Professor
Don Franzen
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - If you have any interest at all in law and/or the music industry, TAKE THIS CLASS!! Some of the students in the class were musicians wanting to learn about the ins and outs of the music industry and others (like me) were more interested in entertainment law in general - both types of people will gain so much from this course! Professor Franzen is exactly the type of caring, successful, and effective instructor that I expected to learn from at UCLA. I was immediately impressed by his qualifications and extensive experience in the field, but was doubly pleased with his teaching style and abilities. He handled the transition to online learning extremely well, making classes interactive and fun even over Zoom. He uses breakout rooms, but I actually really enjoyed getting to know some of my peers and having open-ended discussions about the material. He also gave several short breaks throughout the class. The course reader was extremely well put together and I genuinely enjoyed the reading material (though there was a lot of it! ~1000 pages total over 10 weeks). All of the lectures were very engaging and the slides often included videos/music to make it more interesting. Here's the grade breakdown: Attendance 10% Weekly Reflections 10% Class Presentation 20% Two Papers each 20% (total 40%) Final Exam 20% To get attendance points, you needed to have your camera on during class unless you had an extenuating circumstance. The weekly reflections were very short (100-250 words) and were pretty much graded for completion. The presentation was a 10-minute presentation to the class on any topic of your choice relating to music law. The two papers and the final were 3 open-ended questions that you had a week to complete. Professor Franzen would outline a legal situation and you would have to apply the cases and statutes that we learned in the class to make an argument about how the situation will likely unfold legally. He acknowledged constantly that there is more than one way to interpret a legal situation, so the main emphasis in grading is how well you make your argument. The main reason you should take this class is that Professor Franzen truly cares for his students. He put together an incredible panel of industry professionals for us to learn from, he gave away a prize to the “best dressed” on Halloween, and he has always been kind and approachable. It was an honor to learn from him.
Fall 2020 - If you have any interest at all in law and/or the music industry, TAKE THIS CLASS!! Some of the students in the class were musicians wanting to learn about the ins and outs of the music industry and others (like me) were more interested in entertainment law in general - both types of people will gain so much from this course! Professor Franzen is exactly the type of caring, successful, and effective instructor that I expected to learn from at UCLA. I was immediately impressed by his qualifications and extensive experience in the field, but was doubly pleased with his teaching style and abilities. He handled the transition to online learning extremely well, making classes interactive and fun even over Zoom. He uses breakout rooms, but I actually really enjoyed getting to know some of my peers and having open-ended discussions about the material. He also gave several short breaks throughout the class. The course reader was extremely well put together and I genuinely enjoyed the reading material (though there was a lot of it! ~1000 pages total over 10 weeks). All of the lectures were very engaging and the slides often included videos/music to make it more interesting. Here's the grade breakdown: Attendance 10% Weekly Reflections 10% Class Presentation 20% Two Papers each 20% (total 40%) Final Exam 20% To get attendance points, you needed to have your camera on during class unless you had an extenuating circumstance. The weekly reflections were very short (100-250 words) and were pretty much graded for completion. The presentation was a 10-minute presentation to the class on any topic of your choice relating to music law. The two papers and the final were 3 open-ended questions that you had a week to complete. Professor Franzen would outline a legal situation and you would have to apply the cases and statutes that we learned in the class to make an argument about how the situation will likely unfold legally. He acknowledged constantly that there is more than one way to interpret a legal situation, so the main emphasis in grading is how well you make your argument. The main reason you should take this class is that Professor Franzen truly cares for his students. He put together an incredible panel of industry professionals for us to learn from, he gave away a prize to the “best dressed” on Halloween, and he has always been kind and approachable. It was an honor to learn from him.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2019 - I truly loved this class. It's definitely one of those 'you get out of it what you put into it' type of classes, because participation and homework don't matter all that much, but the content that Mr. Franzen teaches us is pretty much indespensible. You'll walk out of this class feeling like you can read and understand legal documents (and maybe even negotiate them!) The assignments are easy, just time consuming, so be prepared for that. Mr. Franzen is an easy grader and seemed to just want to see that you completed the assignment. Lectures were great and engaging, but super heavy! You definitely need to buy the course reader for this class and follow along while he teaches because getting a grip on the massive amount of content he goes over is important. Oh - and ask questions! Another really cool part of this class is that he sometimes offers internships and TA positions for his future classes! If you're interested in the music industry, law, or are a musician yourself, I couldn't recommend this class enough.
Spring 2019 - I truly loved this class. It's definitely one of those 'you get out of it what you put into it' type of classes, because participation and homework don't matter all that much, but the content that Mr. Franzen teaches us is pretty much indespensible. You'll walk out of this class feeling like you can read and understand legal documents (and maybe even negotiate them!) The assignments are easy, just time consuming, so be prepared for that. Mr. Franzen is an easy grader and seemed to just want to see that you completed the assignment. Lectures were great and engaging, but super heavy! You definitely need to buy the course reader for this class and follow along while he teaches because getting a grip on the massive amount of content he goes over is important. Oh - and ask questions! Another really cool part of this class is that he sometimes offers internships and TA positions for his future classes! If you're interested in the music industry, law, or are a musician yourself, I couldn't recommend this class enough.
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