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Essence spoke with Marcie Cleary, Jalene Mack, and Jaia Thomas, three black women attorneys, to get their take on what’s at stake as the WGA reached its 100th day on strike.
Although significant ground remains to be covered, women’s sports have made notable gains in almost every aspect in recent years. We’ve seen the U.S. women’s national soccer team sign a collective bargaining agreement that ensures equal pay to their male counterparts, and the Women’s Tennis Association this year announced a push toward equal purses with men. Last April was particularly noteworthy, as LSU’s victory over Iowa for the Division I national championship was the most-watched women’s college basketball game of all time.
Back in 2018, Hollywood lawyer Jaia Thomas was excited — as were hordes of fans — when “Black Panther” hit the big screen. After all, it was a movie of totally Black talent. Thomas didn’t realize at the time that the Blackness stopped at the talent. The actors were almost entirely represented by white teams.
Hollywood attorney Jaia Thomas' initial excitement over the 'Black Panther' groundbreaking achievements was muted after she realized the film's talent was almost entirely represented by white teams. She is determined to change the landscape.
Meet Jaia Thomas, a Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment attorney with over ten years of experience. She represents film producers, television writers, and various industry talent, assisting them with intellectual property and transactional matters.
Black Panther was a behemoth of a film, breaking box office records around the world and seemingly ushering in a new era of diversity in Hollywood. While the impact of the film is undeniable, attorney Jaia Thomas dug deeper into what the success of Black Panther actually meant for Black people in the entertainment industry as a whole.
Recently the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper sat down with Thomas to discuss her practice and push for diverse representation in the sports and entertainment industry and why it matters.
The percentage of African-American players in the NFL is 70 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of African-Americans who own an NFL franchise is 0 percent and the percentage of African-Americans who are presidents of an NFL franchise is also 0 percent.
Saturday marked the fifth-annual Avondale-Bond Hill Legal Clinic, a program that assists financially-challenged individuals with free legal advice.
If you’re a “man on a mission” who “can’t wait” for the next “Linsanity” or “Tebowing” craze to make another athlete “Invinceable” as a businessman, you’re probably just an “unbelievably believable” fan.
Several lawyers for athletes said their clients were following in the footsteps of pioneers like Michael Jordan, who beyond endorsing products built a personal brand empire. For a certain class of larger-than-life athlete, it has become almost de rigueur to own a clothing or fragrance line, to maintain a vigorous Twitter following, and even to star in a reality show.