BIOGRAPHICAL SKECTH: PROFESSOR K.J. GREENE
THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL OF LAW

A graduate of the Yale Law School, Kevin Jerome (“K.J”) Greene, was recently selected by peers in the California bar as one of the Top Ten intellectual property attorneys in San Diego County.  Greene writes on topics from James Brown’s music and copyright law, to idea theft in Hollywood, and has established a national reputation as an intellectual property scholar.

Professor Greene is a tenured faculty member at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego teaching Contracts, Intellectual Property, Music Law, and Entertainment Law. He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he taught Entertainment Law and a seminar on the Right of Publicity, and as a visiting professor at Hofstra University School of Law in New York.

Professor Greene served with honor in the U.S. Marines before attending law school, and graduated with highest honors from the State University of New York at Old Westbury. After graduating from Yale, Greene completed a judicial clerkship with the Michigan Supreme Court, which awarded Greene a special certificate for outstanding service.  

Professor Greene formerly practiced corporate litigation at the New York firm law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and entertainment and intellectual property law at  Frankfurt, Garbus, Klein and Selz, representing clients such as Time-Warner/HBO, film producer Spike Lee, pop singer Bobby Brown, Geraldo Rivera and the seminal rap group Public Enemy. 

From the Harvard Journal on Law and Public Policy to Hastings Entertainment Law Review, Greene has published numerous articles and book chapters on copyright, trademark, music and motion picture law issues.  His work was the first in the field to examine the treatment of blues music artists under copyright law.  He has also written about abusive trademark litigation in the entertainment context, motion picture copyright injunctions, rights of publicity and idea misappropriation in Hollywood.

Greene speaks nationally on IP and entertainment law-related topics before groups such as Practicing Law Institute’s seminar “Counseling Clients in the Entertainment Industry”, the ABA’s Section on Intellectual Property Law, the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers’ Association, the American Association of Law Schools, the Intellectual Property Scholar’s Conference, the San Diego County Bar Association, and the corporate legal departments of hi-tech and entertainment industry companies.  Greene has served as a member of the Trademark Litigation Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.