Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

Jacqueline Charlesworth is a partner in the Litigation Group.

Ms. Charlesworth, former general counsel of the U.S. Copyright Office, is a nationally known litigator and transactional attorney who represents clients in copyright disputes and complex licensing deals, with a particular focus on music.  Her client roster includes leading music companies, songwriters, and recording artists. She also represents national trade associations in litigation, legislative and regulatory matters. She was named a Woman Executive of the Year by Billboard magazine for her role in helping to craft and secure passage of the Music Modernization Act, landmark legislation that updated the U.S. music licensing system.

Ms. Charlesworth’s recent representative matters include:

• Representation of the owner and administrator of a deceased writer/artist whose work was sampled in a major hit song in a lawsuit against a major music company, leading to a positive resolution for her clients.
• Representation of a prominent songwriter in an action to enforce his copyright termination rights, winning an important preliminary motion and a favorable settlement for her client.
• Representation of well-known songwriter/artists in a suit against a California politician who used their songs in campaign ads, defeating the politician’s claim of fair use on summary judgment.

Prior to joining Frankfurt Kurnit, Ms. Charlesworth was the principal of Charlesworth Law, a music and copyright boutique she founded and operated for five years in Los Angeles. Before that, as General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights of the U.S. Copyright Office, she had primary responsibility for interpretation of the U.S. Copyright Act and managed a wide range of litigation, regulatory, and policy matters, including the Office’s participation in Supreme Court cases. She has also practiced at national law firms and served as General Counsel and Senior Vice President of the National Music Publishers’ Association and The Harry Fox Agency.

Ms. Charlesworth has lectured extensively on music and copyright law, including at Yale, Harvard, Columbia and other leading law schools. She serves as an officer and trustee of the Los Angeles Copyright Society.

Ms. Charlesworth received a B.A. with honors from Brown University, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. At Yale, she oversaw The Yale Law Journal as an Executive Committee Editor and was a founding member of the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism. Following law school, she clerked for Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Ms. Charlesworth is admitted to practice in California and New York State.  She is also admitted to the United States District Courts for the Central District of California, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the District of Columbia, the Middle District of Florida, and the District of Colorado; the Second, Fourth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal; and the U.S. Supreme Court.