Catherine is a lawyer, and she may be the Lara Croft – or Super Mario - of all lawyers! This American member entered an industry she never expected to be so friendly and active: she is now the favourite lawyer of videogame developers who seek her protection in business ventures.
Many young lawyers reading us right now from their offices would perhaps prefer to be at home on their couch holding the remote control of a Playstation or an Xbox. Catherine McGivney (Eurojuris USA) does even better: she is a lawyer in the world of videogames!
Of course, we do not mean that she is a playable character in a game – she is a real lawyer like you, working for the lawfirm Roberts McGivney & Zagotta, in Chicago, Illinois. But her main area of expertise is videogames.
“I got started almost by chance,” she explains. “My first client in this industry was at the time a very small company making their first games. They needed a lot of contracts with their strategic partners; a videogame needs a distribution network, or another studio to complete a part of it. There is also a lot of intellectual property involved: trademarks, logos, copyrights and so on. And finally, the third main area of law for a videogame developer is the rising of capital, they need representation for these transactions”. Catherine now fulfills all these duties for several videogame and software developers.
“A few years ago”, she says, “the guys from this small company had to travel across the country to look for partners and I was constantly on the plane with them. Once, we were on a plane to Seattle to meet Microsoft, and my client took out one of these notebooks we used in first grade, and he started writing. I asked him what he was doing and he told me, 'Oh I'm writing this new videogame called Halo...'” A few years later, Halo became one of the most successful videogames in history. “Their company grew bigger and bigger. They were waiting for their opening, and that was Microsoft.”
And at that stage, Catherine discovered one of the main characteristics of the videogame business for a lawyer: “They are extremely faithful to you! Microsoft had their attorneys so they had to work with them and stopped collaborating with me. But then I started to receive other queries from clients in this industry that were recommended by them. And when they left Microsoft to start another project, they immediately called me again. The best part about this industry is that they take a lot of time to trust you but once it is done they are very, very faithful. They are extremely creative people who value their privacy and they value trusted advisors. They need to be protected so they can be creative.”
Now here came the big question for Catherine: does she play videogames? “I stink at them!” she says with a laugh. “I like when a game tells a story that I can follow but it has never been my hobby and I am not very good at it. But I grew to love these people, they are so talented, they are absolutely terrific.”
If you are tempted by a career in this field, here is Catherine's advice: “Intellectual property is very important, you must master it. Understand the relationship between employees. And above all: quietly help small companies to keep their house in order so they are prepared when their big time comes, because then they will need to show a strong legal structure. If you helped a company at that level, as soon as they enter the big game, so to speak, you will be the first person they call!”
A little anecdote? There is actually a videogame that allows players to become a lawyer: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was issued in 2001 for Nintendo consoles and invites players to solve legal cases and defend fictional clients in court rooms.
