paper, “Bargaining Power on Broadway: Why Congress Should Pass the Playwrights Licensing Antitrust Initiative Act in the Era of Hollywood on Broadway.” Kelly will receive a $2,500 prize, and her paper will be published in the spring issue of the NYSBA’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal.

Created in memory of an esteemed entertainment lawyer and a former chair of the EASL section of the state bar, the Phil Cowan Memorial/BMI Scholarship fund offers up to two awards of $2,500 each on an annual basis in Cowan’s memory to law students who are committed to practice in one or more areas of entertainment, art or sports law.

Kelly, who is a member of the BLS Journal of Law and Policy and the Student Bar Association executive secretary, is dedicated to pursuing a career in entertainment law, which she says provides “the perfect synergy between logical ways of thinking and a commitment to the arts.” Prior to law school, Kelly worked as the assistant and office manager to film score composer Gil Talmi. In that position, she first experienced the front lines of the entertainment industry. And as an amateur cello player, she has a personal connection to the industry as a musician herself.

Last summer Kelly secured an internship with the Dramatists Guild of America, where she took on several projects, including one that exposed her to the plight of Broadway playwrights. “I learned that playwrights lack the collective bargaining power that Hollywood screenwriters posses, and that a Congressional bill has been introduced several times to cure this deficiency but has continuously failed to become law,” she says. Frustrated by the playwright’s precarious position, Kelly decided to write a paper urging Congress to pass the Licensing Antitrust Initiative. BLS Dean of Student Affairs Beryl Jones-Woodin read Kelly’s work and urged her to submit the paper to the NYSBA competition.

Kelly plans to spend next summer working in the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.