Today we’d like to introduce you to Melia Arnett-Archie.
Hi Melia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started my legal career working as a Prosecutor in Miami-Dade County in 2006 fresh out of law school.
Like most new Prosecutors, I started in misdemeanor crimes and worked my way into felony crimes before being appointed as Assistant Chief of Juvenile Crimes and ultimately serving as the Director of the office’s Community Prosecutions unit before leaving to pursue an in-house counsel position in 2012.
In 2012, I started my corporate law career with Stryker Corporation a global medical device manufacturer, and had the pleasure of leading the company’s first Data Privacy, Technology, and Cybersecurity legal practice. It was in this role that I grew to love working with creatives, engineers, designers, and marketing teams. During this time, I was also becoming more interested in the rise of the creator economy and how content creators were transforming into creative entrepreneurs where their needs and concerns around the management of the business of content creation were becoming increasingly more important.
After leading the global practice for almost a decade I wanted to work more directly with creative entrepreneurs helping them create, protect, and grow real businesses and brands around the content they were creating. I took the experience I’d amassed litigating as a Prosecutor and coupled with the knowledge and skill developed serving my in-house clients to open the Modern Creators Law Firm, PLLC a boutique Social Media, Entertainment, and Business Law Firm.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t believe the road to entrepreneurship is without barriers and bumps for most people. This has certainly been the case for me. I started my firm because I truly believe that Entertainment Law must adjust to the demands of a new type of creator.
Part of the struggle has been ensuring the community that I want to serve is educated on the risks associated with leveraging social and digital media. Unlike, more common or popular areas of the law social media law isn’t a well-known niche. I’ve had to invest a lot of time and money in education, awareness, and engaging with potential clients.
Also, being one of few African American women in this space it was difficult to educate banks and other funding sources on the business model. After having been turned down for traditional loans I decided to bet on myself and self-fund my practice. Starting a business is a risk for anyone but I truly felt as if I was taking a gamble with my family’s future when I invested a good part of my corporate retirement into my firm.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Modern Creators Law Firm, PLLC?
We specialize in helping creators, (e.g., Screenwriters, Producers, Social Media Influencers, Content Creators, and Creative Entrepreneurs) protect their intellectual property and other business interests by assisting with brand deals, trademarks, and copyrights, and disputes that may arise.
We also provide General Counsel services to small businesses that can’t afford to have a lawyer on the payroll. We work strategically with our business partners helping to identify risks, remediate, and guard what they’ve worked so hard to build.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
During Covid, I was still working as an in-house counsel. I was faithfully and dutifully serving in my role when I realized that I had to decide to live the life I believed I was created for or continue to forfeit the opportunity.
Like many others, Covid made me sober about what I wanted my life to be. I was smart and held on to the security my day job brought during that time but I also got busy planning, seeking, learning, and readying myself to leap and that’s what I did on January 14, 2023. I took everything I learned and prepared for and launched my firm.
Pricing:
- General Counsel Business Audit-Determines Your Business’s Legal Health $500
- Trademark Application Filing $500-$1500
- General Counsel Subscription Services from $1,200 per month.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.moderncreatorslaw.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meliaesq/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melia.arnettarchie
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cHDL3ti5mxmK46AqnueCUi-rnQk2Y4L&si=9GHIoLbX2FOS-zYD
Image Credits
Flyshotsbyfranklin – Anthony Franklin II
