THUMBNAIL BIO
OKAY, MORE...


I grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attended public schools, graduating from Hall High School in 1966. My parents were in the residential real estate business. I have one sister. I have been married for nearly three decades. I have one stepson, a computer animator in the motion picture industry in southern California. With his mother's background (former motion-picture hairstylist), my background, and his own interests from an early age, it's no wonder that he chose "the movies." I majored in journalism at Arkansas State University, graduating with a B.S. in 1970. After a year teaching journalism at a junior college, I became a television reporter/anchorperson.
I first worked in smaller markets and then made my way to Little Rock, my hometown, where I worked at KTHV and then KATV. In 1974, I left television journalism to go to law school at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law, also acquiring a master's degree in journalism along the way from the University of North Texas. After graduating from law school in 1977 and becoming licensed to practice law in Arkansas, I worked briefly as a deputy prosecutor before signing on to help manage a campaign for attorney general. We won, and I became a deputy attorney general. During my years in the AG's office, I also worked as an adjunct professor at UALR teaching media law.
In 1981, I left the AG's office to go into private practice to develop professional expertise in media law and entertainment law, a great marriage for me given my background and interests. While I was learning to practice law in these fields, I opened a television production company to pay the bills. We produced syndicated television programming, commercials, and industrial documentaries. After several years of operating that business and representing a large client in the cable television advertising industry, I was hired by the operations and production arm of County Music Television in Nashville as general counsel. After two years in Nashville, I decided to become a college professor, signing on to teach media law and copyright law at Texas A&M University in College Station.
During my nearly 20 years at Texas A&M, I rose through the ranks, becoming a full professor after 11 years. Also during that time, I was a legal consultant in my fields of expertise, I mediated and arbitrated hundreds of lawsuits, I testified as an expert witness in media cases, and I received an LL.M. in intellectual property law from the University of Houston Law Center. In 2004, I left Texas A&M to become a clinical professor of law at UHLC, teaching entertainment law and transactional law. After three years there and 25 years of teaching, I now practice law full time. www.dontomlinsonlaw.com.
I represent business clients in transactional and intellectual property law (e.g., www.vendorsafe.com), and I represent clients in the entertainment industry, including singer/songwriters, book authors, and entertainment company owners. My wife and I live on West Galveston Bay near the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway with Libby, our beloved whippet/ridgeback mix.