Art Lawyering Bootcamp: Artist Dealer Relationships

This was a Center for Art Law CLE program to train lawyers to assist visual artists and dealers in the unique aspects of their relationship.

Center for Art Law’s Art Lawyering Bootcamp: Artist-Dealer Relationships was a full-day training aimed at preparing lawyers for working with visual artists and dealers, in the unique aspects of their relationship. The bootcamp was led by veteran attorneys specializing in art law.

This Bootcamp provided participants — attorneys, law students, law graduates and legal professionals — with foundational legal knowledge related to the main contracts and regulations governing dealers’ and artists’ businesses. Through a combination of instructional presentations and mock consultations, participants gained a solid foundation in the specificities of the law as applied to the visual arts.

Bootcamp participants were provided with training materials, including presentation slides and an Art Lawyering Bootcamp handbook with additional reading resources.

The event will take place online from 9:15am -5pm.

Schedule:

9:15 – 9:20 – Opening Remarks by Kamee Payton | Judith Bresler Fellow | Center for Art Law

9:20 – 10:20 am – Representation Agreements by Diego R. Figueroa Rodriguez | Attorney | DLA Piper

10:30 – 11:30 am – Consignment Agreements by Irina Tarsis | Director | Center for Art Law

11:40 – 12:30 pm – Fiduciary Duties by Judith Prowda | Professor | Sotheby’s Institute of Art | Founding Member | Stropheus Art Law

1:40 – 2:40 pm – Compliance and Risk Management by Zachary Goldman | Attorney | Sullivan and Cromwell LLP

2:45 – 3:45 pm – Contracts and Transactions by L. Eden Burgess | Attorney | Schindler, Cohen and Hochman LLP, and Aaron Haines | Attorney | Schindler, Cohen and Hochman LLP

3:45 – 4:45 pm – Mock Consultations

4:45- 5:00 pm – Closing Remarks by Kamee Payton

Speaker Bios

Diego R. Figueroa Rodriguez | Attorney | DLA Piper

Diego R. Figueroa-Rodríguez is the Co-Lead of the Art Law Group at DLA Piper LLP. His principal practice focuses on representing issuers and underwriters in public finance transactions including multiple types of financing structures, and he has acted as counsel in over 50 taxable and tax-exempt financing transactions involving the issuance of over $21 billion of bonds. Principally due to his involvement in the art world as a philanthropist, collector and board member at various cultural institutions, Diego’s practice also includes advising artists, museums, galleries, sovereign countries, private foundations and collectors, auction houses and non-profit art organizations on matters involving commercial, finance, intellectual property, litigation, corporate, trusts and estates, tax and real estate aspects. In a seminal case, Diego successfully represented a group of urban/street artists in a high profile and novel copyright lawsuit against a major movie producer in Hollywood and international studios for appropriation of a mural painted by the artists in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Diego currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the Museo de Arte Puerto Rico, the Center for Art Law (NY), the Ten North Arts Foundation (FL), Coloring The World Foundation (International), Oolite Arts (South Florida) and the Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín (PR). He also serves in various advisory committees including at the Lowe Art Museum of the University of Miami and was founder and co-chair of the Young International Committee of the Museo del Barrio in NYC. Diego was the Vice-Chair of the Art and Cultural Heritage Law Committee of the American Bar Association, board member of the Museum Trustee Association and is a member of the Art, Cultural Institutions and Heritage Law Committee of the International Bar Association. Mr. Figueroa is actively involved with art law and cultural heritage matters, including becoming part of the Art & Law Program held in collaboration with Fordham Law School and completing numerous courses and certifications on art law in various institutions, has served as panelist on art law forums and conferences around the world, including as recurrent guest lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Political Science in the Department of European Law of Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary on the subject of Intellectual Property Law in the United States as applied to the Visual Arts, particularly to Street Art and is the author of the United States – Florida Chapter of “The Art Collecting Legal Handbook,” an international treatise on art collecting originally published by Thomson Reuters.

He obtained a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a LL.M. on Real Property Development from the University of Miami School of Law, a Certificate on Chinese law from Renmin University of China School of Law in Beijing and has completed courses on international law, cultural heritage and art law at the University of Siena Facolta di Giurisprudenza in Italy and the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, among others. He is admitted to the practice of law in Florida and New York.

Judith Prowda | Professor | Sotheby’s Institute of Art | Founding Member | Stropheus Art Law

Judith is an attorney, mediator and arbitrator focused on art law, copyright, entertainment and commercial law. She is Senior Faculty member of the Art Business Program at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and author of Visual Arts and the Law: A Handbook for Professionals (Lund Humphries 2013).

She is a founding member of Stropheus Art Law, a collective of art law and business specialists who offer unbundled services to the art community. She is Past Chair of the New York State Bar Association’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law (EASL) Section and the long-standing Chair of EASL’s Committee on Fine Arts, and Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

In addition, she is a member of the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association, and has served on the Copyright and Literary Property and Entertainment Law Committees. She received her J.D. from Fordham Law School and her LL.M. from New York University School of Law. She is a frequent speaker and has published extensively on issues related to art law and business.

Zachary Goldman | Attorney | Sullivan and Cromwell LLP

Zachary Goldman is a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell’s Financial Services Group and National Security Practice, resident in the New York office. He has extensive experience advising clients in the financial services, digital assets and technology industries, among others, on complex regulatory and enforcement issues related to OFAC sanctions, Bank Secrecy Act/anti-money laundering (BSA/AML), the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), digital asset regulations and national security law. In addition to his experience working with banks, broker/dealers and investment managers, he has significant expertise in the AML, sanctions and financial crime risk management considerations with respect to non-bank payments and digital asset companies.

Zachary provides day-to-day compliance counseling, assists with risk assessments and the design of compliance programs, and provides advice regarding voluntary-self disclosures to OFAC and other agencies. He also conducts internal investigations and assists clients in responding to subpoenas and other information requests from U.S. government agencies including OFAC, FinCEN, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York State Department of Financial Services, the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and numerous other federal and state regulatory bodies.

The art market is also an important area of focus for Zachary, where he counsels art galleries and trade associations on matters related to AML and sanctions laws. His work often has a significant cross-border dimension, and he has counseled clients through complex regulatory and enforcement matters involving the governments of the U.K., Switzerland, the Netherlands, China and elsewhere.

Zachary has testified on sanctions matters before the U.S. Congress and Canadian Parliament, and has provided commentary to numerous media publications on issues related to sanctions, national security, intelligence and counterterrorism. Before joining S&C, he was an adjunct professor of law at NYU School of Law, where he led the Center on Law and Security, co-founded the Center for Cybersecurity and taught a number of classes on national security law. He has published articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and others, and published a leading text on the law of intelligence with Oxford University Press.

Irina Tarsis | Director | Center for Art Law

Irina Tarsis, Esq. is an art historian and a practicing attorney admitted to the bar in New York State. She earned her Masters Degree in Art History from Harvard University and her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (NY). Ms. Tarsis launched the Center for Art Law as a blog in 2008/2009. Under her leadership, the Center was incorporated as a stand-alone non-profit organization in December 2017. Ms. Tarsis has served on the faculty of the Teachers College/Columbia University (2020), Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (2012, 2017-2018) and the European Shoah Legacy Institute/Provenance Research Training Workshops in Vilnius, Lithuania (2013), Athens, Greece and Rome, Italy (2014). Her publications include articles in the IFAR Journal, Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Journal, Cultural Heritage & Arts Review, Library and The Cultural Record, the ArtWatch UK Journal and the Institute of Art & Law’s journal, Art Antiquity and Law.

L. Eden Burgess | Attorney | Schindler, Cohen and Hochman LLP

Eden Burgess practices in the areas of art and cultural heritage law, commercial litigation, intellectual property, and not-for-profit organizations.

Eden is Of Counsel in SCH’s Art Law Group. She has focused her legal career on cultural heritage, the arts, and historic preservation. Eden represents a diverse array of clients, including museums, auction houses, collectors, foreign states, nonprofits, Holocaust victims and their heirs, and Native American tribes. Eden has litigated and resolved complex claims involving Nazi seizures, wartime looting, forced sales, and thefts, and has also assisted clients with the maintenance and management of their collections and advises on the purchase, sale, and auction of cultural objects. She has helped tribes pursue repatriation of tribal objects that were stolen or taken by force.

In her litigation practice, Eden represents a broad range of clients in federal court. She has trial and appellate level experience, and her cases involve diverse practice areas, including art and cultural heritage, bankruptcy, breach of contract, and corporate governance.

Before joining Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP, Eden practiced with Cultural Heritage Partners PLLC, and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in Washington, DC. She is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland, and is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Eden regularly writes, teaches, and speaks publicly about a variety of art and cultural heritage law-related topics. She served as an Adjunct Professor and Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School, teaching the seminar “Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Law” and supporting the Advanced Field Placement Program. She sat on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation, and is a member of both ArtTable, the foremost professional organization dedicated to advancing leadership and fostering opportunities for women in the arts, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation.

Aaron Haines Attorney | Schindler, Cohen and Hochman LLP

Aaron Haines’ practice focuses on providing legal services for clients in the art world, including museums, galleries, artists’ estates, collectors, and foundations. He advises on a range of legal matters such as art transactions, tax issues, estate administration, endangered species regulations, and copyright and intellectual property issues. His litigation experience for art clients includes cases involving fraud, title disputes, authenticity, and copyright.

Before joining Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP, Aaron practiced at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where he handled complex domestic and international disputes and advised on commercial and nonprofit transactions, including matters involving artists’ rights. He has also worked with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit and held legal internships at Christie’s, Herrick Feinstein LLP, and the U.S. State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center.

Aaron clerked for Judge Thomas L. Ludington in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. He holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was a staff editor of the Cardozo Law Review and president of the Art Law Society. He also holds a postgraduate certificate from the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art in Italy and a B.A. in Art History from Brigham Young University.

Aaron is admitted to practice in New York and serves on the New York City Bar Association’s Art Law Committee. He has published on topics including art and cultural property law, artificial intelligence and copyright, and international repatriation of antiquities. He is proficient in Italian.

Art Lawyering Bootcamp participants with CLE tickets will receive New York CLE credits upon successful completion of the training modules. CLE credits pending board approval.

You can access the handout HERE