A graduate of the Yale Law School and a U.S Marine veteran, Professor Kevin J. Greene is the John J. Schumacher Chair Professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, California, where he teaches Copyright Law and Entertainment Law.
Professor Greene’s award winning scholarship explores copyright, trademark and publicity rights issues, including abusive trademark litigation, idea misappropriation as a Hollywood business model, and the impact of intellectual property law on African‐American creativity. Greene was the first legal scholar to analyze how IP doctrine facilitated expropriation of African‐American music and culture.
Professor Greene practiced law in New York at the premier firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, representing companies such as Time Warner/HBO, and at a top New York entertainment law boutique firm, where his clients included film production companies, film director Spike Lee, and music artists including Harry Connick, Jr., Bobby Brown, and the seminal rap group Public Enemy.
As an expert witness‐consultant in copyright and IP cases, Greene worked with funk music legend George Clinton in a landmark copyright case in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.