THE FIRM

The Art Law Firm is a boutique firm representing clients in the United States and internationally in arts, technology, architecture, publishing, corporate law, entertainment, insurance and estates and trusts. The Art Law Firm approach to our clients is analytical thinking, creative solutions and practical approaches, embodied in our registered mark, Successful Strategies for Creative Endeavors®.

The size and flexibility of the practice and its team members and networks assure delivery of accessible, personalized counsel and advice, informed by extensive experience in the art market, and tailored to the client’s unique situation and circumstances. The hallmark of delivery of our legal counsel is informed options for our clients.

The Art Law Firm has unique expertise in business and law, a unique 360° experience in the arts from all perspectives. Primarily transactional, the Firm also handles complex multiparty cross-border specialized litigation, offers strategic consulting services and collections management. Like the art law legal treatise authored by the founder, Alexandra Darraby, the Firm provides clients a comprehensive scope of legal services, and ancillary support, including intellectual property, estates and trusts, corporate and international law, branding and licensing, publicity rights and moral rights, foundation and board formation and tax-exemptions.

The Art Law Firm is structured to coordinate and manage expert staffing through its team of appraisers, IT, conservators, curators, brokers, galleries, and other professionals from a network developed over decades throughout the USA and abroad.

THE PRINCIPAL

Alexandra Darraby is a founder and principal of The Art Law Firm, counsel to creative sectors in the arts, new media, performance, entertainment, fashion, publishing, nonprofits, technology and architecture. A gallerist of contemporary art in all media, Ms. Darraby’s direct experience with museums, collectors, dealers, auctions, curators, boards of directors and trustees, informs the practice to the benefit of diverse clientele. Ms. Darraby’s clients and projects span four continents, and include institutions, corporations, museums, individuals and foundations.

As legal advisor to pioneering clients, Ms. Darraby has expertise in innovative strategies on intellectual property, technology, development, production, distribution and licensing for multimedia and digital media. Ms. Darraby is a qualified, acknowledged and court appointed expert in the arts.

A graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law at Berkeley, Alexandra Darraby was trained at a major national law firm in litigation, corporate law, tax and non-profit strategic planning. She has represented clients and consulted on corporate and copyright matters for the Art Law Firm in state, federal and appellate courts, and been awarded attorneys’ fees and costs on behalf of her clients.

Ms. Darraby represents legacy projects, foundations and estates and trusts, collections management, intellectual property and estate audits. The firm’s model agreements are used in various sectors in the arts. Client matters include internet advertising, auction agreements. art portfolio management, branding and merchandising, IP rights and usage and publicity rights, catalogue publishing, exhibitions and collections, and public art.

Ms. Darraby functions as outside general counsel to universities, foundations, and arts organizations, and as a consultant to governmental agencies on general and diverse matters, including catalogues raisonnee, moral rights, rights of privacy and publicity, corporate and non-profit law; international transactions, trade deals and purchase and sale, antiquities and war-era materials, authenticity, risk management, ethics and first amendment. She has served pro bono as counsel to national arts organizations, African American collections and museums and Friends of the Uffizi Gallery.

Admissions include the Court of International Trade, the Ninth Circuit, the Federal Circuit, the California Supreme Court, and various district courts. Ms. Darraby is a mediator, represents clients in arbitration, and a court-appointed expert, and has testified and served as expert witness on civil and criminal matters, including authenticity and art fraud.

Ms. Darraby represents clients with respect to domestic and international matters involving U.S. Copyright Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the Internal Revenue Service Art Advisory Panel, the USPTO, and cross border exhibitions and loans involving Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The U.S. Department of State appointed Ms. Darraby a specialist in Russia. She Co-Chaired the Intellectual Property Legal Frameworks in the Innovation Working Group for the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission. In addition to a Master’s Degree in East Asia, Ms. Darraby has handled museum and exhibition matters in China, served as a Delegate to China-U.S. SIPO Bar Council, and a co-Leader on Joint Task Force on Comments to China’s Copyright Law Revision.

Thomson Reuters West is the publisher of the Darraby comprehensive legal treatise ART, ARTIFACT, ARCHITECTURE & MUSEUM LAW, VOLUMES 1 & 2. ART ARTIFACT… launched as an e-book in 2016, in print and online at WestLaw. A hallmark 20th anniversary edition newly re-branded is reviewed in 2017 Entertainment Journal http://www.artlawfirm.com/book-review.html A bible of art law, the treatise is acknowledged as developing the field of art law.

Interviews and comments appear in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Smithsonian, World Report, msnbc.com and others are media sources. She has been a guest and keynote speaker for government, arts and museums in Paris, Madrid, London, Brussels, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Canada, and throughout the United States.

Ms. Darraby is Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the California Bar Association, International Section. Elected to the Governing Committee of the Forum on Entertainment and Sports Forum, she is also the founder and co-Chair of New Media & Content Innovation in the ABA Section on International Law, Founding Division Chair of International, and Former Chair of Arts & Museums for the Forum. She served two terms as Chair of International Intellectual Property Committee, and Co-Chairs Ethics for International Section.

MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION

The Principal is a trained and certified arts mediator. Informed by extensive experience as a gallerist, collector, board member and counsel to diverse strata in the arts, she has mediated art matters, including insurance claims on behalf of both insureds and carriers, and arbitrated corporate, first amendment, copyright and trademark matters sourced to state and federal courts. Contact the Art Law Firm for Alternate Dispute Resolution Services, including providing deposition and witness preparation.

ART LAW FIRM TEAM

The Art Law Firm is an integrated team of experts comprised of art professionals including appraisers, conservators, curators, designers, IT specialists, and co-counsel from a network developed over decades throughout the USA and abroad who work collaboratively and efficiently on behalf of our clients. The team’s commitment to excellence and efficiency enable our boutique to coordinate the clients’ tax and estate planning needs with financial and tax advisors, informed by our legal and strategic resources.

Team members have unique perspective on the art markets following years of experience in galleries, auction rooms, and private, corporate, institutional and individual collections. We understand economic and market cycles and have access to opportunities regarding art portfolio asset management within global market. We have a record of success strategizing and negotiating client positions to obtain optimal results, including acquisitions and deaccessions in many platforms.

COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT, ARCHIVES, ESTATES, TRUSTS AND FOUNDATIONS

The Art Law Firm provides collection management for our clients in all media, art, film, documents, new media, from antiquities through Old Masters and 20th Century, to conceptual and contemporary works.

The Art Law Firm has full services on archival conservation practices, litigation support and technology for its clients in many areas of law including estates and trusts, catalogues raisonnees, copyright and trademark.

For more information, contact:
Art Law Firm
11620 Wilshire Boulevard
Suite 900
Los Angeles CA 90025
(310) 361-8589