Entertainment, Media, and Intellectual Property Law Program: Susan Akens Named Executive Director Susan Akens, previously executive vice president, business affairs, at CBS Studios International, has been appointed executive director of UCLA School of Law’s Entertainment, Media, and Intellectual Property Law Program. She joined the law school on July 1, replacing David R. Ginsburg, who retired in June. “Sue is precisely the forward-looking and experienced individual who will take the program to higher levels, building on its sound foundation over the last decade,” Ken Ziffren, a partner at Ziffren Brittenham LLP, the chair of the program’s advisory board and an adjunct faculty member at UCLA Law, said. “Her blend of legal expertise and international business leadership makes her an ideal choice to lead the program’s ongoing development and successfully guide it into the future.” Akens was named executive vice president, business affairs, at Paramount Pictures International Television in 2003, a division that was merged into CBS Studios International in 2006. In this position, she oversaw all international business and legal affairs, set strategy for the division and led a team based in
“ Sue is precisely the forward-looking and experienced individual who will take the program to higher levels, building on its sound foundation over the last decade.” — KEN ZIFFREN the United States and Europe. She played a key role in the expansion of CBS’s international business into the digital and on-demand arenas. “It is an honor to join UCLA School of Law’s highly praised Entertainment, Media, and Intellectual Property Law Program,” Akens said. “I look forward to working with the entire UCLA Law community to build on the program’s many accomplishments and assist in training the next generation of entertainment leaders.” Akens holds a J.D. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. She previously served as special counsel for the entertainment department of O’Melveny & Myers LLP in Los Angeles, representing clients in a broad variety of entertainment and multimedia transactions.
David R. Ginsburg Award to Honor Exceptional Student Writing David Ginsburg ’76, the founding executive director of the Entertainment, Media, and Intellectual Property Law Program, retired in June after more than a decade of distinguished service to UCLA School of Law. In honor of his commitment and dedication to the law school, David’s family, friends and colleagues have established an open endowment to create the David R. Ginsburg Award. Beginning in the 2015-16 academic year, UCLA Law will bestow the annual award to the law student who has written that year’s most exceptional paper for a course that is part of the Entertainment, Media, and Intellectual Property Law Program. Ginsburg, a law school alumnus and a double Bruin, joined the law school after a successful career as an entertainment lawyer, a producer and a senior entertainment industry executive. Together with a faculty advisory committee, in 2005 he prepared the proposal for the program and the draft curriculum, and he worked consistently to grow and expand its offerings. With Ginsburg’s leadership, the program is ranked as one of the top in the nation, and it has been ranked as the best such program by The Hollywood Reporter in all of its annual assessments since the inception of the rankings in 2012. 74 UCLA LAW MAGAZINE | FALL 2015