I am a music and entertainment lawyer and strategic advisor representing and counseling artists, songwriters, producers, executives and entertainment companies in the United States, Latin America and beyond. I founded Artists at Law after serving inside one of Latin music’s most influential companies, where I helped build the legal infrastructure that became Rimas Entertainment’s Business & Legal Affairs department and later led its legal department. There, I directly worked on and oversaw projects for artists such as Bad Bunny, Eladio Carrión and Arcángel across the entertainment spectrum—including major label deals, such as 360 and recording agreements and joint ventures; live performance and touring agreements; marketing, sponsorship and merchandising deals; copyright and trademark registration and protection; music and video rights clearances; licensing; infringement claims; and litigation.

Many young people dream of becoming an entertainment lawyer. I was not one of them. Yes, I once danced the Super Bowl halftime and was a member of a pop trio. Also, after studying journalism and communications at the University of Miami, and law at Tulane University, I contributed to news media outlets, led and promoted professional association events, and even co-produced a marketing conference in Miami known as Social Media Week, now owned by Adweek. My legal practice, however, was serious business. I was a litigator representing individual clients and Fortune 500 companies in maritime and products liability cases and, on the side, volunteered to help abused and neglected children in dependency matters. Then, entertainment law found me. A friend and mentor called one day. She had become Rimas Entertainment’s General Counsel and reached out to me as her first recruit. “We have this up-and-coming artist,” she explained. “His name is Bad Bunny.” As she spoke, I googled: “Who is Bad Bunny?”

I took the leap and said “yes,” despite the fact that I would also be working on a master’s degree in marketing that first year. Part of me really wanted to build something. I had realized that law doesn’t have to matter only because it fights something, as trial lawyers do every day. It can matter because it enables something. Together, we built the infrastructure that became Rimas’ Business & Legal Affairs department.

Finding myself in a music, entertainment and media practice felt like coming home to a place where all the parts of me finally fit together. My prior experience became my toolkit. It still influences how I draft, negotiate and assess risk, particularly when the standard entertainment-law templates are not enough. My construction-defect work informed contracts involving concert stages and other temporary structures. My marketing experience helped me think through what protecting the privacy rights of audiences and the public should look like in the real world, not just on paper. And when an artist wanted to charter a yacht for a music video, I not only negotiated the charter; because of my maritime experience, I anticipated and navigated admiralty issues that could have derailed the production had they not been addressed in advance.

Breadth of experience lets you see more of the problem. It also gives you more ways to solve it.

I returned to the University of Miami, taking coursework in both the law and music schools and eventually earning an LL.M. in Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law. Today, I bring what I call an Inside-Out Without Limits™ philosophy to my work: a deep understanding of the law, the business and the industry, coupled with a willingness to look beyond the four corners of an agreement – to the people, relationships, disciplines, motivations and objectives that will determine whether it actually works. I value convention when it serves a purpose, but I don’t confuse it with necessity. The best solution may come from looking at the problem differently, drawing from somewhere unexpected, or creating something that wasn’t there before. “This is how it’s always done” has never struck me as a particularly compelling reason to do anything. When someone hires me, they are placing something valuable in my hands – a career, a company, a catalog, a negotiation, an opportunity, or something they may have spent years creating.

That deserves more than legal competence. It deserves care, judgment, imagination and craftsmanship.