Law Offices James Charne

James I Charne
425 Idaho Avenue, Unit No. 9
Santa Monica, CA 90403-2666
Tel: (310) 458-9345
charne@usa.net

Professional Background

01/01 to Present. Law Offices James I Charne, Santa Monica, CA.
Representing developers, designers, and all talent in all aspects of the interactive games, music, and entertainment industries.

Monthly columnist, IGDA.org

01/98 to 01/01. President & Executive Director - Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles. Professional Academy of the $6+ billion interactive entertainment software industry.

Biggest success: Establishing and producing the interactive software entertainment Academy Awards. All voting supervised and certified by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Most satisfying: Establishing the Academy as a respected voice working for recognition of interactive software entertainment as a popular art form.

1994 to 01/98. Law Offices James I Charne, Santa Monica, CA. Private transactional practice representing clients in the technology entertainment and music industries.

1988 to 1994. Vice President Legal & Business Affairs/CFO - Absolute Entertainment, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. First non-technical employee of early stage video & computer games software studio & publisher.

Biggest success: Built company from start-up phase to 150 employee, NASDAQ NMS listed, publisher/developer, and largest developer of Nintendo-compatible software in North America. Participated in IPO road show meetings as CFO.
Most satisfying: Becoming licensed as one of the first North American-based developers by Nintendo.

1986 to 1988. Assistant Vice President, Technology Acquisitions Group - Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., New York. Handled licensing, custom software development, software license, technical services, and volume purchase agreements for all divisions of Merrill Lynch & Co.

1983 to 1986. Producer, Activision Inc., Mountain View, CA, Glen Rock, NJ, and Boston. Managed inside studio staff and outside developers producing video games and home productivity software.

Biggest successes: Keystone Kapers, by Garry Kitchen for Atari 2600 (750,000 units); and Garry Kitchen’s Game Maker for C64 (named “Game of the Year” by several publications).

1980 to 1981. Attorney - Arista Records, Inc., New York.

1980 to 1983. Hutzler & Charne, New York. General entertainment industry practice.

Educational Background

New York Law School, New York. JD, 1979. Admitted to practice law in CA, NY, and NJ.

University of Wisconsin, Madison. BA in Communications Arts (Radio-TV-Film concentration)

Affiliations, personal info; etc.

Author- "Famous Last Words"
a monthly column on software contracting issues appearing at www.igda.org.

Voting Member, Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.
Voting Member, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Voting Member, International Game Developers Association (IDGA).

Faculty Chair and/or lecturer on technology, industry and copyright topics for:
CMP Game Developer’s Conference, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
Practicing Law Institute - Counseling Clients in the Entertainent Industry, 2004, 2005
Law Seminars International - Gamer Technology Law, 2004, 2005
E3 - Electronic Entertainment Expo, 1998, 1999, 2000
Digital Hollywood 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
Digital Hollywood at CES (1999);
Variety Interactive Summit (1998);
CA Lawyers for the Arts (1998, 2001).

Online since 1991; computer user since 1979.

Recipient of seven gold and platinum record awards (non-musical contributions)