Key Takeaways

• Award Ceremony: Paul Robinson will receive the 2025 ELI Service Award at the 2026 Grammy Week luncheon.
• Event Rescheduled: The ELI event was postponed last year due to wildfires in Los Angeles.
• Writing Competition: Justin Fisher won the ELI writing competition for his paper on state taxation’s impact on the entertainment industry.
• Ticket Availability: Individual and discounted student tickets for the luncheon will go on sale on December 9.

A year after he was selected to receive the 2025 Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Service Award, Paul Robinson, Warner Music Group’s (WMG) executive vp & general counsel, will finally receive the honor at the 2026 edition of the annual Grammy Week luncheon.

The ELI event was canceled last year in the wake of wildfires that devastated wide swaths of Los Angeles, when the Recording Academy “condensed” Grammy Week programming to prioritize wildfire response. It’s now back on the schedule for 2026 and will be held on Friday, Jan. 30, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Robinson joined WMG’s legal department in January 1995 as associate general counsel and was appointed executive vp & general counsel in December 2006. He is responsible for WMG’s worldwide legal, business affairs, public policy, compliance and corporate governance functions. He is also a member of the RIAA’s board of directors and executive committee and a member of the board of directors of ASCAP.

The Entertainment Law Initiative Service Award is presented each year to an attorney who demonstrates dedication to supporting and advancing the music community through their service.

The ELI Grammy Week Luncheon also recognizes the winner and runners-up of the Entertainment Law Initiative writing competition. This year’s winner is Justin Fisher of St. Thomas University College of Law for a paper titled “Uneven Stages: How Inconsistent State Taxation Undermines the Entertainment Industry.” The two runners-up are Anika Kazi of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, whose paper was titled “The Missing Guild: Why Songwriters Need Collective Bargaining Rights In The Streaming Era,” and Derek Song of UCLA, whose paper was titled “From Voice Imitation to Data Exploitation: Reclaiming Musician Identity Through Biometric Privacy.” All three will be recognized during the event.

Individual tickets, along with a limited number of discounted student tickets, will be available for purchase on Tuesday (Dec. 9) at 10 a.m. PT. For more information, visit the ELI site.