Law Offices of Jonathan Kirsch

Jonathan Kirsch
Law Offices of Jonathan Kirsch
1880 Century Park East, Suite 515
Los Angeles, California 90067
Tel. (310) 785-1200 Fax (310) 286-9573
Cell (310) 871-6230
Email: jk@jonathankirsch.com

Jonathan Kirsch is a publishing and intellectual property attorney based in Los Angeles, an expert witness on publishing industry matters, an Adjunct Professor on the Faculty of New York University’s Professional Publishing Institute, a book review columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and the author of two books on publishing law and five books on the Bible as literature and the history of religion.

Jonathan Kirsch is an attorney specializing in publishing law, copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property matters. Kirsch is rated “A-V” by Martindale-Hubbell, and his clients include book, magazine, newspaper, audio, video and electronic publishers, authors, agents, distributors, designers, artists and photographers, among other publishing industry businesses and professionals.

Among his clients are enterprises and individuals outside the media whose business activities include intellectual property assets and issues, including health care professionals, educational and religious institutions, and manufacturers and distributors of food, apparel, and architectural and building products.

Kirsch and his colleagues practice as the Law Offices of Jonathan Kirsch, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 515, Los Angeles, California 90067, Tel. (310) 785-1200, Fax (310) 286-9573, Email: jk@jonathankirsch.com.

Kirsch is the author of two leading reference works on publishing law, KIRSCH'S HANDBOOK OF PUBLISHING LAW for Authors, Publishers, Editors and Agents (Acrobat Books, 1996) and KIRSCH’S GUIDE TO THE BOOK CONTRACT for Authors, Publishers, Editors and Agents (Acrobat Books, 1999). He writes and lectures on legal topics relating to the publishing industry for Publishers Marketing Association, the Western Publications Association, the Publishers Association of the West, the Authors Guild, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Independent Writers of Southern California, California Lawyers for the Arts, Sisters in Crime, Southwest Manuscripters, and other publishing industry associations.

Kirsch delivers annual lectures on recent developments in publishing law at Book Expo America, the annual trade show and convention of the American Booksellers Association, and he is an Adjunct Professor for New York University’s Professional Publishing Institute.

Kirsch serves as an expert witness in various publishing-related matters, including cases involving claims of copyright infringement, breach of contract, libel, invasion of privacy, and idea misappropriation.

Kirsch serves as legal counsel on a pro bono basis for the Publishers Marketing Association, which presented him with its Benjamin Franklin Award for Special Achievement in Publishing, as well as the Center for Media Literacy, California Lawyers for the Arts, and The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Kirsch has contributed book reviews to the Los Angeles Times continuously since 1968. As a Contributing Writer for the Los Angeles Times Book Review, his “West Words” column appears every other Sunday. He also contributes book reviews to the Washington Post, the Toronto Globe & Mail, and other publications.

Kirsch is a guest commentator on KCRW-FM and KPCC-FM, both of which are National Public Radio affiliates located in Southern California, and has appeared as a publishing industry expert on various NPR and Public Radio International programs.

Kirsch is the author of three national bestsellers, THE HARLOT BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD: Forbidden Tales of the Bible (Ballantine Books, 1997), MOSES: A Life (Ballantine Books, 1998), and KING DAVID: The Real Life of the Man Who Ruled Israel (Ballantine Books, 2000). Kirsch’s latest book in the field of history is THE WOMAN WHO LAUGHED AT GOD: The Untold History of the Jewish People (Viking, 2001). His next book will be GOD AGAINST THE GODS: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism (Viking, 2004).

He is a member of the Authors Guild, National Book Critics Circle, PEN Center USA West (for which he served three terms as president and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors), the Los Angeles Copyright Society (on whose Board of Trustees he formerly served), the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Association, and the Intellectual Property Sections of the California State Bar and the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Kirsch, 53, was born in Los Angeles, attended high school in Culver City, and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Russian and Jewish history and Adlai E. Stevenson College honors at the Santa Cruz campus of the University of California. A member of the California State Bar since 1976, he earned a Juris Doctor degree cum laude at Loyola University School of Law, where he served as Teaching Fellow in legal communications.

Before embarking on the practice of law, Kirsch was senior editor of California Magazine (formerly New West magazine), where he specialized in coverage of law, government and politics. Previously, he worked as West Coast correspondent for Newsweek, an editor for West and Home magazines at the Los Angeles Times, and a reporter for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to California Lawyer, Los Angeles Lawyer, New West, Los Angeles Magazine, New Republic, Publishers Weekly, Performing Arts, Human Behavior, L.A. Architect and other publications. He is also the author of two novels, Bad Moon Rising (New American Library, 1977) and Lovers in a Winter Circle (New American Library, 1978).

Kirsch is married to Ann Benjamin Kirsch, Psy.D., a psychotherapist in private practice in Beverly Hills.