As an undergraduate studying television writing at New York University, Nikki Tabibian, JD ’21, penned a TV pilot called Meet Me in the Middle, which she based on her own life.
“It’s about a second-generation Iranian girl who is grappling not only with traditional values but also with being a college student,” she says.
While writing the script, Tabibian began thinking about how to protect the intellectual property of creatives like herself. “I’ve always been interested in the philosophical side of creativity and how to help artists create and monetize their work,” she says.
After graduation, Tabibian worked in television production at NBCUniversal. She began making connections with entertainment attorneys across the company and decided to go to law school.
“I wanted to understand the different jurisdictional nuances of intellectual property law,” she says. “WashU’s law school had an incredible intellectual property program and an international focus, which were the two things that I wanted to get out of my legal education.”
Tabibian says the approach her law professors took when discussing patents, copyrights and trademarks became invaluable when she returned to NBCUniversal in 2021 for her current role as an entertainment lawyer.
“WashU’s law school had an incredible intellectual property program and an international focus, which were the two things that I wanted to get out of my legal education.”
Nikki Tabibian, JD ’21
“My professors would focus on how to get to ‘yes,’” she says. “If we can’t secure a trademark, can we secure a copyright instead? Now when I’m faced with a legal issue, I’m not automatically shutting down and saying ‘no.’ I’m trying to help the client get to ‘yes’ through the channels of the law.”
Tabibian’s practice group assists NBCUniversal’s global parks, like Universal Studios Hollywood, and location-based entertainment, such as Halloween Horror Nights and Fan Fests. She and her team handle licensing the company’s intellectual property within a theme park or an attraction with smaller licensees around the world.
“I love that every day I get to think about legal issues from different international perspectives,” she says.
Tabibian says her experience as a writer helps her better understand her clients’ needs and perspectives. “I’m able to break down difficult legal concepts in a digestible manner,” she says.
Her hard work has not gone unrecognized. Her practice group recently won the general counsel award at NBCUniversal for outstanding legal support on the Wicked franchise.
In January, Tabibian returned to WashU to lecture on entertainment law. “It was really satisfying to go back to the letter of the law and break things down for students,” she says.
As for the future, Tabibian says she’d love to do more teaching and public speaking. “And I always think about revisiting the pilot I wrote,” she says. “I want to work closer with creatives because I enjoy helping them make something.”
