Jan Constantine, who has been the legal counsel for the Authors Guild since October 2005, will step down from that position at the end of the month. The Guild is currently working on a plan to find her successor.
Constantine was hired by the Guild’s former executive director, Paul Aiken, as a part-time employee but was quickly working a full-time schedule as she helped to oversee the Guild’s copyright infringement lawsuit against Google, which was filed the week before she joined the association.
In a letter sent to Guild council members, Constantine made it clear her decision to leave the Guild shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court denied the association’s appeal in the Google case was not a coincidence (The court rejected the appeal Monday). “I promised Paul when he became incapacitated that I would continue at the Guild until the Supreme Court had ruled on our petition for certiorari. That time has arrived and it is only fitting that I take leave of the Authors Guild a week after the lawsuit was over; Paul would have liked the symmetry of my tenure I am certain,” she wrote. Aiken died in February from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
“Jan put an incredible amount of dedication and energy into the initiatives she spearheaded on behalf of authors,” said Guild president Roxana Robinson. “We are all grateful for the skill, acuity, and knowledge with which she carried out her work at the Guild.”
Among the most recent initiatives Constantine worked on was the Authors Guild Fair Contract Initiative, a series of position papers challenging U.S. publishers to be more fair and reasonable in the standard contracts they often give first-time and unagented authors.
Constantine can be reached at Constantine Cannon LLP by e-mail atjconstantine@constantinecannon.com starting in May.
