R. Emmett McAuliffe

R. Emmett McAuliffe, Principal 314.727.0101 mcauliffe@riezmanberger.com vcard

R. Emmett McAuliffe assists clients with the harvesting, protection and exploitation of their intellectual property portfolios. McAuliffe was named 'Best in Intellectual Property Attorneys' by St. Louis Small Business Monthly (2023). Emmett has filed and prosecuted hundreds of U.S. and international trademark and copyright applications and has represented IP-based businesses in matters involving asset protection, acquisition, work-for-hire, financing, production, distribution, licensing and litigation.

Emmett is especially active in the fields of Arts & Entertainment and Media Law, offering intensive client services to creative communities of all kinds.

With professional roots in an intellectual property boutique firm, Emmett is well-equipped to advise and counsel clients on how best to harmonize trademark, copyright and right of publicity to create an effective long-term branding strategy.

Emmett is also a member of Riezman Berger’s Business Transactions group. He is fluent in the terms and deal points of many kinds of contracts and documents and has experience as a lead negotiator for same. He has represented several companies as acting chief general counsel and devised formation strategies for many corporations. He also has significant international litigation, commercial litigation and trial advocacy experience. He has tried hundreds of bench trials and several first-chair jury trials to verdict. He has briefed a case to the United States Supreme Court.

Emmett taught intellectual property to third-year law students at Handong International Law School in South Korea. He has been a featured speaker at Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion workshops.  From 2008-2017 he served at the pleasure of the Governor on the Missouri Arts Council and the Missouri Cultural Trust, and presided over the disbursement of millions of dollars in public funding for the arts.  In 2007, Emmett was awarded his first Gold-record plaque by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for his involvement in an album achieving 500,000 in sales. Also in 2007, Emmett was elected to the Board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and elected President of the Board of St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts (VLAA).

Emmett spent three years as live-in co-director of a St. Louis homeless shelter and food bank and has been a regular volunteer for the following educational and community institutions: Washington University, YMCA, St. Louis Public Schools, the College School (former Board member), Double Helix, and KDHX-FM. He has served on the Boards of the 501(c)(3) St. Louis Browns Historical Society, Vanderbilt University Alumni Steering Committee, St. Louis Priory Alumni Board, Christian Legal Society-St. Louis and is a past member of the American Bar Association Advisory Panel.

Academically, Emmett is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School and the Notre Dame Concannon Program of International Law, a former member of the adjunct faculty of St. Louis University School of Law and has had articles published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Missouri Lawyers Weekly and the Columbia Missourian. He is a former member of the Missouri Press Association and the Show-Me Press Association.

His hobbies include DJ'ing and blogging, for which he received the 'Piece of the Month' award for October 2019 by the Fansided Network comprising a family of over 300 websites.

Current Entertainment Law focus for 2023-24: the Sexyy Red project on Interscope.