Fred Goldring, a prominent entertainment attorney and 12-year Pacific Palisades resident, has been named to President Barack Obama’s Committee on Arts and Humanities. He was sworn in yesterday by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, along with artist Chuck Close, author Jumpa Lahiri (‘The Namesake’) and Ken Solomon, chairman of Ovation TV, a network devoted exclusively to art and contemporary culture. Goldring joins fellow Palisadian Victoria Strauss Kennedy, a consultant at Loyola Marymount University, along with Oscar-winning actor and Palisades High School alumnus Forest Whitaker, both of whom were named to the committee last fall. Members are appointed by President Obama to advance the White House’s arts and humanities objectives in four areas: international, youth arts, preservation and special initiatives. The board works closely with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Goldring, co-founder of the entertainment law firm Goldring, Hertz and Lichtenstein, represents numerous global superstar recording and performing artists, including the Black Eyed Peas. He is also a co-founder of the entertainment strategic consultancy MemBrain, which works with Fortune 500 companies and new media and technology enterprises regarding marketing strategy. While serving as board chairman of Rock The Vote, Goldring met then-Senator Obama at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. ‘I spent an hour talking with him and I really felt that this was someone who was getting into politics for all the right reasons,’ Goldring told the Palisadian-Post. When Obama decided to run, Goldring met with his campaign manager David Plouffe and told him he thought that political campaigns had never used music effectively and that the right new song with the right message performed by the right artist could change minds and influence people, particularly in the age of Internet and mobile connectivity. It took a year before Goldring eventually convinced his client will.i.am (of the Black Eyed Peas) to write ‘Yes, We Can’ and do a music video in 2008. ‘We debuted it on ABC News and simultaneously released it on the Internet the Friday before Super Tuesday in our own little guerrilla marketing campaign,’ Goldbring said. ‘By Monday it had garnered 15 million views.’ For their efforts, Goldring, will.i.am (who was William Adams when he attended Palisades High in the early 1990s) and other executive producers received a 2008 Emmy Award, a Clio Award, NAACP Image Award for Best Music Video and a Global Media Award. As a member of Obama’s committee, Goldring intends to focus on arts education, something he feels passionate about. In a Huffington Post blog (‘The Main Point: Musicians, Arts Education and the E Street Shuffle,’ November 28, 2009) Goldring wrote: ‘It is imperative that we continue to place the arts and our artists in the highest regard in the educational system in our country. ‘Engagement in the arts is a unique place where developing young minds can safely nurture their imaginations and develop the right-brain thinking that is ever so critical for problem solving in an increasingly complex world,’ Goldring continued. ‘Unfortunately, it also seems to be the first line item that gets the ax in school budgets. We cannot allow this to continue if we want to turn out ‘whole’ individuals in our society who are able to think creatively on their feet.’ Goldring grew up on the Main Line outside Philadelphia, close to Bryn Mawr. As a teenager, he went to The Main Point, a coffee house near campus that featured musicians such as Billy Joel, Livingston Taylor, Dan Fogelberg, Kenny Rankin, Jim Croce, Bonnie Raitt and Bruce Springsteen. After graduating from Duke University, Goldring earned his law degree at the University of Miami, and then joined the New York City law firm of Grubman, Indursky & Schindler. He also became a partner in Bedrock Entertainment, a television and movie production company. In 1988, Goldring married Gale Ann Florin (who has a long history with PS Arts, an organization dedicated to putting arts education back into public schools) and they moved to Los Angeles a year later. He became a partner at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman & Warren before leaving in 2000 to launch his own firm. Goldring credits his friend, Steve Bellamy (owner of the Palisades Tennis Center), for convincing him to move to the Palisades. He is still an active tennis player and musician, playing in a local band called The Wannagbins. The Goldrings have two daughters, Jenna, a freshman at Duke University, and Cassie, a junior at Crossroads High School in Santa Monica.
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