Story Forum Event: Legal Toolkit for Producers Using AI

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.

Erica Elson is a Producer, Writer and Educator based in the mountains outside Los Angeles. Her short film, WING NIGHT, premiered at Method Fest in Los Angeles. She is the co-author of the book THE AWKWARD HUMAN SURVIVAL GUIDE and co-hosted a podcast by the same name on the 5by5 network for five years. Elson's articles have been published by HuffPost, Lifehacker, and Reader's Digest. Prior to working in education, she worked in television development and writers’ rooms such as VH1’s HINDSIGHT, where she had the chance to write for the spinoff web series PLANET SEBASTIAN.

Elson joined the Sundance Collab team in October 2021 and produces courses, Master Classes, and events in the areas of screenwriting, television writing, directing, producing, and documentary filmmaking. She has moderated conversations with Sofia Coppola, Richard Linklater, Alexander Payne, and Susannah Grant, among others.

Prior to Sundance, Elson was the Thesis Production Supervisor at the American Film Institute for five years. She oversaw several award-winning graduate thesis films, notably the 2021 BAFTA student film winner APART, TOGETHER and the 2023 Sundance Film Festival short WE WERE MEANT TO. While at AFI, Elson developed a passion for sustainable production and created the Green Film School Alliance, which includes forty schools on four continents. She holds a BA in Communication and Film Studies from Concordia University and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute.