Legal & Business Essentials for Filmmakers (On Demand)

At the dealmaking intersection of where content makers meet buyers, financiers, and distributors, Elsa Ramo is at the forefront of first-time deals with emerging and established streamers and studios, guiding her clients into innovative terms that optimize their reach and prevalence in today’s flattened marketplace. Elsa provides comprehensive legal services to producers, financiers, creators, and owners of film, television, and digital content and projects across a range of budgets and production levels. She established her law firm to enable up-and-coming filmmakers and producers to bring their stories to life.

Ramo works with established content-creating powerhouses such as Imagine Entertainment, Skydance, Lion Forge Studios, Boardwalk Pictures, Scout Productions, Riff Raff Entertainment, The Comedy Store, The Jim Henson Company, Wonder Project and French Tuck. She also represents independent prolific producers and directors like Lee Broda, Zachary Drucker, Anne Clements, Liza Mandelup, and founder of the Los Angeles Festival of Movies, Sarah Winshall.

In addition to directly overseeing high-level clients, Elsa Ramo founded and manages her boutique firm, which has grown from a solo practice on the Universal Backlot in 2005 to a team of over 22 attorneys with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Ramo is notable for its majority female partners and diverse group of attorneys. Elsa is a Forbes.com contributor, speaking to current issues and topics in the entertainment industry. She and the firm were recently featured in a Variety article, "The Rise of Ramo from Two-Person Law Firm to Industry Player," celebrating Ramo Law’s 20th anniversary. She was recently recognized among Variety’s 2025 Legal Impact Report and 2022 Dealmakers Impact Report, Daily Journal’s Top 100 Women Lawyers, and Los Angeles Business Journal’s 2022 Women of Influence; she was nominated for the LA Times B2B Inspirational Women Awards; and her Firm was featured among Los Angeles Business Journal’s Most Admired Law Firms. In 2024 she was awarded LAW.com’s Women, Influence & Power in Law Managing Partner of the Year Award. Elsa lives in Brentwood with her husband and two children.

Jackie Ward primarily represents producers and production companies, focusing on rights grants, acquisitions and clearances of all forms, including complex chain of title, life rights and fair use matters. Jackie strives to guide clients through all stages of a production’s life cycle, starting at the development-stage rights acquisition and continuing through distributor delivery. Prior to joining Ramo Law in 2023, she gained substantial experience at a boutique entertainment law firm working as production, financing and distribution counsel for both scripted and unscripted film, television, podcast and digital content productions.

Jackie is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science with a major in Finance. She went on to receive her Juris Doctorate from Belmont University College of Law with an Entertainment and Music Business Law Certificate with Honors. During law school, Jackie was a member of Volunteer Lawyers and Professional for the Arts where she provided pro-bono legal services for low-income entertainment clients.

Sean works with producers and production companies focusing on all aspects of production legal services from development to distribution, with a particular focus towards documentaries and docu-series.

He serves as counsel for Emmy award-winning companies Boardwalk Pictures (CHEF’S TABLE) and Scout Productions (QUEER EYE), servicing shows such as CHEER and THE BLACK GODFATHER. He also represents production companies such as Caliwood Pictures (A NICE GIRL LIKE YOU) and The Solution Entertainment Group (KILLERMAN, LINE OF DUTY, HONEST THIEF), and he recently provided representation on the 2022 Sundance films THE EXILES, BRAINWASHED, DESCENDENT, WATCHER AND TIKTOK, BOOM.

Sean enjoys being a part of teams that help elevate unconventional stories, and he delights in sharing his experience with young producers, writers and lawyers when he has the opportunity.