Female Founders: Dina LaPolt of LaPolt Law On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Understand all facets of the business you are in. For example, I am in the music industry so I have spent a lot of time and many years learning and understanding all the players and how the actual business works in addition to how money is generated and ultimately paid out to the various parties.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dina LaPolt.
Music attorney and activist, Dina LaPolt, is the founder of LaPolt Law, P.C., the only music law firm of its stature that is founded and run by a sole female attorney. LaPolt Law, P.C. employs nine full-time music attorneys who work together overseeing one of the industry’s most diverse client rosters representing superstar entertainers, as well as an array of top industry executives and influencers in the area of music, fashion, and beauty. Inducted into the acclaimed Billboard Women in Music Hall of Fame for her role in helping to orchestrate the Music Modernization Act, LaPolt is an executive with deep roots and passion in both the music industry and society as a whole. An industry legend, Dina was honored by the Recording Academy in 2019 with the prestigious Service Award at the Entertainment Law Initiative luncheon; she was the youngest attorney and only the second woman to ever receive the award in the history of the organization.
In January 2020, Dina was asked by Aerosmith to introduce them at MusiCares for their honor, the 2020 Person of the Year. During the 2020 Covid pandemic, Dina and the songwriter advocacy group she co-founded, Songwriters of N. America (SONA) help shepherd the inclusion of independent contractors, sole proprietors, and self -employed individuals into the Small Business Administration Act provisions of the newly passed CARES Act, the Three Trillion Dollar Federal Stimulus legislation passed by the Senate in March 2020 and helped shepherd the creation of the website, Music COVID Relief, to streamline the process for freelancers and other self-employed musicians to apply for federal aid. LaPolt also helped establish an assistance fund through SONA that began handing out $1,000 emergency grants to songwriters facing economic hardship as a result of the pandemic. LaPolt was also invited to be on the Executive Leadership Council of the Black Music Action Coalition as Dina is a well-known advocate of antiracist initiatives as she speaks about in her 2016 TED Talk. In June 2020 Dina helped gather creators to sign a public letter to NY’s Governor Cuomo and the New York State Assembly, to repeal section 50-A of New York’s Civil Rights Law, which shields a police officer’s disciplinary records from being made public. The law has since been repealed.
In January 2021, Dina authored an opinion piece published in Variety which calls out the State of Maryland’s highest court on their blatantly racist and discriminatory ruling that rap lyrics may be admitted in court as evidence of a defendant’s guilt.
Dina was named to 2020 Billboard Power 100 lists, Billboard’s 2020 and 2021 Top Music Lawyers and Power of Women 2020. In addition, she was named Variety’s Power of Law for 2020 and 2021, The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Lawyers 2020 and The Hollywood Reporter’s Top Music Attorneys of 2021.
Dina is currently a board member of the Songwriters of North America (SONA), Music, Film and Entertainment Group’s City of Hope, We Are R.I.S.E. Inc., and is also on the Executive Leadership Committee for the Black Music Action Coalition.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I am a music and entertainment attorney but I did not decide to go to law school overnight. My passion for music and entertainment began over forty years ago, having started as a musician, studying music in high school and college, and even putting myself through school teaching guitar lessons to children. Before ultimately going to law school, I worked in the music industry as a musician, concert promoter, part time personal assistant to a rock star, and a personal manager, all of which has allowed me to bring a unique insight to the practice of law.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I would have to say Afeni Shakur, Tupac Shakur’s mom, was very instrumental in my success. When I started my own law firm in 2001, the estate of Tupac Shakur was one of my first clients. Prior to opening my own firm, I had been an intern for a small entertainment law practice which was doing some legal work for Tupac’s estate. Tupac had just died in 1996 and a lot of people were suing his estate for unpaid royalties. About four months into my internship in 1998, I met Afeni Shakur at a court hearing in downtown Los Angeles. I was a big fan of hers personally because my mother taught us all about her teachings in the Black Panther Party growing up. My mother was really big into the civil rights movement and Afeni was a legend in my household. When I met Afeni she was really impressed that I knew so much about her history as a civil rights activist and she and I bonded right away. A couple of years into our relationship she started telling me I should open my own law firm. Finally in 2001 I did it!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
I have many great stories but one in particular stands out to me. Sometime in the mid-2000’s Afeni Shakur had relocated from Atlanta to Lumberton, North Carolina and had started an organic farm. She was very unique in that way in that she loved to uplift communities and give back. One day she calls me to tell me that she had just returned from the local library in Lumberton and that they were “pitiful” because the only books they had there were a copy of “Webster’s encyclopedia” and “Valley of the Dolls” (laughs). She then proceeded to tell me that she left them a check so that they can buy some real books for the library and that “her lawyer” was going to “send them a list” (I later found out from her business manager that the check she had left them was for $20,000….laughs) but that’s not the best part of the story!
Afeni told me that “her friend Maya” was going to call me with a list of books that I needed to put in the letter to the library. A few days a later I got a call from an unknown number and a woman with a very deep voice on the other end identified herself as “Afeni’s friend Maya” and asked if I “had a pen” so I can write down a list of books for the library. For about an hour I diligently wrote down all the books she recited to me over the phone. Books by James Baldwin, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Dubois, Langston Hughes, a book on Ruby Bridges… the call went on and on. Afterwards I sent the letter and copied Afeni and Afeni’s sister, Glo. Glo calls me to talk about the letter, asking me how the call went with Maya. I said something like “she was great.” Glo then said laughing, “you have no idea who you were talking to, do you!?” It was Maya Angelou!! (laughing). Actually I do think “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was even one of the books she told me to put on the list (laughing)!
Oh my goodness! Thank you for that! What a great story! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Besides the obvious, that men still give the big jobs to other men, especially white men, I do think that women can help themselves more by having a confident take charge attitude. In my opinion, many women in positions of power are still worried about what the men think about them! It’s nuts! I mean, who cares??
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need to Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
One, understand all facets of the business you are in. For example, I am in the music industry so I have spent a lot of time and many years learning and understanding all the players and how the actual business works in addition to how money is generated and ultimately paid out to the various parties.
Two, be consistent. Even though I have a lot of experience in other areas of the music industry and I know a lot of people, my main job and role of my law firm is to draft and negotiate all the agreements, advise the client, and work with client’s other representatives such as agents, accountants, and managers to make sure we successfully navigate the client through all the pitfalls of the music business which can be very challenging at times.
Three, keep your friends close and your competitors closer. Find good people who see your vision and that can add value to what you are doing. Make a mental note of those people who are not so supportive and kill them with kindness. Take them to lunch, nominate them for certain industry lists. It’s hard not to like someone who helps you unconditionally.
Four, have two types of business- your business and none of your business. Know how to choose wisely and finally
Five, find a non-profit or some philanthropic initiatives you are passionate about and give back. There’s an old saying, in order to keep it, you must give it away. Besides helping people it actually helps me more to do stuff like that.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Like I mentioned, I spend a lot of time on pro-bono, my non-profit, and social justice initiatives.
In 2015, I helped found a songwriter advocacy group called Songwriters of North America (SONA) with two songwriters, Michelle Lewis and Kay Hanley. One of the first things SONA did was file a lawsuit against the Department of Justice in connection with outdated government regulations that were affecting income paid to songwriters. In 2018, I helped lead the advocacy efforts of SONA and other music creators to orchestrate and pass Federal legislation called the Music Modernization Act which was the first meaningful copyright reform in decades protecting artists, producers, and songwriters. Because of SONA and my relationships in Washington D.C., early on during the covid pandemic, I was also able to help shepherd the inclusion of independent contractors, sole proprietors, and self -employed individuals into the Small Business Administration Act provisions of the Federal Covid Relief Legislation which allowed songwriters and other creatives to file for Federal unemployment insurance. This was such a moving experience for me to be involved in something on such a big level like that. All of this is volunteer work which is very gratifying to me.
Also two other organizations I am deeply involved with is being on the board of We Are R.I.S.E. which was founded by Ebone Smith in South Los Angeles to empower young girls of color, ages 7 to 12, through conducting workshops that promote positive self -esteem, coping and life skills and I am on the Executive Leadership Committee of the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC). BMAC was formed during the pandemic and as response to the outrage of the senseless murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and unfortunately many other Black people. BMAC seeks to address the long-standing racial inequities for Black creatives and executives in the music business. In fact, one of my initiatives that I am very passionate about is fighting against laws and prejudices of certain prosecutors and judges in conservative jurisdictions who continue to use rap lyrics as evidence of someone’s guilt in court. These laws are very racist because we are only seeing them used again rap artists of whom are mostly Black people. We do not see this in other genres like country music. I even wrote a paper on it called, Rap Music and the American Justice System which I am sending to members of Congress to try and get support for proposed Federal legislation.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Female Founders: Dina LaPolt of LaPolt Law On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.