Pamela Conley Ulich, is a goal-driven lawyer and community leader with a successful history of driving change and positive outcomes within the Directors Guild, Screen Actors Guild, nonprofits, city government, community serving groups and academic settings. Her experience and record of building up and helping clients, community and developing collaborative and successful environments is well-known.

Legal Practice

Pamela is a respected entertainment lawyer and launched her career in Los Angeles as Associate General Counsel for the Directors Guild of America.  She represented Directors on creative rights, film credits, residuals, and residuals.  She also litigated and negotiated multimillion settlements between the Studios, the Networks and the DGA.  

She also served as Hollywood Counsel and Litigation Supervisor for the Screen Actors Guild where she developed dynamic legal strategies and internal processes to ensure positive outcomes.   The legal department residual collections increased from $1.2 million to $5.7 million per year under her leadership.  She oversaw the legal team and litigated cases relating to actors’ compensation, upgrades, meal penalties, the reuse of actor’s performances and residuals.

Academics

Pamela served on the planning committee and co-moderated panels for topics in the entertainment industry such as: “Strike: The Legal Weapon of Last Resort”,  “The Digital Millennium Copyright Act – You have to Pay to Play”, and “How to Succeed in Business without really Signing– When is a Deal a Deal?” for the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

Pamela taught many courses on Entertainment and Labor law as an Adjunct Professor and has served as a Moot Court Judge for the National Entertainment Moot Court Competition at Pepperdine Law School.

Pamela co-authored a leading article on Runaway Production that was published in the Loyola Entertainment Law Review and in the Congressional Record in 2001.

Community Service

In addition to practicing and teaching law, Pamela was one of the youngest people elected to serve on the Malibu City Council in 2004 and was re-elected in 2008. Pamela served Malibu as the Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and City Councilmember.  Pamela’s top priorities focused on public safety, protecting and preserving the environment, promoting the arts and culture, and fiscal responsibility, and her accomplishments included:

  • Devising and implementing a lease where the City of Malibu shares in the proceeds from local shopping mall tenants, a lease that had never before existed. The lease generates millions of dollars for the City of Malibu.
  • Supporting and protecting our oceans and testified at hearings in support of the Marine Protected Areas in Malibu. In May 2008, while Mayor, she worked with the community to pass a plastic bag ban in Malibu to protect the ocean. “Environmental groups hailed Malibu’s ordinance as a model that they hoped others would emulate, to keep the bags from clogging storm drains and drifting to sea, where they can kill marine life.” http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/14/local/me-plastic14 
  • In 2007 she co-founded the Malibu Task Force on Homelessness and has helped raise much needed funding for this holistic professional approach to solving this crisis.
  • During her tenure, Malibu purchased its first City Hall, created Bluffs Park, and Legacy Park, built a stormwater treatment facility, banned both smoking on the beach and plastic bags in Malibu and renovated the Malibu Library.   She worked with the community to defeat a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas terminal off the coast of Malibu.  She also spearheaded Malipalooza, a music and family fun festival at Bluff’s Park and CineMalibu, an outdoor movie experience for families at Bluffs Park.   
  • Serving as Commissioner for the Los Angeles County Library from 2004-2012 
  •   Member of the California Board for Childhelp USA, a non-profit National organization that is dedicated to preventing Child Abuse.  She was Co-President of the Malibu Mother/Daughter Wings group which helps raise funds for children who live in a Childhelp facility in Beaumont California.  

Recognition

  • In 2011, she received the Malibu Time’s highest honor, the Malibu Dolphin Award, for her dedication to her community over many years
  • In 2018 she received The Malibu Charitable Foundation Hero and Citizen of the year award along with many others  for their courage, support, generosity and support during and after the Woolsey Fire. 

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, San Diego
  • Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Maryland School of Law
  • Teaching Certificate in Higher Education Pedagogy from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Pamela loves nature, swimming and surfing in the ocean, practicing hot yoga, planting gardens, playing tennis and watching her two children and dogs blossom. She hikes in Malibu, travels the world, and has written a novel about Motherhood.