Biography

Judy Bass has over twenty-five years of experience in the media and entertainment industries. As Vice President of Business Affairs and Operations for CBS Enterprises for over six years, Judy was responsible for the structuring and negotiation of all contractual arrangements for CBS Broadcast International, CBS Video and CBS Consumer Products. These agreements governed the worldwide television, domestic cable and home video distribution of all CBS-owned and acquired programming for CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports, as well as licensing and merchandising of both CBS-owned and third party properties. As part of her duties, she oversaw profit participation and royalty reporting for acquired properties and supervised the Operations Department of CBS Enterprises.

Judy also served as Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs of Marvel Enterprises. In that capacity, she negotiated and drafted a wide range of agreements for the motion picture, television and live theatrical exploitation of Marvel’s vast character library including underlying rights deals, animated and live action television and video production and distribution, independent film financing, videogame, music and other licensing arrangements.

Judy spent over twelve years at Time Inc., first in the Time Inc. Law Department where she ultimately served as Associate General Counsel, and then at Sports Illustrated Magazine. In the Time Inc. Law Department, she counseled the editorial and publishing staffs of the Magazine Group in all aspects of publishing ranging from pre-publication review to copyright, trademark, libel and privacy, advertising, and circulation promotion matters. Judy also supervised litigation including two high-profile libel trials. She left the Law Department to become the first and only Director of Business Affairs for her clients, Sports Illustrated and Sports Illustrated for Kids Magazines, where she was responsible for negotiating and drafting licensing, production, distribution and other agreements for books, television, videos, calendars and other line extension activities. She also served as the chief attorney negotiating the Time Inc. Olympic TOP sponsorship agreements for various Winter and Summer Olympic Games beginning with the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles through the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Judy started her career at Rogers & Wells (now Clifford Chance) as a litigation associate working on matters for a variety of publishing and other clients. Judy received her law degree from the New York University School of Law where she served as Managing Editor of the Journal of International Law and Politics. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Jackson College of Tufts University, and currently is a member of the Alumni Executive Board of the Communications and Media Studies Program at Tufts.

Judy is a frequent speaker on industry and legal panels. Recently she spoke on "Negotiating the Producer/Network Agreement" at a program presented by New York Women in Film and Television and on "From Pitch to Production: Key Deal Points" and "Publishing Agreements: Author Agreements and Literary Option Deals" at two continuing legal education courses sponsored by the New York County Lawyers Association. Judy has also twice chaired a program entitled "Current Ethical Issues for the Entertainment Lawyer" at the New York City Bar Association. She has also been a guest speaker at the NYU Film School. Judy serves as a member of the New York City Bar Association's Copyright and Literary Property Committee and is a former member of the Entertainment Law Committee. She is also a member of the American Bar Association's Forum Committee on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, the New York State Bar Association's Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section, the Media Law Resource Center, the Copyright Society, The Authors Guild, New York Women in Film and Television and the International Documentary Association. She serves as well as pro bono counsel to the New York Coalition of Women in the Arts and Media. In her spare-time Judy has worked on producing documentary films. She is based in New York City where she lives with her family and has been active as an executive officer and board member of a not-for-profit organization.

Copyright © 2008 Judith B. Bass. All rights reserved.