June M. Besek is the Executive Director of the Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts at Columbia Law School. Prior to joining Columbia, she was Director of Intellectual Property at Reuters America Inc., and prior to that, a partner at Schwab Goldberg Price & Dannay in New York City, where her work focused on copyright, trademark, and other legal issues, particularly as they relate to new technologies. At Columbia, Besek teaches a seminar on Advanced Topics in Copyright with Professor Jane Ginsburg, and in fall 2005 will teach a seminar on Authors, Artists and Performers.
Besek is a member of the ABA Intellectual Property Section, where she co-chairs the Committee on Broadcasting, Sound Recordings and Performing Artists. She is also a member of the Section's Committee on Amicus Briefs, and a former chair of the Copyright Division. She is a member of the AIPLA's Copyright Law Committee, and of the Committee on Copyright and Literary Property of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. and the board of advisors of the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts.
Besek is the author of many articles and studies on copyright law issues, including Anti-Circumvention Laws and Copyright: A Report from the Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, 27 COLUM. J. L. & ARTS 385 (2004); Copyright: What Makes A Use "Fair"?, EDUCAUSE REV., Nov./Dec. 2003 at 12; and Copyright Issues Relevant to the Creation of a Digital Archive: A Preliminary Assessment (CLIR & Library of Congress 2003).
Besek earned her J.D. cum laude from New York University School of Law, where she was elected to Order of the Coif. Following graduation, she clerked for Judge Charles H. Tenney in the Southern District of New York. She earned her B.A. cum laude from Yale University.