Raymond Dowd a Lawyer With an Unconventional Hero

Don Quixote after his battle with the cat - Gustave Dore

For family, friends, colleagues, judges and adversaries who have always known that I preferred to follow the impossible dreams that arise from reading too many books, an interview with me by Amelia Pang from Epoch Times Raymond Dowd a This is New York: Raymond Dowd a Lawyer With an Unconventional Hero.   Follow Amelia's thoughts on New York @ameliapang29.

 www.dunnington.com
 Copyright law, fine art and navigating the courts. All practice, no theory.Copyright Litigation Handbook (Thomson Reuters Westlaw 2012-2013) by Raymond J. Dowd
 

Copyright Litigation Blog Turns Five

Today the Copyright Litigation Blog has been in existence for five years.  It was launched as an adjunct to my book Copyright Litigation Handbook (West 2010).  Over the years my posts have changed in character and style and I have tackled a few subects outside the purview of copyright litigation.   In 2005 I took on Bakalar v Vavra which became the first Holocaust-era art trial in a US federal court.  Accordingly my practice and blogging took on the topic of art theft.   I am now on my second trip to the Second Circuit on Bakalar v Vavra.

The Copyright Litigation Handbook has grown in depth and subect matter over time as well.  It garnered top reviews in the New York Law Journal, on Amazon and many practioners from around the country have expressed their appreciation for a book that they find practical.  I use it almost daily in my practice and update it annually.

The Copyright Litigation Blog has also broken many stories both in the blogsphere and in the mainstream press.  I am thankful to those who have quoted me and have appreciated those journalists who have consulted me.  Being bombarded with tough questions is helpful to me in keeping up with what is going on.

I have also received speaking invitations as a result of blogging as well as invitations to write articles.  I have made numerous blogging friendships and good acquaintances.  A few scuffles over time, but heck life would be boring if we all agreed all the time.  I hope no one holds a grudge.

People always ask whether I have gotten clients through blogging.  The answer is yes.  It is a powerful medium for the new generation and it has added significantly to my firm's bottom line.  I have gotten referrals from both local and foreign attorneys, been hired as local counsel, been hired to consult or litigate in faraway jurisdictions, and been approached directly by good clients needing quality service.  

When I started blogging I knew that this would be a powerful medium.  I am persuaded that it is growing in power in a way that can be felt almost on a monthly basis.  It has been a great experience to be involved and as each post goes out, I can only imagine who it will touch and who will be affected by it.  They say that only a tiny percentage of those who read give feedback, I suppose that this is a good thing since the feedback has been overwhelming and overwhelmingly positive.

I have posted rankings showing the Copyright Litigation Blog to be in the top ranked IP blogs by traffic and relevance.  I don't try to keep up with breaking news all of the time and my blogging tends to be seasonal.  When I am updating my book, I blog a lot. When I am really busy with work or just plain lazy, I don't.  The guilt-free and subjective formula seems to have worked out just fine.

If you Google or Bing "copyright litigation" the Copyright Litigation Blog is the number one result.   I hope that is in part a reflection of quality and relevance but I know that it also is a reflection of quantity and perseverance, which are not necessarily the best characteristics to showcase on the internet.  Still I am thankful for the standing.  In a competitive profession, it is nice to be number one, however fleetingly and whether or not it is deserved.   A change in the Google algorithm and it could all be dust!

I am looking forward to the next year and excited about this year's update of Copyright Litigation Handbook.   I visited the Copyright Office in Washington DC and am looking closely at the new world of copyright registration online.    I hope that you will continue to Like, Retweet and otherwise refer my posts to those who may be interested.   Feel free to follow me on Twitter @raydowd.  I hope to keep you informed, entertained and occasionally outraged in the years to come.

Reviews for Copyright Litigation Handbook on Amazon

Thanks for the wonderful reviews of Copyright Litigation Handbook on Amazon here.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A great resource, October 8, 2009

By Joseph Petersen - See all my reviews
Raymond J. Dowd, an experienced trial lawyer and partner with Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP, has written a long-overdue work. His Copyright Litigation Handbook provides a straightforward overview and is chockablock with insightful and practical information. Mr. Dowd is liberal in his inclusion of excerpts from relevant statutes, including not only the Copyright Act, but also the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Evidence, and his book provides numerous sample forms. Mr. Dowd's Copyright Litigation Handbook will long be a valuable resource for copyright litigators; I am confident that it will be squeezed into trial bags for years to come. Joseph Petersen, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Copyright Litigation Handbook, August 26, 2009

By Corey Field (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
I have read this entire book. It is extraordinary for more reasons than I have space here to enumerate. It is a book about copyright law for litigators, and it is at the same time a book about litigation for copyright lawyers. It is written for a broad audience of attorneys whose practice may touch upon copyright law, but it is also a great practice overview for an experienced copyright lawyer. It is organized in a logical way proceeding from case evaluation through trial. Throughout, it offers nuggets of advice that are extremely valuable - the sort of experienced advice that makes a huge difference in the development of one's legal abilities.

Corey Field

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP

Los Angeles, CA Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable and unique copyright guide for the litigator, August 26, 2009

By David J. Wolfsohn (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews
Until Raymond Dowd wrote this book, there simply was no litigation-friendly guide to copyright litigation. Thank goodness Mr. Dowd chose to devote the equivalent of several years of time and effort to write this book, and to update it with this 2009 edition. This is the book that both occasional dabblers in copyright should go to first (which I wish I had when I started out), as well as now-experienced copyright litigators like me. It is the book I go to first when drafting a complaint (or even when deciding whether to sue), and consult when beginning to prepare for trial. Everything is litigation oriented, so one doesn't need to wade through abstract theorizing to get a sense for how you can use the current state of the case law to your client's advantage. The forms for a complaint and other litigation papers are particularly useful. And the ideas for motions in limine are priceless, and as far as I know, a unique feature of this book. --David Wolfsohn, Woodcock Washburn LLP.

Egon Schiele's Dead City: Current Issues In Nazi Art Looting and Recovery

Egon Schiele's Dead City III, from the collection of Fritz Grunbaum when he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1938 and then died penniless in Dachau, currently at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria

NYSBA Sections: Entertainment, Arts & Sports and Law (EASL) Section  Events

http://www.nysba.org/

Egon Schiele's Dead City: Current Issues In Nazi Art Looting and Recovery

March 24, 2010
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Sotheby's Institute of Art

570 Lexington Ave., NYC
1.5 MCLE credits in Professional Practice

Register online > www.nysba.org/deadcity
SEATING IS LIMITED PLEASE REGISTER EARLY
Speaker:

Raymond Dowd, Esq.
Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP

Sponsored by the Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law Section's Committee on Fine Arts

Program Description:

In 1998, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau seized Egon Schiele's Dead City and Portrait of Wally at the Museum of Modern Art, creating a scandal that changed the legal landscape of Europe and the United States for victims of Nazi persecution and their survivors. Ray Dowd represents the heirs of Fritz Grunbaum, a Jewish cabaret performer murdered in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Fritz's wife Lily died in the Minsk Death Camp. Grunbaum's art collection surfaced in Switzerland in 1956 under disputed circumstances, and in the first Holocaust-era art recovery trial in U.S. history, Bakalar v. Vavra, the District Court found that passing the artwork through Switzerland gave it clean title. The case is now on appeal to the Second Circuit. This presentation will cover the legal and evidentiary obstacles to litigating Holocaust-era expropriation and provide legal practitioners with basic tools to assemble evidence and prove Nazi property looting.

Pricing:

$25.00 for Members
$35.00 for non-members
$15.00 for students

For more information contact: Carolyn Clayton at 518-487-5596 or cclayton@nysba.org

Register online > www.nysba.org/deadcity

Go to http://www.nysba.org/ to see upcoming events,

access section publications, blogs and much more.

NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION, ONE ELK STREET, ALBANY, NY 12207 • PH: (518) 463-3200 FX: (518) 487-5517

Invitation: February 11 Lecture at Cincinnati Museum Center on Recovery of Nazi Looted Art

Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal

invites you to an evening with

Raymond J. Dowd, Esquire
Partner, Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP
Thursday, February 11, 2010
6 p.m.

Heavy appetizers and cash bar

7:30 p.m.

Insights Lecture Series

Murder, Mystery, and The Dead City

Mr. Dowd will speak about the battles to recover art stolen from Jewish Holocaust victims, the undisclosed role of the Swiss in laundering looted art for the Nazis, and the implications for U.S. museums holding artworks of European origin.

$25 per person for reception includes parking.

Lecture open to the public. Parking $4.

Reception reservations requested to Sarah McManus

by Monday, February 8, 2010

(513) 287-7074 or smcmanus@cincymuseum.org
In partnership with

Co-sponsored by Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law and

the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.