Joan Morgan McGivern concentrates her practice on real estate, zoning and land use, business and corporate law, civil litigation, intellectual property law, and trademarks and copyrights.
In private practice since 2014 in New York City and East Hampton, New York, Ms. McGivern is a member of the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals, the East Hampton Town Energy Sustainability & Resiliency Committee, and served as East Hampton Town Representative for the Suffolk County Planning Commission.
She retired as General Counsel and Senior Vice President of ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), and as Senior Legal Adviser to the ASCAP Foundation after seventeen years with the organization, serving a membership of over 500,000 songwriters and music publishers — distributing over $1 billion in royalties every year from licensing member copyrights. For ASCAP, she negotiated Intellectual Property (IP) agreements in the global music industry, managed the Legal Department, and supervised outside counsel.
Before ASCAP, Ms. McGivern was a Litigation Associate for twelve years at the law firm White & Case in New York and Washington, D.C. She handled complex commercial litigation, appellate matters, and internal corporate investigations — including federal and state trials, U.S. administrative cases, arbitrations, bankruptcy proceedings, contested probate matters, and trustee accountings. Prior to joining White & Case, she served as a Law Clerk to Hon. Thomas Platt of the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York.
After graduating from Chapin School in New York City, Ms. McGivern earned her honors degree in government from Dartmouth College with high distinction; a Master’s from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs; and a law degree from Georgetown University, where she was editor of the International Law Journal.
She has been admitted to practice in New York State; the Eastern and Southern Districts of the U.S. District Court of New York; the Second Circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals; and the United States Supreme Court.
