DEBORAH WAGNON, CHIEF OPERATING
OFFICER,
PORTIA ENTERTAINMENT GROUP LLC
"Driven" is the only word to describe Deborah
Wagnon. With the idea of using a
law degree to empower her planned entertainment
career, she entered law school at
Stanford University, sang three shows a
night--every night--from San Francisco to
Lake Tahoe, built up 100 hours of studio
production time, and competed in the Miss
California Pageant. Following graduation, she
worked a year at a large Los Angeles
legal firm, hated it, and decided to return to
music as a singer/songwriter. She put
together a band, went to Tokyo, Japan, spent
her nights performing and her days
making contacts within the Asian music
industry. After six months, Wagnon returned
to Los Angeles. The day of her arrival in 1988,
she saw an ad in
The Hollywood
Reporter for a producer's position with
Landmark Entertainment Group for a project
at Universal Studios Japan. Without mentioning
her legal degree, she landed the job
within 24 hours, based solely upon her musical
ability, studio experience, and Asian
contacts.
Wagnon lined up some valuable male mentors and
quickly filled in the gaps in her
skills. Within a month, she was back in Tokyo
producing recording sessions for the
project. More projects followed until in 1991,
she decided it was time for a new chal-
lenge. She revealed her law degree and put
together a proposal to become senior vice
president of music business affairs at
Landmark. Once hired, she set about establishing
a publishing company and moved the company into
the recording industry. Soon she
was promoted to corporate general legal
counsel.
In 1994, Wagnon felt she had drifted too far
from her love of music and made a
move to Nashville.She took a professorship in
the music program at Middle Tennessee
State University, and within months partnered
with John Mason in opening John
Mason Partners Ltd., a private practice
specializing in music industry law. She began
teaching one day a week at the music school of
Georgia State University at Atlanta in
1999, and early in 2000, joined the prestigious
Greenberg, Traurig firm as the first
female partner.
Wagnon returned to Nashville in 2001 to serve
as counsel for the firm of
Cornelius & Collins, which specializes in
litigation and corporate law. Her primary
duty was to act as counsel to the firm in all
matters relating to entertainment law. She
was offered a partnership and to be head of the
entertainment practice at Hunter
Maclean Exley & Dunn, P.C., which took her
to Savannah, Georgia. Missing
Nashville, she returned and opened her own
international entertainment representa-
tion firm, Portia Entertainment Group LLC. In
2007, Wagnon's historical novel
Great and Wide Sea was published.
www.portiaentertainment.com and www.
deborahwagnon.com
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