Paul Szynol (/ˈSHinôl/)
_____ Practice Areas
Art, Entertainment, and Technology
_____ Teaching (current)
Adjunct Professor, University of Michigan Law School (Art Law, Film Law)
_____ Lectures, Panels, and Workshops
SXSW (2023, 2024, 2025), Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Fordham Law School, NYU Journalism, NYU Tisch, DocNYC, Documentary Association of Europe, University of Oxford, Camden International Film Festival, and many others.
_____ Legal Scholarship and Commentary
Copyright and the Myth of Creativity
38 Berkeley Tech. L.J. _____ (forthcoming 2025)
Fair Use and the Judicial Search for Meaning
47 Colum. J.L. & Arts 55 (2024)
The Andy Warhol Case That Could Wreck American Art (2022) (The Atlantic)
_____ Media Appearances
CNN, CBS News Prime Time, KCRW
_____ Clerkship
The Hon. Mariana R. Pfaelzer, Central District of California
_____ Education
Yale Law School, Columbia University (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa)
_____ Contact
paul [at] filmlawgroup.com, +1 415 663 5153

BLOG

today's bike ride: 35 miles of sunny weather, and a cockatoo named max, who nuzzled my neck and gave me a bird hug

Here's my interview with CNN's Jake Tapper highlighting the importance of fair use for filmmakers and other artists.

random full circle moment: i attended sundance for the first time in 2003, between law school semesters. i saw some docs, bought a sweatshirt, and came back to new haven thinking i might want to do film law one day (if i can figure out how), and today i used the sweatshirt as a prop in my sundance institute collab class.

barely, but made it

after a decade of being on the road, followed up by a gloriously-long period of being a steadfast homebody inseparable from my dogs, i'm about to do something i haven't done in literally 4 years: get on a plane. and it's a reminder that i can deal with unruly passengers, turbulence, bad food, and being charged for everything but oxygen, but leaving my dogs behind even for even a quick trip is *still* almost more than i can handle.

friday night tradition

found this photo of me being predictably mature a few years ago. happy new year from the hoff and me!

on cold days, tess and i share hoodies

Photo by 🐕 paul szynol on November 19, 2022. May be an image of dog and indoor.

 

i like it when the fortune cookie is slightly threatening.

bronx girl hanging out in brooklyn

Met this dude two years ago today in Little Rock, AR.

autumn morning

somewhere in tunis, and it’s still my favorite travel photo bc i look like i’m about to crack open an international criminal case involving heisted art, foreign currency, and possibly some paranormal activity

My dad just sent me this photo.  My grandfather is standing to the right.  He looks like he was auditioning for a 50s sitcom but somehow ended up on the wrong set.  I literally just found out his name: Wilhelm.  He died fighting Nazis in Warsaw during WWII. 

My dad is sitting on his aunt's lap taking a bite of something, and my grandmother is leaning in behind them.  Poland had been partitioned into non-existence for well over a century, and when my grandparents were born it was still missing from the map.  He was German and she was Russian.  

And then there's my aunt Krysia, who was like my second mom and the only person in my family who loves animals as much as I do.  She's holding a dog.

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