I am happy and excited to introduce you all to Africa Music Law™ (AML’s) first intern, Ms. Ollachi Holman! Ollachi aka Enze has been an avid reader of AML for a while now. She says her “guilty pleasure” is the “Celebrities Behaving Badly” features on AML. She also enjoys the “Music Law” features and will be contributing to the aforementioned categories during her time here with us.
Ollachi, who is of Nigerian (Mother) and American (Father) heritage, also blogs at Enze’s Law, her personal blog where she chronicles her journey towards becoming an entertainment lawyer. Last year, Ollachi contacted me in a mentor capacity seeking advice about her venture into the entertainment law field. I enjoyed sharing my input with her.
Recently, she expressed interest in an internship position at Ladybrille. Knowing her passion for music and law, I thought it would make more sense if I created an opportunity here at AML for her. I informed her of my thoughts. She was excited and agreed it would be a better fit. I made an offer, she accepted and here we are.
Ollachi already has strong ties to Nigeria’s music industry, as evidenced by her bio below. However, rest assured Ollachi will continue in the AML spirit of maintaining objectivity and making appropriate disclaimers, where applicable, in her writings. I am excited to have her on board. She will be with us for the next three months.
I encourage you all to please give her your feedback on her writings as she strives towards becoming one of Nigeria’s finest entertainment lawyers. Read Ollachi’s bio below, follow her on twitter at @enzetweets and join me in welcoming her, officially, to the AML community!
-Uduak
______________________
Ollachi’s Bio
There are many things in life that I am passionate about, yet the one at the forefront is entertainment. I initially went to law school to help people, but the possibility of also entertaining them is what actually kept me here. From childhood, I have always had an interest in entertainment. I was exposed to the entertainment industry as a child, as I performed and participated in productions to promote the protection of copyrighted in works in Nigeria. I performed on stage and toured with a musical group in Nigeria which opened my eyes to the wonders and the structure, in some cases the lack thereof, in the industry.
The first opportunity I had to learn more about this area of the law was when I worked with Syndik8 Records, an up and coming record label in Nigeria, in 2009. Being a singer myself, my initial interest was solely in recording, but as time went on I grew more interested in the legal aspects of the industry. I assisted with studio management, A&R, contract drafting and review, licensing, and artist relations. The lack of contracts and formalities involved in the Nigerian entertainment scene motivated me to pursue a career in entertainment law to educate myself and others on the need for such formalities.
Last year, I had the opportunity to work on several academic and musical projects. I have recorded tracks with popular Nigerian artists and have interviewed the President of the government authorized Nigerian royalty collecting organization (COSON), Mr. Tony Okoroji. During my studies at the University of Houston Law School, I wrote a comparative law paper on the copyright laws of Nigeria and the United States. This paper, which received a grade of A-, seeks to remedy some of the issues plaguing the Nigerian music scene today in regards to licensing and royalties, and suggests possible ways to reduce copyright infringement while increasing the revenue of music corporations.
I would like to cultivate my skills and eventually use them to improve the entertainment industry around the world. With a Bachelor’s degree focused on the crisis management aspect of Public Relations and Rhetorical Advocacy, I have been and still am preparing myself to be a source of counsel to African entertainers. In a continent where professionalism is low and greed is at an all time high, I hope to effect a change that would set African entertainers on the path to enlightenment and education about their rights in their works so that they can professionally handle their love for music not just as a hobby, but as a profit bearing career.
-Ollachi Holman