For many students immersed in their day-to-day studies, music might color the background of their law school experience: lo-fi playlists during study sessions, concerts on the weekends, joining an acapella group or jazz ensemble. But for some Harvard Law students, music and entertainment are the purpose and center of their law school experience.
“Music law was a key factor that inspired me to pursue a legal education and choose Harvard Law School,” says Sabrina Ferrer ‘25, one such student. “The school provides unique opportunities to engage with the industry as a law student.”
This fall, Ferrer and several classmates headed down to New York City for an event at the intersection of legal education and the music industry: the Mondo.NYC Conference. The students are members of the Recording Artists Project, or RAP, a student practice organization consisting of over 175 students from Harvard Law and Berklee College of Music, serving musicians and other entertainment clients with pro bono legal assistance. At the conference, RAP students offered one-on-one pro bono consultations with up-and-coming musicians and attended panels, networking events, and performances.
Ferrer is co-president of RAP alongside Isabelle Pride ‘25. Having grown up in the musical theater world, Pride, too, came to Harvard Law with an interest in the intersection of entertainment and law.
“It was really important to me that wherever I went to law school, I would find a home for the arts and other people who were passionate about supporting artists. I’ve found that home through RAP,” Pride reflects. “I’ve grown so much from the ways that the organization has encouraged me to broaden my horizons, learn more about the industry, and imagine even more for myself in a legal career than I had envisioned going into law school.”
As co-presidents of RAP, Ferrer and Pride lead a community of students with a shared interest in learning the ins and outs of entertainment law to bring that knowledge to musicians. The organization welcomes students with no prior experience in entertainment who are looking to dive into a new area of the law, as well as students with diverse creative backgrounds and a desire to explore the legal aspects of the industry. During the semester, teams of students work with musician clients to help them protect their work, negotiate their contracts, and draft and review band agreements and record deals.
“A deep care for artists is at the center of what any entertainment lawyer does,” says Pride. “That passion for helping the client and wanting them to be everything they are as an artist informs the ethos that we try to bring to RAP.”
At Mondo, this ethos was brought to life on an even larger stage, Pride says: “Seeing lawyers attending the conference, speaking on panels, and taking eight hours out of their day to educate themselves in this niche area was so inspiring, and to know that’s the company we’ll be joining as lawyers in this field after law school is deeply inspiring. It’s something I want to infuse into everything that we do in RAP.”
Mondo was founded by executive producer Joanne Abbot Green nine years ago to bring together a global community of music, arts, and tech industry insiders and innovators for several days of events aiming to shed light on the current state of all facets of artist and songwriter career development and technology’s impact on it. At the conference, RAP students participated in pro bono legal consultation sessions, in addition to attending a day of panels and events.
“RAP advised Mondo participants on diverse legal issues including singer-songwriters looking for advice on how to navigate publishing and producer arrangements and signing their first management contracts, a band looking to document their relationship and joint ownership of their works, a songwriter on how to combat music fraud and better understand their rights in copyright infringement scenarios and a startup management company on internal agreements,” explains Carmen Halford, RAP’s supervising attorney, lecturer at law, and clinical instructor at the Transactional Law Clinics.
