Warner Music Group (WMG) general counsel Paul Robinson was honored with the Recording Academy’s 2026 Entertainment Law Initiative (ELI) Service Award on Friday (Jan. 30).
Robinson, who has been the top lawyer at WMG since 2006, had initially been set to receive the award last year, before the 2025 annual ELI event was canceled due to the Los Angeles wildfires. He finally received his flowers during Friday’s luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in L.A.
“Even though it’s taken an extra 12 months for me to join this distinguished club, I’m absolutely thrilled to become its 20th member,” Robinson said during his acceptance speech.
Robinson took the opportunity to share four key pieces of advice with young music lawyers in the room. Rule number one: “It’s not about you,” he said, noting, “Our only agenda should be our client’s agenda. We need to detach our egos from the process.”
The second rule, said Robinson, is that lawyers must “ceaselessly adapt and lean into the future.” He noted that the music business has dealt with massive tech disruption over the years, from CDs to streaming and now AI.
“In the immortal words of R.E.O. Speedwagon, ‘Roll with the changes,’” said Robinson, whose team at WMG is the first major to have negotiated licensing deals with both of the two biggest music AI companies, Suno and Udio.
Robinson’s third and fourth principles were that lawyers should always “communicate simply and concisely,” and “bring positivity to solving problems.” He added: “If humanly and legally possible, our advice must include some kind of yes.”
“Let’s face it: we are so fortunate doing what we do,” Robinson said. “We have genuinely inspiring and enviable jobs in the service of artists and songwriters and their music. Excellence in our profession is what ELI stands for. All of us in this room are standard-bearers.”
Robinson thanked the Recording Academy for the “incredible honor” of the ELI Award, as well as his family, colleagues and many mentors in the music business. One of those mentors actually presented Robinson with the award: Fred Wistow, WMG’s first general counsel.
In his remarks, Wistow described Robinson as “a man who cares more, knows more, works more and endures more than anyone else around.”
“People are proud to know him, and I certainly am,” said Wistow.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. also lauded Robinson during the event for his “commitment to the broader music community.”
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