Ex-Covington Lawyer to Cram on ‘Star Wars’ for Lucas Museum Job

Covington & Burling’s former commercial litigation co-leader said he needs to “bone up” on “Star Wars” lore after becoming the first general counsel of a Los Angeles museum founded by the movie franchise’s creator, George Lucas, and his wife Mellody Hobson.

Mitchell Kamin said the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art attracted him with its education and social impact focus. His move marks a return to the nonprofit sector, where Kamin once led a legal services clinic, among other jobs.

“I started my career in New York working for civil rights organizations,” Kamin said. “So while my move can be perceived as a dramatic change or a leap—and it is in a sense that the art world is new to me—there’s a piece of this aligned with my values and what I’ve done in the past in the pro bono space.”

The Lucas Museum is a roughly $1.5 billion project set to open in 2025 after a series of delays. It touts itself as the first repository to focus exclusively on storytelling through images.

The spaceship-like structure, which is not an homage to the “Star Wars” films, is located on an 11-acre campus in Exposition Park, a neighborhood that includes other museums and sports stadiums. The Lucas Museum was awarded to Los Angeles in 2017 over other potential sites, including Chicago and San Francisco.

Kamin, 56, is a veteran Hollywood litigator who helped open Covington’s Los Angeles office after joining the law firm in 2015.

At Covington, Kamin was part of a pro bono team that unsuccessfully challenged former President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military, and he helped advise China’s ByteDance Ltd., owner of TikTok, in a separate Trump-era ban. He also once served as head of Bet Tzedek, a legal services provider that has close ties to Big Law and the entertainment industry.

Museum Tie

Kamin has done work for the Walt Disney Co., which acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. in a $4 billion deal a decade ago. But he said it was his connection to Ann Philbin, director of the newly renovated Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, that led him to his new nonprofit position.

Philbin put Kamin in touch with the Lucas Museum’s leader, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, who previously worked for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and was looking to fill a legal chief opening.

The museum co-founders share a passion for art collecting. The Lucas Museum will include everything from modern comic books to ancient Roman mosaics and Renaissance masterpieces, Kamin said.

Lucas also serves on the boards of the Film Foundation and the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, per the museum website.

Hobson is the co-chief executive of Ariel Investments. She also serves on the boards of Starbucks Corp., where she is the chair, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg, who controls entities that operate Bloomberg Law.

Powerful Figures

Kamin and Covington, thanks in part to the the current and former government officials that have worked for the Washington-based firm, are no stranger to prominent political connections.

Kamin spoke earlier this year about his friendship with first-ever Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, a former Big Law partner in Los Angeles. Kamin was one of many bundlers for the 2020 Biden-Harris presidential campaign.

His work on behalf of progressive causes was paired with a key role representing the government of Qatar in a long-running dispute with Elliott Broidy, a Los Angeles-based financier and former Trump fundraiser who recently sought to subpoena Covington in a fight over an alleged plot to hack Broidy’s emails and destroy his reputation.

Kamin said other lawyers are now in charge of that matter at Covington, which has a trio of commercial litigation co-leaders.

Prior to Covington, Kamin was co-managing partner of Los Angeles-based Bird Marella and worked at O’Neill, Lysaght & Sun, a now-defunct litigation boutique.

IP Expertise

In his new job Kamin will utilize some of the skills he burnished in private practice advising film studios, such as intellectual property protection, he said. He’s been busy learning about the museum’s departments and construction issues related to the project, as well as the business of art collecting.

He’s in the process of figuring out what firms best fit the legal needs of the startup-like institution as it prepares to finally open its doors, he said. Public filings show that Reed Smith has handled trademark work for the museum.

Kamin said he hopes to be able to work again with his now former colleagues at Covington, which he called a “wonderful firm with a collaborative culture” that supported his decision to return to the nonprofit world.

Kristine Johnson, a consultant with executive recruitment firm Spencer Stuart, handled the placement of Kamin at the museum, he said.

— With reporting by Justin Wise.