Female Disruptors: Music Attorney Dina LaPolt has forever shaken up the way songwriters get paid in America

“We’re all living on borrowed time” — I got sober on April 19, 1998 from alcohol and drugs. I should be dead. Life is for living and I never let being told “NO” or “it can’t be done” stop me from doing what I believe is right.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dina LaPolt, owner and attorney at LaPolt Law, P.C. in West Hollywood, California. Dina LaPolt is a top music attorney who owns her own law firm representing numerous high-profile artists, including deadmau5, Steven Tyler, and Britney Spears. She is also intimately involved in legislative advocacy on behalf of music creators, serving as the attorney advisor to the Songwriters of North America (SONA), which she helped form.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?

It comes down to this — I love music and I have never wanted to do anything else. I started out as a singer and musician, playing in rock bands in the ’80s and 90’s. I even earned my bachelors degree in music. But as you’re probably aware, the chances of making it big as a musician are very small. I was always the business minded person in every band I was in and I naturally gravitated toward the business end of the industry, having also worked short stints as a tour manager and club promotor. I was attracted to it. After moving out to California, I ended up going to law school on a whim. At the time, my band was playing a showcase at a music business conference in San Francisco. During the day there were all these music industry panels with a lot of music business people on them. One of the panels I attended featured three music lawyers talking about record deals. It was there, sitting in that room, where I decided I wanted to be a music lawyer, plain and simple. I had an epiphany! Within 6 months of attending that panel, I was enrolled in law school in the San Francisco Bay Area. I taught guitar lessons to kids, played in my band, and went to law school at night. It really was a fun time; my band was all lesbians, and we had a residency at a women’s club…