The Best and The Brightest – Lisa A. Callif, Partner, Donaldson & Callif
Hollywood Law: Up Next – Profiles
By Iain Blair, Todd Longwell, Karen Idelson, Michelle Weiss
Here’s a group of attorneys that stand above the crowd and represent the next generation of sharp legal minds in the entertainment business.
Lisa A. Callif
Partner
Donaldson & Callif
Southwestern University Law School, 2001
Callif’s central focus has been on repping independent filmmakers in areas ranging from financing to production to distribution. She also has extensive experience in an area key for documentarians — the fair-use doctrine as codified by U.S. Copyright Law. As a result, Callif spends considerable time doing clearance work as well as rendering fair-use opinion letters, making it possible for clients to use limited amounts of unlicensed material in their projects. Callif has worked on indie docus such as “I’m Still Here,” “Teenage Paparazzo,” “Waiting for Superman,” and “Inside Job.” She’s now working with Oliver Stone, Jason Blum and Elise Pearlstein on their projects. Callif especially enjoys helping to shepherd small films all the way from pre-production through completion. “It’s satisfying to be part of taking someone’s dream project through all the different stages of production and providing the kind of advice that can help make that happen,” says Callif.