LITA T. ROSARIO, ESQ.

Lita Rosario is currently the President/CEO of WYZ GIRL Entertainment Consulting, LLC, Rosario got  her start in the entertainment business as founder, co-owner, and VP of Business and Legal Affairs for University Music Group, Inc., producers of multi-platinum recording artists Dru Hill, Sisqo and MYA.   Rosario has negotiated distribution and publishing agreements with all of the four major record distribution/music publishing companies including Warner Music Group, Sony/RCA; Universal Music Group; EMI/Capital Records as well as major television and cable companies, including, Disney, UPN, TV One, BET, VIACOM/MTV, DISCOVERY CHANNEL, E! NETWORK  and Universal Pictures.   Rosario’s client roster includes, among others, Grammy award winning and platinum selling artist Missy Elliott, Tank, Sisqo, DRU HILL, Peaches & Herb, Crystal Waters, Afrika Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force, DTP recording artist “BXC”, SRC/Universal Recording Artists “Marky,” Universal Republic recording artist Grind Mode; grammy award winning and platinum selling producer Chucky Thompson, Kellie Williams former “Family Matters” cast member,  Charlotte Burley, author, producer and host of BET J’s “THE TURN ON,”  Davy D producer of RUN DMC and Kurtis Blow,  Ronald “Peanut” Frost producer of Jill Scott, Miri Bin-Ari, Dave Evans producer and music director for Keith Sweat and DRU HILL, Nefretiti Makenta producer and director of a PBS documentary entitled “WORD IS BOND.”  Rosario has also negotiated major merchandizing and endorsement deals with adidas International and Doritos for Missy Elliott.

Rosario also provides internet related, entertainment and intellectual property advice to various corporate entities including, Washington, D.C. based Haven Media Group, LLC, a new venture funded by Syncom Funds (investors in BET and Radio and TV One) designed to market “Legacy Artists” in new media; The Black Leadership Forum, Inc. an umbrella entity for Black Civil Rights organizations that is launching a web based television network (BLF.TV) for its member organizations; and eVIPList.com a premier web based marketing and promotions company.

Rosario has also lobbied Congress on copyright law issues for the new millennium. Rosario’s lobbying efforts have included pursuing recording artists’ rights along with AFTRA, AF of M, Sound Exchange and musicFirst.  She has also supervised litigation for Peaches & Herb against Sony Music Corporation and The Moments against Rhino Records; and a multi-jurisdictional dispute over the ownership and authorship rights in the musical composition “Who Let The Dogs Out..”

Rosario’s practice involves administration of copyrights, including negotiation of syndication rights, mechanical, synchronization, sample clearances, and performance licenses for music in major motion pictures, including Soul Food, Romeo Music Die, The Fast and The Furious, Road Trip, My First Mister, Buying the Cow, and Brothers, as well as synchronization licenses for commercial advertisements for Bermuda Tourism, Lincoln-Mercury, Mitsubishi, Doritos, Jeep, Cingular, MAC Make-Up and Miller Brewing Company.

Rosario, served as an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia’s Department of Mass Media Visual and Performing Arts from 1994 to 2007, teaching “The Business of Music,” a course focusing on legal, accounting and other business aspects of the music, TV and film industries.

She began her legal career with the Boston law firm Gaston & Snow and shortly moved on to the Wall Street firm of Shearman & Sterling. At Shearman she represented clients including The Taiwan Fund, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., CS First Boston, Pennzoil Company, and Wasserstein & Perrella. While at Shearman she acted as a member of the board of directors  for Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, Inc., a Bronx-based low income housing development corporation and the East Harlem Community Health Committee.
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Rosario is a member of the District of Columbia, New York, and Massachusetts Bars, and Federal Court bars in The Southern District of New York and the District Court for the District of Columbia. She attended The Howard University School of Law, in Washington, D.C. where she earned a Juris Doctorate Degree in 1986, graduating in the top 6% of her class, and served on the Howard Law Journal. Rosario attended The Howard University School of Communications were she graduated Cum Laude in 1983 and served as the President of the  School of Communications Student Council, Member of the Hilltop Policy Board, and HUSA Policy Board. She also achieved honors as Who’s Who Among American University and College Students; received Trustee Academic and Debate Scholarships; and served as Co-Captain and later coach of the Howard University Debate Team.