Julie Shepard helps entertainment, media, and technology clients protect what drives their business: their content and technology, their competitive advantages, and their bottom line. Whether in the courtroom or at the negotiating table, she brings a results-oriented approach to the full spectrum of challenges her clients face at the intersection of content and technology.
On the litigation side, Julie represents film studios, television networks, technology companies, and other industry leaders in high-stakes copyright, trademark, trade secret, antitrust, unfair competition, and fraud matters across trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. She is particularly skilled at coordinating strategy for clients facing related disputes across multiple jurisdictions. Her track record includes a $940 million jury verdict and permanent injunction in a trade secret case, one of the largest such verdicts in US history. Julie also arbitrates and counsels clients in profit participation disputes.
Julie represents her clients with respect to a wide range of disputes, including class actions and commercial and contract disputes. While always prepared to take cases to trial, when disputes are better resolved outside the litigation context, Julie helps develop and implement creative business solutions in partnership with her clients.
Beyond the courtroom, Julie advises clients on content licensing and new and emerging technologies. A Co-Chair of Jenner & Block’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Julie is at the forefront of the legal and strategic questions that will define how her clients create, protect, and monetize content in the years ahead.
Legal and trade publications consistently recognize Julie as one of the top entertainment lawyers in the country and a leader in tech law. Chambers USA quotes a client as saying “Julie is a great advisor. She is sophisticated in bridging technical minutiae and commercial outcomes.”
A former Co-Chair of the firm’s pro bono program, Julie maintains an active pro bono practice, which has ranged from assisting women’s and girls’ reproductive rights, to helping a non-profit secure a multimillion-dollar endowment, to advising an environmental non-profit on copyright issues, to trying cases involving prisoners’ rights.
Julie is a great advisor. She is sophisticated in bridging technical minutiae and commercial outcomes.
Chambers USA
Representative Matters
- Representing Disney, NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. in their much-publicized copyright infringement lawsuits against AI image and video generator services Midjourney and MiniMax.
- Secured a trial victory for StudioCanal in complex litigation over the motion picture Legend, with damages exceeding $10 million before punitive damages.
- Representing Synamedia Americas LLC in a case against DIRECTV involving trade secrets and the protection of intellectual property rights in the evolving digital television landscape.
- Secured a permanent injunction and a $51.6 million judgment in favor of a group of major motion picture studios in a copyright infringement suit involving the unlawful IPTV piracy service Nitro TV.
- Secured a $52 million judgment in favor of the plaintiff in a film finance fraud case.
- Secured a $940 million trade secret verdict for Epic Systems Corp., one of the leading health care software companies in the United States, in a substantial corporate espionage case against Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is a part of one of the largest industrial conglomerates in India. The verdict represents one of the largest trade secret verdicts in US history.
- Won a landmark copyright case regarding the scope of the public performance copyright for a consortium of broadcasters against Aereo, a company that captured over-the-air television programming and retransmitted it over the internet without a license from the copyright owners.
- Secured favorable rulings for a consortium of broadcasters from the Ninth Circuit and several district courts regarding the scope of the compulsory license of Section 111 of the Copyright Act. Thereafter successfully settled the cases with the defendant stipulating to the entry of permanent injunctions.
Credentials
Service / Recognition
Overview
Julie Shepard helps entertainment, media, and technology clients protect what drives their business: their content and technology, their competitive advantages, and their bottom line. Whether in the courtroom or at the negotiating table, she brings a results-oriented approach to the full spectrum of challenges her clients face at the intersection of content and technology.
On the litigation side, Julie represents film studios, television networks, technology companies, and other industry leaders in high-stakes copyright, trademark, trade secret, antitrust, unfair competition, and fraud matters across trial and appellate courts throughout the United States. She is particularly skilled at coordinating strategy for clients facing related disputes across multiple jurisdictions. Her track record includes a $940 million jury verdict and permanent injunction in a trade secret case, one of the largest such verdicts in US history. Julie also arbitrates and counsels clients in profit participation disputes.
Julie represents her clients with respect to a wide range of disputes, including class actions and commercial and contract disputes. While always prepared to take cases to trial, when disputes are better resolved outside the litigation context, Julie helps develop and implement creative business solutions in partnership with her clients.
Beyond the courtroom, Julie advises clients on content licensing and new and emerging technologies. A Co-Chair of Jenner & Block’s Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Julie is at the forefront of the legal and strategic questions that will define how her clients create, protect, and monetize content in the years ahead.
Legal and trade publications consistently recognize Julie as one of the top entertainment lawyers in the country and a leader in tech law. Chambers USA quotes a client as saying “Julie is a great advisor. She is sophisticated in bridging technical minutiae and commercial outcomes.”
A former Co-Chair of the firm’s pro bono program, Julie maintains an active pro bono practice, which has ranged from assisting women’s and girls’ reproductive rights, to helping a non-profit secure a multimillion-dollar endowment, to advising an environmental non-profit on copyright issues, to trying cases involving prisoners’ rights.
Julie is a great advisor. She is sophisticated in bridging technical minutiae and commercial outcomes.
Chambers USA
Areas of Focus
Representative Matters
- Representing Disney, NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. in their much-publicized copyright infringement lawsuits against AI image and video generator services Midjourney and MiniMax.
- Secured a trial victory for StudioCanal in complex litigation over the motion picture Legend, with damages exceeding $10 million before punitive damages.
- Representing Synamedia Americas LLC in a case against DIRECTV involving trade secrets and the protection of intellectual property rights in the evolving digital television landscape.
- Secured a permanent injunction and a $51.6 million judgment in favor of a group of major motion picture studios in a copyright infringement suit involving the unlawful IPTV piracy service Nitro TV.
- Secured a $52 million judgment in favor of the plaintiff in a film finance fraud case.
- Secured a $940 million trade secret verdict for Epic Systems Corp., one of the leading health care software companies in the United States, in a substantial corporate espionage case against Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is a part of one of the largest industrial conglomerates in India. The verdict represents one of the largest trade secret verdicts in US history.
- Won a landmark copyright case regarding the scope of the public performance copyright for a consortium of broadcasters against Aereo, a company that captured over-the-air television programming and retransmitted it over the internet without a license from the copyright owners.
- Secured favorable rulings for a consortium of broadcasters from the Ninth Circuit and several district courts regarding the scope of the compulsory license of Section 111 of the Copyright Act. Thereafter successfully settled the cases with the defendant stipulating to the entry of permanent injunctions.
Credentials
Admissions
- California
Education
- University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, JD, with Great Distinction, Order of the Coif, 1994
- University of California, Berkeley, BA, 1988
Court Admissions
- US Supreme Court
- US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
- US Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
- US District Court, Central District of California
- US District Court, Eastern District of California
- US District Court, Northern District of California
- US District Court, Southern District of California
Service / Recognition
Awards
- Chambers USA, Media & Entertainment: Litigation (California), 2025
- Daily Journal, Top IP Lawyers, 2024
- Daily Journal, Top Women Lawyers, 2017, 2023
- Daily Journal, Top 50 Entertainment Lawyers in California, 2015
- California Lawyer & Daily Journal, California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award, 2017
- Variety, Legal Impact Report, 2015
- The Recorder, Women Leaders in Tech Law, 2016-2018
- LA Business Journal, Most Influential Women Attorneys, 2017 and 2018
- Legal 500, Media, Technology and Telecoms - Media and Entertainment: Litigation, 2020; Trade Secrets (Litigation and Non-Contentious Matters), 2021
- Southern California Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2006
Service to the Bar
- American Bar Association, Member
- Los Angeles County Bar Association, Member