Ryan Campbell, Esq., Founder of NYC Legal Geeks

Attorney, Author, Geek for All Seasons

Ryan began his legal career as an immigration attorney at a nonprofit organization, the Council of Peoples Organization, where he focused human rights litigation, such as LGBT-based asylum cases from Central Asia and political asylum from Haiti. This complimented several years of work in immigration advocacy, where he advocated for the DREAM Act, including lobbying on immigration policy in Washington, D.C.

Part of his advocacy included several years of journalism, where he covered issues such as undocumented immigrants who were injured clearing rubble at Ground Zero after 9/11. Many of these articles are available on The Huffpo, The Hill, and he has ghostwritten articles run in the New York Times.

After several years of human rights law, including a year of researching indigenous rights, he changed my focus in the direction of a core passion: intellectual property - what geek hasn’t argued about a DC property that should be crossed over with one from Marvel, an author who is livid about the changes to their book when it was turned into a movie, or the finer points of producing derivatives to the Dungeons & Dragons IP? Ryan currently consults on matters of copyright and trademark with artists at his firm, clinics, and with the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (VLA) in NYC.

If you have any particular questions that you would like Ryan to write on in intellectual property, or if you are interested in having Ryan write on one of yours, please contact him at Ryan@NYCLegalGeeks.com.

Ed Baxter, Esq., Co-Founder of NYC Legal Geeks

Trademark/Copyright Attorney with a Dicebag

Edward “Eddie” Baxter is a Trademark Associate at Ladas & Parry and is admitted to practice in New York.

Eddie’s practice focuses on trademark and copyright law, as well as some corporate and transactional matters. Beyond Intellectual Property, Eddie draws on a broad base of legal experience—from securities litigation to commercial real estate transactions.

Eddie graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo school of law in 2020, with a concentration in Intellectual Property Law. While studying, Eddie was a Legal Writing teaching assistant, and was active in Cardozo’s Intellectual Property Law Society, Entertainment Law Society, Interactive Entertainment Law Society, and OUTLaw. Eddie also holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from Kenyon College. He is currently a member of the NYC Bar Association’s Entertainment Law Committee.

In his spare time, Eddie enjoys cooking, reading comic books, playing tabletop role-playing games with his friends, talking shop about film and film criticism, the video game industry, and just about any other nerd-miscellany one can think of.

John Benitez after teaching a copyright & trademark class at Anyone Comics

John Benitez, Esq., Co-Founder of NYC Legal Geeks

John Paul Benitez, Esq. is an attorney litigating human rights cases at Jadeja-Cimone Law, an immigration law firm, located in Hempstead, New York.

John obtained his Juris Doctor from Brooklyn Law School, along with a Certificate in Intellectual Property, Media, and Information Law. During John’s time in law school, he interned for several firms focused on entertainment, art, and intellectual property. He is currently a member of the NYC Bar Association’s Entertainment Law Committee.

John has a passion for helping creators achieve their goals of bringing their ideas to life. In his spare time, John is an avid gamer and comic book geek.