Shira Perlmutter is IFPI's Executive Vice President for Global Legal Policy. She leads the department that develops and coordinates IFPI's positions for improving the legal framework under which record producers operate worldwide, in particular with respect to copyright and related rights.

Ms Perlmutter joined IFPI from Time Warner, where she held the position of Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property Policy. She previously worked at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, as a consultant on the copyright issues involved in electronic commerce. From 1995 to 1999, she was Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office. In that capacity, she advised Congress on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, and prepared the Copyright Office's 1999 Report on Copyright and Digital Distance Education and its 1997 Report on Legal Protection for Databases. In 1996, Ms Perlmutter was a key member of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the two WIPO Internet Treaties, and served as the expert on the copyright law of the United States during the World Trade Organization TRIPs Council review of developed countries' copyright laws.

From 1990 to 1995, Ms Perlmutter was a law professor at The Catholic University of America, teaching Copyright Law, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, and International Intellectual Property Law. She was the copyright consultant to the Clinton Administration's Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure in 1994 and 1995. From 1983 to 1990, she practiced law in New York City, specializing in copyright and trademark counseling and litigation. She is a co-author of a casebook on International Intellectual Property Law and Policy, and has published numerous articles on copyright issues.

Ms. Perlmutter received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Co-sponsored by James E. Rogers College of Law and Office of Technology Transfer