Koslyn has been practicing law since 1985, and established her own firm in 1990. She handles both transactional work and litigation.
Her litigation experience spans a wide variety of entertainment disputes, including recording artists suing their bandmates, recording artists being sued by their bandmates, recording artists suing their record labels, music publishers being sued by their songwriters, personal managers being sued by recording artists, recording artists suing their personal managers, soundtrack producers suing their distributors, former trademark owners being sued by their trademark buyers, joint copyright owners being sued by their co-owners, copyright and trademark owners suing alleged infringers, alleged infringers being sued by copyright and trademark owners, animation film directors suing their producers, and many others.
She has also handled various business disputes between contracting parties, partners, LLC members, and employers/employees, in many different industries and in various venues, including Superior Court, federal court, AAA arbitration and mediation, and the California Labor Commission.
One of the first cases she worked on involved the novel claim that religious scripture could be protected as trade secrets (RTC v. Wollersheim). Wollersheim pitted RTC (the Church of Scientology’s trademark owner which controlled the Church’s scripture), against, among others, newspaper reporters using the “reporter’s privilege” to avoid disclosing their sources. A victory in another case involving religion was a claim filed in Pismo Beach. Koslyn sued the City Council on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and an atheist resident of the City alleging constitutional violations because the City appointed an official City Chaplain and opened their City Council meetings with prayer. Most often, these prayers were Christian prayers. Koslyn got the ideal settlement that achieved all the relief sought in the complaint: the City agreed to stop prayer and to terminate the position of City Chaplain, plus paid Koslyn’s and the FFRF’S lawyer’s attorneys’ fees. The settlement happened fast, within weeks after the lawsuit was filed.
Koslyn’s most noteworthy trial resulted in winning a $14.3 million jury verdict against Marion “Suge” Knight and Death Row Records on behalf of a music producer and a music publisher (who happened to be in jail at the time for cocaine possession) who owned the rights to music of the rap artist Kurupt. $10 million of this $14.3 million jury verdict was punitive damages, and this was the 8th largest punitive damage award in California during 2000. The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s ruling in favor of Koslyn’s client.
Her expertise has been featured globally, on BBC World News, and in the national publications Rolling Stone, MTV News, Apparel News, USA Today and People. Koslyn has appeared on industry panels at the DIY Convention and University of Southern California, the KPFK radio show Samm Brown’s For the Record, and on television shows Entertainment Tonight, the E! Entertainment special, “Women on the ‘Net” and web television show “Asked and Answered.”
Pro bono litigation includes cases for the Feminist Majority (Rock for Choice), and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Pro bono transactional work includes contracts for CineWomen, International Global Corps, the Exceptional Children’s Foundation, and Center for Inquiry. Community pro bono involvement includes grading the California Bar Exam, judging moot court competitions at UCLA and at Pepperdine Law School, and answering a rather ridiculous number of questions on the legal Q&A site Avvo.com.
CA Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeal, 9th Circuit
U.S. District Court, Central District of California
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia
U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
Barnard College, Columbia University, NYC, NY (B.A.)
Reading University, Reading, England, U.K.
University of Southern California (J.D.).
Los Angeles County Bar Association
State Bar of California (State Bar Number 120605) (Intellectual Property, Entertainment and Sports section member)
Film INDependent (previously known as Independent Feature Project West)
Past Memberships: CineWomen, Beverly Hills Bar Association, Committee of Bar Examiners (grader of the California bar exam)