R. Bruce Rich is a senior partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and heads the firm’s IP & Media practice. Mr. Rich is a nationally recognized expert in intellectual property law, concentrating on the problems of communications, entertainment and Internet industry clients. His areas of concentration include litigating and counseling in the fields of copyright, music licensing, the First Amendment, trademark and antitrust. Representative clients include the Association of American Publishers, CBS, the Copyright Clearance Center, The Walt Disney Company, eBay, McGraw-Hill, NBC, the Radio and Television Music License Committees and Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
Mr. Rich has served as lead trial counsel in significant copyright, trademark, music licensing, antitrust, and libel cases for, among other clients, eBay, Bertelsmann, DMX, HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill, Random House, Warner Books, The Walt Disney Company, ABC, CBS, XM Satellite Radio, The New York Post, and Reuters. He has represented the Association of American Publishers in its Supreme Court amicus curiae and other First Amendment activities.
Mr. Rich helped found the nation’s pre-eminent practice group representing broadcast and cable television, background music, new media, and other entities in their music copyright relationships with composers, music publishers, the music performing rights organizations (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), and SESAC), as well as with the recording industry insofar as digital delivery of copyrighted materials is concerned. Representative clients of the firm in this area include the ABC, CBS and NBC Television Networks, the Radio and Television Music License Committees, DMX, Clear Channel Communications and Lifetime Television.
Mr. Rich actively writes and lectures in his fields of expertise. He has spoken on copyright, trademark, First Amendment, and antitrust topics at numerous law schools, at Bar Association meetings and at industry conferences. He has provided expert testimony in court cases and before Congress, and has appeared on national television. Mr. Rich has served as Adjunct Professor at New York Law School’s Media Law Institute.
Mr. Rich is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound and serves on the Counsels' Council of Lincoln Center and on the Board of Advisors of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has also served on Penn Law School's Board of Overseers. Mr. Rich has been consistently recognized by his peers in such publications as Who's Who in America, Legal 500 and Chambers Guide To The Legal Profession where he is ranked as a "leading" lawyer for Media & Entertainment: Copyright & Contract Disputes and Intellectual Property: Trademark & Copyright. Chambers USA 2011 praised Mr. Rich as "a prominent lawyer in the trademark and copyright arena," and a "wonderful, top lawyer." In 2010 Chambers USA called Mr. Rich "extremely bright and knowledgeable of industry-specific issues." He has also been commended for representing clients with "a laser-like ability to focus" – commentators say he is "extremely knowledgeable and bright, a terrific adversary" and a "skillful diplomat." Commentators in Legal 500 US have lauded him as an "exemplary counsel [who] sees all the angles of all the issues," and praised his "ability to listen and reshape business ideas into legal theories." In addition, Mr. Rich is regularly featured in the The Best Lawyers in America for the specialties of First Amendment Law and Intellectual Property Law. He is one of a distinguished group of attorneys who have been listed in Best Lawyers for ten years or longer. He was also recognized in 2012 as among the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America.