 NINA SHAW works with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. As a Founding Partner in the entertainment law firm of Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finkelstein & Lezcano, her roster of clients include Jamie Foxx, Laurence Fishburne, Cedric The Entertainer and Nick Cannon just to name a few. Her practice focuses on motion pictures, television and live stage. She has been very successful in negotiating multi-million dollar deals for her clients. This native New Yorker knows what it takes to seal the deal.
Esteem: Did you have any mentors growing up or anyone who inspired you to go into law?
NS: Yes. There was a really successful black family that lived across the street from us. The husband was an executive in the Ziff Davis publishing company. He became the first ethnic publisher of a non-ethnic magazine in the US. He warmed my intellect a lot. I often babysat for his little boy and sometimes when he and his wife would come home they would give me books to read. He would talk to me about school. He would really encourage my intellectual interest. His family and my family became very close friends. He and his wife would take me to museums and jazz concerts. We just did a lot of things that I might not have otherwise done.
Esteem: Did your parents push you to get good grades in school?
NS: I was a very good student. Education was a big, big deal in our family. My grandparents were college graduates. My mom is a college graduate. They all were in professions, mainly nursing. All the women in my family had jobs, so I was really aware of the fact that I was always going to work.
Esteem: You graduated law school in 1979?
NS: Yes.
Esteem: After that you moved to California?
NS: Yes. I became an associate at a major law firm.
Esteem: What was that experience like?
NS: It was hard. Large law firms present their own unique set of challenges, but just like any other business environment you have to find your place. You have to learn the job that you are suppose to do. I think its almost a little bit better now. When I came out of law school and I started working in a law firm, women where not there in those kinds of numbers. In some ways that was good because it sort of prepared me for the world of law firms, which are predominantly white and male. I became accustomed to being in that environment. But I think it is like anything else. You have to study, work hard and try to find people within the organization who will mentor you even if they are not offering to mentor you. I think in any business environment you have got to attach yourself to someone who can be helpful to you.
Esteem: After several years, you decided to start your own entertainment law firm. Did you always want to start your own firm?
NS: No, not in particular. It just felt like the right thing at the time. I had built a client base. The other people that I was leaving with also had a good client base. The firm that we were in was going in a direction that we weren't interested in pursuing in terms of just the organizational structure. They were becoming larger. We decided to leave and start our own firm.
Esteem: What is your day to day?
NS: It changes on a daily basis. While I might work on a client's project for weeks and weeks, I am always getting new clients and projects. Some projects are large and some of them are small. Since I represent writers, actors, producers and directors, anyone of my clients can get hired on a moments notice to do a motion picture once a project is "greenlit". A project is "greenlit", once a studio or major backer has committed money to finance the project.
Esteem: What is the process once the project has been greenlit?
NS: The process is very team orientated. Most of my clients have talent agents. Their job is to primarily be aware of what jobs are out there. What the status of the project is. How far along the project is. Is the project being written or has it been written? They need to know the point at which a star needs to attach themselves to it. Then there are the managers who work very closely with the agents and attorneys, but the manager's job is a much bigger job. The manager is responsible for his/her client's entire career trajectory. The manager, on day one, should have an idea of where his client should be and would like to be in year five. Then they come to me for the structuring of deals. As opportunities present themselves there are a lot of discussions on my part of how best to structure the business side of the deal so that the client gets the best business deal possible. And also structure it in a way that if they are in television they can do movies. If they are in movies you want to structure it so that they get the best scenes and they get all the other terms that are commensurate with their level of achievement.
Esteem: As an entertainment attorney, how important is networking for you?
NS: I think networking is important in everything. Not just in my job but in all jobs. It is important in school. If your in school and there is a particular subject that your having trouble with I think that it is too your benefit to reach out to that person in your class who seems to understand the material and say I don't understand this so well. Will you help me? That to me is a good example of networking.
Esteem: What are some of the highlights of your job?
NS: I think that you raise a good point, but I would position it a little bit differently. I think one of the unfortunate things that has happened in the last couple of years is an emphasis on the material aspect of satisfaction. True satisfaction really has to come from a feeling inside. Yes, I get to go to some nice parties, to film premieres and I get to spend time with celebrities, but the satisfaction that I get out of my work is much more of an internal satisfaction at knowing that I did a good job. So while its glamorous to go to a film premiere, to be with celebrities and to see the red carpet, to me that is a nice perk of the job, an extra. The real satisfaction should come from structuring a deal that allows your client to participate in it. Knowing that I have some how added value, because of a deal that I am working on, to someone's life. Those are the things that I would love to stress as the things that really give you satisfaction in life.
Esteem: How do you see Hollywood changing as far as the minority role?
NS: I think in some ways it has gotten better. In some ways it has not progressed as far as I would like it to. I would like to see a television arena where black writers can write for any kind of television show. I would like to see where a writer isn't limited to what people think your culture experiences are. In film, I would love to see more stories told that are representative of the entire ethnic culture. I think I would like to see more films like Stomp the Yard , which I think told about young people in a very positive way, but in a very culturally specific way.
Esteem: Is there anything you would like to tell our readers.
NS: Don't be a follower. The people who succeed in life, that they admire, are not followers. Beyonce is not a follower. Jay-Z is not a follower. Jamie Foxx is not a follower. When you think you have to please a certain group of people by the way you dress or the way you wear your hair or even the way you speak, you're being a follower. If you feel you speak proper English as opposed to more colloquial English and that somehow you are going to stand out or look different, I say don't care. Be yourself. Being yourself is always more important than being what other people want you to be.
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