Dina LaPolt

biography

Dina LaPolt is the founder and owner of LaPolt Law, P.C. one of the entertainment industry’s leading law firms, and the only firm of its stature founded by a sole female attorney. LaPolt Law represents some of the world’s top superstar entertainers in the areas of music, film, and television as well as top industry executives and prominent entrepreneurs and influencers in the areas of fashion and beauty.

LaPolt is an expert at strategizing and solving complex and sophisticated legal and business issues relating to contracts, copyrights, trademarks, rights of publicity, legislative and policy initiatives, and litigation. Her background in music, law, and teaching and her exceptional attention to detail, combine for an approach to client problem-solving that is unique in the industry. She also serves as a forceful activist for creators and celebrities, working on legislative matters that affect the rights of her clients. Through innovative deals, highly personalized service, social justice initiatives, and a passion for doing right by creatives and talent, LaPolt Law consistently ranks among the top firms in the entertainment industry.

LaPolt’s influence in the music industry is vast which included her industry-leading expertise which changed the lives of thousands of music creators, notably through a range of legislative issues, including a landmark update to copyright law — 2018's Music Modernization Act. She scored another crucial public policy win in 2020 when her work with Congress ensured music creators, talent, and other independent contractors would be eligible for pandemic covid relief via The CARES Act.

In 2016 she orchestrated a lawsuit on behalf of Songwriters of North America (SONA) against the U.S. Department of Justice to fight a licensing mandate that would have devastated the incomes of songwriters worldwide.

From a single client in 2001, LaPolt Law’s roster is now among the most diverse in the industry and includes top music artists from an array of genres, iconic catalogues, prominent talent in film and television, and a growing number of fashion, beauty and lifestyle entrepreneurs and influencers. The powerhouse boutique also specializes in intellectual property catalogue sales, brand partnerships, executive employment contracts and emerging media which includes advising members of Congress on the use of artificial intelligence and its effect on creators and talent in the entertainment industry.

LaPolt, a 1996 graduate of John F. Kennedy School of Law, and earlier the State University of New York, New Paltz (where she earned a bachelor’s in music), has taught and lectured throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe. For nearly 20 years she taught the popular UCLA Extension course, “Legal and Practical Aspects of the Music Business” — a class so comprehensive it became a rite-of-passage for industry newcomers and veterans alike.

Among LaPolt’s earliest clients was the activist Afeni Shakur, (mother of Tupac Shakur), with whom she worked for 13 years after helping her secure the rights to her son’s estate. LaPolt and Shakur ultimately oversaw the release of ten posthumous Tupac albums and several books, among them the critically acclaimed The Rose That Grew from Concrete.

LaPolt was a co-producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Tupac: Resurrection, and in 2022 was engaged by the Shakur estate to produce Peace, Love & Respect: The Afeni Shakur Story, chronicling the activist’s work as a key figure in the Black Panther party.

An outspoken critic of racially motivated laws, LaPolt helped secure the high-profile release of rap artist 21 Savage from an ICE detention center in 2019 after he was unfairly targeted by the Trump Administration due to his race and immigration status. Separately, she took on the Trump administration again (and again) to prevent its unlicensed use of the music of her clients.

More recently LaPolt has been a pivotal advisor to members of Congress on The Restoring Artistic Protection (RAP)Act, which aims to rein in the practice of citing an artist’s creative expressions as evidence in legal proceedings against them. The first-of-its-kind bill, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in July of 2022 and again in April 2023, has disproportionately targeted Black men, an issue LaPolt wrote about for Variety.

In 2021 she was honored for her activism in the Black community as the recipient, alongside civil rights attorney Ben Crump, of the Black Music Action Coalition’s Agent of Change Award.

LaPolt has been honored with numerous industry accolades including Super Lawyers which is a prominent rating system reserved for lawyers who have a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement, Billboard’s Power 100, Top Music Business Attorneys; Billboard’s Music’s Most Powerful Attorneys, Hollywood Reporter’s Power Lawyers, Variety’s Dealmakers Impact Report, Variety’s Women’s Impact Report, as well as being the recipient of the Variety’s Power of Law Honoree in 2020 which is an honor bestowed on one attorney whose extraordinary contributions have made a substantial impact in their field.

In 2019 LaPolt became the youngest attorney — and only the second woman in history — to receive The Recording Academy’s prestigious Service Award at its annual Entertainment Law Initiative event during Grammys week. That same year she was inducted into Billboard’s Women in Music Hall of Fame. In 2024 she was voted by her peers as the first ever Top Music Lawyers’ Choice Award which honors the attorney they believe has the most impact and influence across the industry.

A co-founder and board-member of Songwriters of North America (SONA), LaPolt also serves on the boards of the City of Hope’s Music, Film and Entertainment Group, the Friendly House which is the nation’s oldest alcohol and drug rehabilitation center for women founded in 1954, Neil Lasher Music Fund — a non-profit that provides financial assistance for addiction and recovery treatment to those in the music business as well as serving on the Executive Leadership Council of the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) and the Recording Academy’s Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) executive leadership committee.

Her motivational book, Street Smart: Tips for Succeeding in a Man’s World will be released by Burman Books Media, Summer 2025.

LaPolt is sober and has been in recovery since April 19, 1998.

Memberships

California State Bar Association; Los Angeles County Bar Association; Beverly Hills Bar Association; California Copyright Conference; International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (IAEL); National Recording Academy of Arts & Sciences; California Lawyers for the Arts; Association of Independent Music Publishers; National Association of Recording Industry Professionals; John M. Langston Bar Association; LGBTQ+ Lawyers Association of Los Angeles.

Committees and Boards (Past and Present)

President of the Board, Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation; Attorney Advisor to the Grammys Creators Alliance, Grammy’s Entertainment Law Initiative Executive Committee; Board Member, Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies; Member, Los Angeles Music Leaders Roundtable under U.S. Representative Judy Chu (CA-27); Urban Fitness 911; Songwriters of North America (SONA); Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) Executive Leadership Council; We Are Rise, Inc; City of Hope’s Music, Film & Entertainment Industry Group Executive Board.