Jonathan Anschell, Executive Vice President, General Counsel of CBS Television, and Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of CBS Corporation, Receives Canadian American Bar Association’s First Annual John D. Lawson Award
The Canadian American Bar Association (CABA) is pleased to announce that Jonathan Anschell, Executive Vice President, General Counsel of CBS Television, and Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of CBS Corporation is the recipient of CABA’s first annual John D. Lawson Award as a Canadian who excels in the practice of law in the U.S. and makes outstanding contributions to the community.
Mr. Anschell grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and attended law school at University of Toronto in Ontario. Prior to joining CBS, he was a partner at White O’Connor Fink & Brenner LLP, where he successfully litigated several high profile entertainment law cases, including representation of CBS. In 2004, at age 36, he joined CBS as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of CBS Television, leading the network’s legal department through, among other things, the challenges posed by several high profile and successful reality shows. In 2010, Mr. Anschell was appointed Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of CBS Corporation.
CBS has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and The CW—a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), cable television (Showtime Networks, Smithsonian Networks and CBS College Sports Network), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International and CBS Television Distribution), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on outof-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), interactive media (CBS Interactive), music (CBS Records), licensing and merchandising (CBS Consumer Products), video/DVD (CBS Home Entertainment), motion pictures (CBS Films) and sustainable media (EcoMedia).
Despite his duties as general counsel to a major international entertainment and media company, Mr. Anschell volunteers his time to sit on the Board of Directors of Public Counsel—the largest pro bono law firm in the nation—and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. He is also past chair of the American Bar Association’s Media Advocacy Workshop, and currently serves as co-editor of Communications Lawyer, the ABA’s journal of media and communications law. He taught media law for the student media training program at UCLA and serves as legal counsel, on a pro bono basis, for the Daily Bruin and other student publications at UCLA.
In January 2008, Mr. Anschell was selected by the Daily Journal, Los Angeles’ daily legal affairs newspaper, as one of California’s top twenty lawyers under the age of forty. He has also been named in Los Angeles Magazine as a “Super Lawyer” and “Rising Star,” and also has been featured by Law Dragon in its “New Stars, New Worlds” publication.
Mr. Anschell and his wife, Los Angeles Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Abigail Goldman, have two children and live in Beverly Hills, California.
The John D. Lawson Award is named after respected attorney John Davison Lawson who was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and practiced law in the United States between 1876 and 1922. Both law reformer and judge, John Lawson was a prolific and widely respected treatise writer and national bar journal editor, a law professor and dean. He was one of the founding members of the Association of American Law Schools and a leader of the International Law Association. John D. Lawson remains a model of Canadian legal success south of the 49th Parallel.
About the Canadian American Bar Association
The Canadian American Bar Association is an association of U.S. lawyers with strong ties to Canada. All of our members are either Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada, and/or graduates of a Canadian university or law school. For more information visit
www.CanAmBar.com.
