Bart Day is a nationally recognized entertainment attorney, with offices in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. Bart Day represents numerous nationally prominent individuals and companies active in the entertainment industry. He has more than 25 years experience providing legal counsel for a wide array of film, television, music, stage, new media, visual arts, and book publishing clients, and has negotiated numerous deals with companies such as Disney, Sony Music, Jim Henson Company, PBS, CBS Sports, NBC Television, and Simon and Schuster. Bart Day also has extensive copyright and trademark experience, providing advice on how to best protect copyrights and trademarks, and representing clients involved in copyright and trademark disputes and litigation.
Bart Day is one of the foremost experts nationally on the statutory rights of creators of copyrighted content to recapture the ownership of their copyrights pursuant to Sections 203 and 304 of the U.S. copyright statute. He often speaks at entertainment industry conferences and entertainment law seminars on the topic and has been interviewed by the press on the topic. Bart has the “AV” rating (the highest possible rating) by the Martindale-Hubbell national law directory, based on confidential ratings by attorneys and judges. He was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2016 and is the only attorney ever inducted into that organization.
Bart Day Law’s passion, put simply, is fostering and protecting the creative work of our clients and working hard to help our clients make their businesses as successful as possible. Bart Day Law takes pride in providing top-quality legal services and finding creative, strategic, cost-effective and practical solutions to sometimes difficult and complicated situations. In short, we always strive to be the kind of attorney we would want if we were the client. And so, always staying practical, keeping cost in mind, and communicating respectfully, honestly and in plain English with our clients are essential parts of the way we practice law. Also, we have developed over the years a national network of resources and contacts in the entertainment and media worlds, an important part of representing our clients effectively.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Bart Day previously worked as an attorney for a Honolulu concert promotion company, as VP of Business Affairs for a Los Angeles entertainment company, as an associate and partner at two prestigious law firms, and as outside counsel for Universal Studios on international copyright issues.
BAR ADMISSIONS
Bart Day is a member of the Washington, Oregon and Hawaii State Bars. He has been admitted to practice before several U.S. District Courts, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
PUBLICATIONS
Bart Day is the co-author of a chapter in The Musician’s Business and Legal Guide, a book compiled by the Beverly Hills Bar Association Entertainment Law Section and published by Prentice-Hall Publishing (New York). He is also the co-author with Chris Knab (founder of 415/Columbia Records) of the book Music is Your Business: The Musician’s FourFront Strategy for Success. From 1987 to 2004, Bart wrote a monthly entertainment law advice column for a regional entertainment industry magazine. His writings have been cited in numerous publications, including the Harvard Law Review.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS AND PANEL APPEARANCES AT CONFERENCES
Bart Day has been a panelist and speaker at nearly 100 entertainment industry and entertainment law conferences in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver BC, Nashville, Seattle, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Portland, Sundance, and Austin, TX. He was the organizer of the Northwest Independent Music Conference in 1996. He was co-chair of the Washington State Bar Assn. Entertainment Law Conferences in 2004 and 2006 and was the moderator of the Music Licensing Panel at the Grammy PNW Songwriting Conference in 2012.
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
Bart Day is on the board of Northstar/Painted Sky, a non-profit organization founded to provide music and dance training and performance opportunities for Native American youth, and is actively involved in the activities of that organization. Bart has served two terms on the Board of Governors of The Recording Academy, Pacific NW Chapter (presenter of the Grammy Awards) from 2000-2004 and 2011-2015. He has also served two terms as a member of the Executive Committee of the Intellectual Property Section of the Oregon State Bar.
In addition, Bart was a founding member of the non-profit organization, Oregon Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (OVLA), created to provide pro bono legal services to low-income artists. He is currently a Board member of that organization.