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Like many young LA transplants, Ashleigh Landis was looking for ways to entertain her parents when they came to visit her in the City of Angels. Unlike most who came to Los Angeles, Landis hadn’t moved from Michigan to Southern California to pursue fame and fortune in Hollywood. She had relocated during college to build her career as a nutritionist and personal trainer. But she did need to find an easy way to kill an afternoon, and the Warner Bros. Studio tour seemed like a wonderful way to do just that. After three hours on a Hollywood backlot, Landis was ready to reconsider her career plans.
Landis didn’t rush to the WB jobs portal to fill out an application, but that afternoon in Burbank left a strong impression. The tour cart had taken her from the exterior sets of ER to the iconic Friends couch at Central Perk to Stars Hollow of Gilmore Girls fame. Walkie-talkies buzzed with chatter as actors, directors, and producers zipped Landis around on golf carts en route to live sets. “I was drawn to the energy of being at a working film and TV studio, and I always kept that experience in the back of my mind,” she explains.
Landis enrolled in law school while she was still working at a famed luxury health club on Sunset Boulevard. She mentioned to Equinox’s VIP clients that she was looking for internship opportunities. Before long, a regular referred her to the Warner Bros. internship program, and Landis was brought on to spend a summer in the Warner Bros. (WB) litigation department.
While supporting the studio’s litigation team, Landis reviewed contracts and other documents related to the Tolkien estate’s $150 million lawsuit over profits from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. After three months, the studio shine had taken hold as Landis left with a clear goal: to eventually return as a full-time employee.
A decade later, Landis achieved that goal. In the years after her internship, she acquired as much training and experience as possible. She also made sure to keep in touch with her WB mentors. “I’m living proof that networking is of critical importance in both life and business,” she says. “I wouldn’t be where I am without the people and connections who recognized my strong work ethic and were willing to help me get my foot in the door.”
Much of what prepared Landis for success at Warner Bros. happened at Morrison & Foerster, where she spent nearly eight years focused on patent litigation as part of the firm’s intellectual property group. Drafting briefs and managing discovery in complex matters gave her insight into the legal issues associated with a broad array of technology, including DVD authoring, video compression, medical devices, electronic cigarettes, and other tech-driven products and services.
Landis never forgot her overarching goal of returning to Warner Bros. In fact, it motivated many of her professional choices. After trials in a breach of contract case and a major smartphone patent litigation case, she volunteered for consumer class actions, environmental law cases, and any other matter that would diversify her experience.
“I could have kept a narrow specialization in patent litigation, but I knew I needed to take on as varied a portfolio of cases as possible if I wanted to go in-house and be an effective attorney at a place like Warner Bros.,” Landis explains.
Her chance to return to Warner Bros. came in 2019. AT&T won an antitrust lawsuit that the United States Justice Department had filed to block AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner. The buyout sparked a partial restructuring that centralized what were once separate legacy legal departments and functions under one consolidated WarnerMedia umbrella. The legal team needed additional support from an attorney with expertise in entertainment-related patent litigation. Landis made her goal a reality, returning to the WB legal landscape and working with the same leaders who had supervised her internship a decade earlier.
“I was drawn to the energy of being at a working film and TV studio, and I always kept that experience in the back of my mind.”
Ashleigh Landis
The past five years have given Landis a front-row seat to the changing entertainment industry. Warner Bros. is now Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Online platforms are fighting for an audience, and tech companies are fighting for a piece of their revenue.
As the streaming wars rage on, intellectual property is taking center stage. How do media companies license and distribute their content across different platforms and regions, and what are the implications for copyright and royalties? What are the challenges and risks of patent holders staking claims to streaming technologies?
Docket Navigator reveals that federal court cases regarding streaming technologies rose from 27 in 2008 to 267 in 2021. What’s behind the spike in patent litigation? “Everybody seems to think they have invented video transcoding,” Landis jokes, adding that patent holders in the space are bullish about their ability to stake a claim to a piece of the streaming pie.
Several suitors clamoring for streaming royalties create a somewhat problematic situation, even for a billion-dollar mass media conglomerate. While the future is bright, there is much that is yet unknown in how the generational shift in entertainment consumption will play out. Despite the obvious challenges, Landis is excited to be working on the forefront of cutting-edge legal issues at a historic company like Warner Bros. Discovery during such a pivotal time.
“The next two years are going to shape patent law and damages in the streaming space for the future,” she explains. “We are in a generational shift regarding how audiences consume content, and those of us working in the patent space get to play a leading role in defending our technology and the business from hungry adversaries.”
The gate arm rises as the security guard waves at our attorney driving onto the studio lot. Landis pulls toward her office, stopping her car at the corner to let a tram go by. On board, she notices a family of four. The kids are dressed in Harry Potter gear while the parents snap cell phone pictures of them in front of the Abbott Elementary set.
Landis laughs as she wonders if one of these kids are being shaped by their tour experience in a way that drives their future career. The shows have changed, but the energy on the backlot is still the same. In the meantime, Landis and her WBD colleagues are busy creating the stories we love, and we watch them come to life.
“It’s always a delight to get a call from Ashleigh! In all the matters we have handled together she has consistently proved to be an indispensable partner in achieving positive results for Warner Bros. Discovery.”
–Anjani Mandavia, Managing Partner
