ADDITIONAL LINKS
Joint Appointment in Law and Anthropology
What excites you most about joining the UCI Law faculty?
Prior to becoming a law professor, I practiced law for close to 10 years, largely in New York and California. During much of this period, I worked with and inside startup companies. I enjoy working with startup companies and believe that UCI will enable me to combine law teaching with a startup environment. I am excited about this prospect.
Why did you go into law teaching? What is your teaching style?
I became a law professor because I wanted to combine my academic interests in law and anthropology with learning from my experiences as a practicing lawyer. In teaching, I seek to ensure that students understand the law that they are learning in context. This means that in addition to learning the law, I hope that students will learn how the law they learn might be applied in different real-world contexts. In connection with this goal, my classes may involve simulations and extensive team work.
Describe your scholarship, or a favorite pro bono or service project.
My scholarship focuses primarily on copyright and business issues with particular attention to the contexts within which law operates. In the copyright area, much of my work has dealt with the intersection of copyright and music. My research and writing on copyright and music come out of my own experiences in music. I have studied classical voice for most of my adult life. My understanding of music as a musician has shaped my scholarly approaches to copyright and music. I also write about issues related to business, particularly the connection between business law and business contexts. My interests in copyright and business have also contributed to recent scholarly projects that focus on the entertainment industries more generally, including the Nollywood video film industry in Nigeria.
- Harvard Law School, J.D., 1994
- University of Michigan, A.M., Applied Economics, 1989
- University of California, Berkeley
- Anthropology, Ph.D., 1988
- Anthropology, M.A.,1986
- Harvard College, A.B., magna cum laude, Anthropology, 1985
- Northwestern University School of Law
- Case Western Reserve School of Law
- University of Georgia School of Law, Visiting Assistant Professor
- Intellectual property, copyright, copyright and the entertainment industries, corporate and securities laws, private equity, entrepreneurship, Africa
- Prof. Arewa's articles have been published in numerous law reviews, including the Notre Dame, Northwestern, North Carolina, and U.C. Davis law reviews, and other journals, including the Journal of Financial Transformation and Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal.
- Prof. Arewa is currently working on several books and scholarly articles about copyright, entertainment industries, intellectual property and entrepreneurship, including:
- A Nollywood Story: Culture, Film, and Commerce in Nigeria
- Blackface, Black Music: Global Markets for African American Music
- Writing Rights: Performance, Creativity, and Copyright’s Visual Bias
- Trading Places: Securities Regulation, Market Crisis, and Network Risk
- Interpreting Infringement: Music, Perception, and Copyright
- Startup Companies (General Counsel) and Venture Capital Firm (Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel), New York and Boston, 1999-2003
- Gunderson Dettmer, Farella Braun & Martel, Sherman & Sterling and Sullivan and Cromwell, San Francisco, Associate, 1994-1999
- Conference on Nollywood & Media Sector Growth in Nigeria, Conference Organizer, 2011
- African Univ. of Science and Technology, Nigeria, Board Member, 2009-present
- Nelson Mandela Institution, Inc., Washington, DC, Consultant, 2005-present
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service officer, 1989-1990