We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Desiree Talley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Desiree thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
My mission is the advancement, education, and protection of the Black culture. On this mission my goal is to educate as many Black creators as possible on the business of entertainment, the legal ramifications of their deals, and the importance of ownership.
This mission developed after learning about the overwhelming number of Black entertainers who had major success across performance-based industries such as music, sports, and art, then entered into unfavorable deals, and ultimately wound up penniless and destitute. When I explored why this was happening to Black artists, the common thread was lack of knowledge and legal resources.
I wanted to help and decided to become an attorney.
Ultimately, my interests lie in creating inter-generational wealth amongst the Black community, extending the life cycle of the “Black” dollar, and establishing methods for Black creators to generate income from their exploitation of Black culture, first, and at the same monetary rate as their counterparts.
Desiree, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Desiree Talley. I am an attorney and creative storyteller that meshes street and book smarts to influence culture through law. Law has provided me with the opportunity to execute my personal mission of the advancement, education, and protection of culture and art.
Hailing from Vallejo, CA (The Bay Area) I pride myself on my direct and relatable delivery, dropping knowledge in both the legal and media industries. From advising clients & draftings contracts to dropping gems in publications such as REVOLT, XO Necole, MadameNoire, Atlanta Black Star, BET.com, and POPLAW Podcast, authenticity is at my core.
Before launching Talley Law Group, a boutique entertainment firm, I held positions at companies such as Bustle Digital Group, Viacom Media Networks, ASCAP, Pandora Media, and Turner Entertainment Networks.
Through these experiences, I gained first-hand experience on the lack of legal representation in my community and the need for black creatives to be educated on the law, to protect their art and the power of ownership. I am now the Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs at REVOLT MEDIA & TV.
Present day, I have emerged as a powerful media voice in the conversation where business, law and pop culture intersect. I am tapping into my creativity and taking my talents from behind the scenes to the main stage. I have been a featured speaker at The Creative Collective NYC’s CultureCon and partnered with General Assembly x Sofar Sounds for a discussion about Women In Music. Awarded as a Top 40 under 40 lawyer from the National Black Lawyers association, and have also been honored for representing creatives at the 2019 I Am African & I Can Awards.
I am a graduate of Hampton University (The Real HU), St. John’s University School of Law, The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music certificate program at NYU and enrolled in a certificate program at Harvard Business School.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Over the past couple of years, the legal and/or business challenges that I have encountered arose (in-part) from the pandemic. It created unusual circumstances that impacted and transformed the way businesses operate and compelled executives and individual contributors to become more flexible given rapidly shifting and competing interests. As a result, it required me to think more and collaboratively in an effort to achieve goals of the organization that I had been charged to lead.
At a moments notice, I went from a three person legal team to being thrusted into a visible leadership role as interim head of legal. Due to the simultaneous departures of individuals on the organization’s legal team, I remained as the sole legal voice to advise on widespread business and legal issues. Leveraging the organization’s historical information and incorporating my
past professional experience (of being employed at a company that completely transformed its business functions), I was empowered to use my expertise to shift the narrative from “business challenges” to “business opportunities,” and to establish a growth journey roadmap for the operations of the company.
At the outset, I gathered intel from the business teams and listened to their frustrations with a legal lens. Based on this information, I created solution-based best practices to establish efficient and effective internal legal standards. Next, I managed expectations of the legal department, reimagined the legal workflow, and organized inter-related agreements that operated across various departments. Finally, I constructed a team to execute the vision of establishing a multi-faceted legal team to support the organization’s existing and future initiatives in the media industry.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Present day, I am in-house counsel at a major television and digital media company. While in private practice, the best source of new clients for me was word of mouth, as well as being the founder and host of POPLAW Podcast. POPLAW Podcast is a pop culture and entertainment law podcast that I created to further my mission to advance, educate, and protect Black culture.
POPLAW is available for mass consumption. Listeners can expect to learn about contract disputes and infringement claims between their favorite celebrities and popular corporations.
POPLAW is available on all platforms where podcasts are available, on the POPLAW YouTube channel, and at www.poplawpodcast.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.poplawpodcast.com
- Instagram: lawyersfortheculture_
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/desiree-talley-esq-126b4639
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy2dXKwJcDR0y_6mt-u9zmg
Image Credits
Credit: Nolwen Cifuentes