Instructor Bio

David Wienir is Assistant General Counsel at HarperCollins and Head of Business and Legal affairs at HarperCollins Productions. Previously, he was a business affairs executive for over a decade at United Talent Agency (UTA) and practiced law at two of the top talent boutiques (Grubman Indursky and Gang Tyre) where he represented many A List celebrities and artists including Spielberg and Madonna. He began his legal career as a litigator and First Amendment lawyer with the 150+ year old international law firm Coudert Brothers in New York, representing prominent book publishers.

He has been awarded the Outstanding Volunteer Award from Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, named a “Rising Star” in 2009 and 2010 by Super Lawyers Magazine, and named to Variety’s 2014 Legal Impact Report, and is the author of several acclaimed books including “Amsterdam Exposed: An American’s Journey Into The Red Light District” and “Making It on Broadway: Actors’ Tales of Climbing to the Top” (foreword by Jason Alexander from Seinfeld).  His first book “Last Time: Labour’s Lessons from the Sixties” was co-authored at the age of 23 with a Member of British Parliament.

David has taught entertainment law for 20+ years, including at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music,  The New York Institute of Technology and The College of New Rochelle, and currently teaches The Legal Primer for the Entertainment Business at UCLA Extension.

He was educated at Columbia University, Oxford, The London School of Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall), and is admitted to practice law in New York and California. 

Before beginning his career as an entertainment lawyer, he was the host of the talk radio show “Estonia Today” on Estonia National Radio, worked within the Governor of California’s legal affairs office, and worked for the LA District Attorney’s office during the Menendez murder trial. Also, he worked as a speechwriter and staff member for a Member of British Parliament, as a researcher for The Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, and as a statistician for CBS Sports. He is a graduate of ARTA’s professional whitewater river rafting school in Idaho and guided river trips for several years in California and Oregon, and is a founder and the first musical director of “The Oxford Alternotives”, Oxford University’s oldest a cappella close harmony group.

ENTERTAINMENT LAW EXPOSED 

THE PREMIER ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT LAW CLASS