To make it as a corporate counsel in the music industry, it seems you must have first enjoyed a misspent youth thrashing out riffs in the local garage band. Most in-house lawyers in the sector are avid music fans who have gravitated towards the industry because of this interest.
Daryl Franklin, director of legal and business affairs at Mercury, is a typical example, having been both a DJ and a member of a garage band before opting to become a lawyer.
Julian French, director of legal affairs at EMI's Parlophone label, says to be an in-house lawyer in the sector you have to have a passion for music.
"You spend your entire time with music industry people so you've got to have an empathy with their lifestyle," he says.
The 'sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll' image of the music industry makes it an attractive option for young lawyers who want to escape the confines of the legal world and work in a creative environment. But it is also a highly-competitive and challenging environment.
The UK music business is undeniably a success story. It is one of the highest-earning industries in the UK, with exports valued at £1.1bn. A massive one in five records sold worldwide are written, composed, recorded or produced here.
The landscape of the UK music world is, however, changing. Large international companies are slowly, but surely, absorbing the independent labels. There are now only 10 independent record companies in the country.
EMI is the last major record company that remains in British hands and one of the five great giants of the industry. The other four are Sony, Warner Bros, Universal and the German company Bertelsmann.
Universal, owned by Canadian drinks company Seagram, merged with PolyGram in a $10.3bn takeover last December.
EMI has vowed to remain independent, but one wonders how long this resolve can last with reports of overtures made by competing international record industry giants.
Some have predicted the death of the creative music scene as independent music companies are absorbed and the multinationals exert more control over output of music.
But at Mercury, one of Universal's labels, Franklin does not agree. "Consolidation presents a lot of opportunities for smaller companies to run artists and projects that larger companies are not interested in," he argues.
John Kellett is director of business affairs at one of the few remaining independents, Independiente, which has Travis, Paul Weller and John Martyn on its books.
He agrees with Franklin's analysis: "We do not perceive consolidation as a threat. I think that it is a great opportunity for small record companies like ourselves."
He does, however, foresee problems for the in-house lawyer as the industry contracts and job opportunities are reduced.
"The next two years will be a rough ride. There will be more redundancies and very few opportunities for people trying to get in," he says.
Those lawyers who do manage to stick it out are in for a challenging time.
The standard 'bread and butter' legal work of the music industry lawyer is negotiating and renegotiating publishing and recording agreements, licensing and joint ventures.
Traditionally, however, their role within the company is very much more than this. Lawyers are expected to advise and be well-versed in financial and business issues, as well as legal matters.
EMI's French says that lawyers in the industry inevitably get more involved in commercial decisions than lawyers working in other industries. "The product is a bundle of legal rights and the people who are closest to that product are the lawyers," he says.
He estimates that only 30% of his work is delivering pure legal advice, while the rest is offering more general business advice.
Franklin agrees. "It is a rights-based business. We play a key role in acquiring, marketing and supervising those rights," he says.
He adds that the key challenge facing the industry is how to protect the label's rights in the new era of technological and digital distribution.
In the technological age, piracy is rife. It is now possible for fans to download music from the Internet without paying for it. It is also possible for artists to record, market and distribute their records without a record company – and some artists are beginning to use the Internet to reach their fans directly.
Franklin points out that record companies invest a huge amount of money in bands. To give some idea of the scale of investment, research and development costs in this industry are reported to be comparable to the pharmaceutical industry.
He says the key role of entertainment lawyers in the future will be to advise "on how we can safeguard the value of the investment".
"I predict that the Internet will be the biggest industry issue over the next two years. Policing the Internet is a major issue and is an enormous logistical exercise," he says.
But he adds that the industry also views the Internet as a positive development and will work with the artists to promote material on it.
Lawyers will have to get to grips with advances in technology and ensure that recording contracts and other agreements take account of these developments.
Kellett says: "For us it is a question of making sure that contracts cover new technology. There are also problems with calculating royalty provision rules for artists when you have no idea how technology will have developed towards the end of the contract term."
Aside from the Internet, another on-going issue for the industry lawyer is licensing. This issue has become more prevalent of late with the increased use of samples in dance music and compilation albums.
Franklin says: "It can be a major headache ensuring that records that are put out have been cleared. If an unauthorised track is used, the expense can be enormous.
"The key function of the in-house guy is to avoid the expense of challenge. I perceive my role as problem avoidance. It can be damaging for the artists and the business."
European issues are also to the fore. The UK is in the process of incorporating European directives and new laws from the Gatt treaty into British law. Industry lawyers also have to keep abreast of these developments and advise on the worldwide implications for their labels.
But perhaps the most challenging aspect of the work of record industry lawyers is having to advise on legal issues in an essentially creative and unstructured environment. To do this they must share the lifestyle of the people in the industry.
Says Franklin: "It is a creative industry but it doesn't suit everybody. It is an unstructured working environment, very noisy and quite stressful. But it is an exciting industry to work in.
"You don't want to look like a lawyer," he adds, since you are working with artists who might perceive lawyers as "scary" people.