Practice Areas: Entertainment and Music Law, Copyrights, Trademarks, Contracts, and Internet Law
Admitted: Massachusetts U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts; U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
Law School: Suffolk Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1987
College: Harvard College, B.A. 1979
We have worked successfully with: Aerosmith • Edie Brickell and New Bohemians • Geils • Sophie B. Hawkins • The Boston Red Sox • New England Sports Network • Virtual Music Entertainment • Williams/Bally/Midway • Compuserve • America Online • The Electronic Frontier Foundation • Geffen Records • EMI Music Publishing • Warner Chappell Music Publishing • MCA Records • Columbia Records • Sony Records • Tribeca Interactive • Collins Entertainment • Talbots • Woolf Associates • Big Shot Entertainment • Risky Music • 3-D Entertainment • Lustra • Ryanhood • DreamWorks • XOFF Records • Locobazooka Festival
Biography:
Rob Falk is a 45-year veteran of the music and entertainment business. Starting in 1975, he worked as a disc jockey, commercial radio station program director, composer, and performer while attending Harvard College, majoring in film history and film making. He worked as Personal Manager with A&M recording artist Private Lightning, as a Tour Manager with the legendary Jonathan Edwards and MCA recording artist The Joe Perry Project, and as personal assistant to Steven Tyler and the newly re-formed Aerosmith, prior to attending Suffolk University Law School. During law school he served as Personal Business Manager for Steven Tyler while also a member of the Moot Court Board and serving as the Mock Trial Director. His innovative promotional campaign transformed the school's Mock Trial competition from one of merely entrant participation into a school-wide entertainment attraction, well before Court TV and the O.J. Simpson Trial did the same for the nation.
After graduating cum laude, and being admitted to the Massachusetts state (1987) and federal bars (1988), and following successful stint in trial and appellate work, Mr. Falk returned to the music business, serving as the in-house Director of Business & Legal Affairs for Collins Management, Inc., from 1987 – 1995. Mr. Falk handled Aerosmith's publishing, co-administration, personal endorsement agreements, tour contracts and riders, intellectual property acquisition and conservation, and recording agreements. In 1993, in addition to his other duties, Falk became Aerosmith’s Director of New Media. He led Aerosmith onto the Internet and into multi-media via the CyberTour '94, the #1 arcade hit Revolution X, and several other high profile games.
He was also intimately involved in developing and managing consumer loyalty, brand awareness and marketing. Rob was the real life counterpart of the pseudonymous Juan Sirrakah, the President of the Aerosmith Fan Club, where he took control of and turned the organization from a monetary and reputational liability into a sleek promotional vehicle; satisfying fans while turning a profit by pioneering such innovations as club conventions, national and international travel packages, preferred concert seating, automated telephone hotlines, and pioneering what are now known as “street teams,” and guerilla marketing operations.
He was the co-designer of Aerosmith’s national news generating Christmas Card in 1993, and designed the 1994 Card which appeared in Newsweek, People, and The New York Times. In 1994 he pioneered the Aerosmith CyberTour, from concept to completion, raising awareness of the Internet and First Amendment Rights, generating over $60,000 in sponsorship funds for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and garnering Aerosmith more positive publicity, as their “chats” on CompuServe, Prodigy, America Online, and directly on the Internet (via MUDDs and IRC) were covered by national and international television, newspapers and magazines.
Mr. Falk has engaged in a private practice of entertainment and new media business consulting and law since 1995, producing private label CD compilations for Talbots, representing performing and recording artists, managers, concert promoters, and independent labels, as well as handling a host of the usual rock n' roll related civil and criminal matters.Attorney Falk has spoken variously on music publishing, viral marketing, fan club promotion and copyright law in the Internet Age at the National Music Publisher's Association Forum, Pollstar Conventions, InfoWorld's Spotlight, The Boston Managers' Group, and other music industry events.
Publications: What's So Great About Interactive? delivered at InfoWorld's Spotlight '95, Laguna Niguel, California.
Languages Spoken: English, Spanish (some)
Born: New York, 1957