Alexa M. Whiteside, CEO & Managing Partner of WAM Entertainment Law, has been elected as a board member to the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) Board of Governors.
The election took place during the NCBA’s Annual Meeting, held June 25-27 in Charlotte, NC following her nomination on April 17th.
Alexa will serve for a three-year term on the Board of Governor’s beginning in 2026-2027 and was one of seven new board members named at the annual meeting.
Tammy Nicholson served as chair of the NCBA Nominations Committee that nominated this year’s new board members, whose membership included Clara Cottrell, Alex Dale, Judge Richard Doughton, Mark Holt, Hilton (Hutch) Hutchins Jr., Beth McKee, Collins Saint and Rebecca Smitherman.
A transactional attorney and the firm’s founder, Alexa focuses her practice on development and production financing, corporate formation and equity structuring, clearance and rights opinions, fair use analysis, talent and production agreements, distribution and licensing, catalogue management, and copyright and trademark prosecution and maintenance, serving filmmakers, producers, content creators, distributors, and media companies in North Carolina, California, and New York.
Since relocating to North Carolina from California in 2019, Whiteside has held continuous leadership roles within the North Carolina Bar Association and North Carolina Bar Foundation. She served as Co-Chair of the NCBF Pro Bono Committee (2024-26) and previously co-chaired its Pro Bono Awards Subcommittee (2023-24), on which she has served since 2020. Within the NCBA Sports & Entertainment Law Section, she served as Section Chair in 2023-24 following multiple years of leadership and advocacy in the section’s Council which she has been a member of since 2019.
Prior to launching the firm, Whiteside served as Vice President of Business Affairs at the broadcast television producer and distributor Hearst Media Production Group, where she oversaw the company’s business affairs, clearances, standards and practices, and programming teams for original broadcast and digital content. She previously spent over seven years at a mid-sized entertainment boutique in Beverly Hills, advancing through law clerk, associate, and senior associate roles, where her credits include such titles as Sony’s A Man Called Otto, Netflix’s Voir, and Amazon’s Something From Tiffany’s.
Whiteside earned her Juris Doctorate magna cum laude from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, California and her B.F.A. with Honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She is admitted to practice before the bars of North Carolina, California, and New York. Her work has been recognized by Super Lawyers Rising Stars (2020, 2022, 2023, 2026), Chambers Spotlight North Carolina for Media & Entertainment (2026), and the Variety Legal Impact Report Up Next list (2022). She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Television Executives Peer Group. Whiteside also volunteers regularly as a pro bono attorney for programs such as NCBA’s Wills for Heroes, North Carolina Lawyers on Call (4ALL), California Lawyers for the Arts, and New York Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. A frequent industry speaker, she has presented at the Sundance Film Festival, RiverRun International Film Festival, NewFilmmakers LA, the Alliance of Women Directors, and her alma mater NYU Tisch.
More information on Ms. Whiteside is available HERE.
More information on the nomination in April is available HERE.