Join us, Saturday, January 12, at 10:30 a.m., when we welcome attorney and author, Mike Farris, as he presents, “Legal Issues for Writers.”
Monthly meetings are held at Arlington Community Church, 1715 W. Randol Mill Rd, Arlington, Texas.
Attorney/writer Mike Farris will guide us through the minefield of legal issues that authors must navigate—addressing such issues as how, and why to register your copyright, copyright infringement, what is public domain, defamation, invasion of privacy, publishing contracts, and option/purchase agreements for film rights.
Farris was lead counsel for the plaintiff in a high-profile litigation case in Fort Worth, involving royalty rights that resulted in a $13.25 million judgment in favor of his client. His collaborative effort with his client to tell the story of that case resulted in their nonfiction book which is an Amazon bestseller and winner of the American Book Fest’s Best Book Award in the category of Law.
As an entertainment attorney, Farris has been heavily involved in negotiating film rights agreements, including the non-fiction, The Free State of Jones, for his client, University of North Carolina Press, which was made into a major motion picture starring Oscar-winner, Matthew McConaughey, and directed by multi-time Oscar nominee, Gary Ross.
Film rights to Farris’s Hawaiian true crime book, the Amazon bestselling, A Death in the Islands: The Unwritten Law and the Last Trial of Clarence Darrow (Skyhorse Publishing 2016), have been optioned by Aaron and Jordan Kandell, two of the writers on the Disney hit, Moana, and writers/co-producers of the feature film, Adrift. Additionally, his most recent true crime book, Poor Innocent Lad: The Tragic Death of Gill Jamieson and the Execution of Myles Fukunaga (Untreed Reads 2018), was released in 2018.
In the world of non-fiction, in addition to his author collaboration of the litigation case, Fifty Shades of Black and White: Anatomy of the Lawsuit Behind a Publishing Phenomenon, Farris also partnered with rodeo cowboy-turned-actor/producer, Robert Hinkle, to write Bob’s memoir of his years in show business, Call Me Lucky: A Texan in Hollywood (University of Oklahoma Press 2009).
His fiction work consists of seven published novels, including thrillers such as, The Bequest, Manifest Intent, and the Hawaiian historical fiction, Isle of Broken Dreams.
Now retired from law practice, when not writing, Farris is a book reviewer for the New York Journal of Books and is an adjunct professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Texas at Arlington.
To find out more about Mike Farris, visit: https://sites.google.com/site/michaelfarrisnet/.
For further information about this and other programs
through ACFW DFW,
And be sure to check out our FB events page to register your spot: https://www.facebook.com/events/2075852805841259/!
Meetings are most often followed by further networking
and fellowship at a nearby restaurant.
