Alumni Dinner 2025

Howard is a Former Partner, Chair of the Tax Department, and member of the Executive Committee at Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel LLP for more than two decades, from March 1997 through December 2019.

Among the many articles and books that Howard published were multiple pieces that were coauthored for BNA Bloomberg involving the topics of transfers to controlled corporations and capital assets. He has also received many awards for his work as an attorney, including the New York State Bar Association’s Empire State Counsel Honor, Legalease’s Legal 500 U.S., BNA Bloomberg’s Leonard L. Silverstein Award and its Tax Management’s Distinguished Author’s Award.

Howard has served on the Board of Directors for many charitable organizations, including The New York Foundation for the Arts, where he was the Vice Chair from 2009-2019, and The Poetry Society of America.

Howard and Joan Rothman established a scholarship at Brooklyn Law School which annually provides financial assistance to a deserving law student.

Since retiring from the full-time practice of law, Howard has spent much of his time serving as the Chairman and President of The Taft Foundation. The foundation was created under the will of Don Taft, a client of Howard’s, and has a mission to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in leading fulfilling lives. The Taft Foundation also seeks to enhance the well-being of children facing serious illness.

Under Howard’s leadership, since Don Taft’s passing in 2011, the Taft Foundation has granted more than $120 million to upwards of 230 nonprofit organizations in the New York City metro area and in Southeast Florida. In partnership with Brooklyn Law School, in 2014 the foundation established, and continues to fund, the Disability and Civil Rights Clinic, led by Professor Prianka Nair. Taking a disability justice approach, the clinic provides critical access to legal services and community education to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities; it has been recognized as a leader in the field, particularly in guardianship and anti-discrimination law, and exposes students to the intersections of disability law, including housing, public benefits, due process challenges and ethical issues.

As Senior Counsel in Epic Games’ Legal and Business Affairs department, Erica supports a range of the company’s products and services, including Fortnite, Lego Fortnite, Rocket League, Fall Guys, MegaGrants, and Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. She is responsible for Epic’s philanthropic activities; partner content and music licensing; content development and production; accessibility; clearances; IP enforcement and protection processes; advising on e-commerce and player health and habits; performing merger and acquisition due diligence; responding to regulatory inquiries; executing new product creation; and managing Epic’s relationship with SAG-AFTRA. She negotiates and drafts agreements and develops internal strategy across all these areas. In 2022, Erica orchestrated an Epic giving campaign that raised $144 million for those affected by the war in Ukraine.

Prior to joining Epic Games in November 2020, Erica was Counsel in Sesame Workshop’s Legal and Business Affairs department, where she was responsible for developing the business terms, strategizing, negotiating deal points, advising members of the Workshop, and drafting relevant agreements. She handled matters related to content production, marketing, social media, communications, collaborations, special events, Speaker’s Bureau, themed entertainment and outreach in Latin America, intellectual property protection and enforcement, clearances, employment matters, policies, and licensing. She was part of an internal committee tasked with supporting Senior Leadership and Human Resources on DEI matters and joined a Senior Leadership Operations Team in its effort to broaden and diversify the voices impacting business decisions and operations.

Erica is on the Copyright Society’s Board of Trustees and serves as the Executive Committee Member-at-Large. She was previously its Secretary, Assistant Treasurer and New York City Chapter Co-Chair. She is an active mentor in the legal community, a member of the Brooklyn Law School Alumni Board, and an adviser for the school’s Sports and Entertainment Law Blog. Erica received the Brooklyn Law School Entertainment and Sports Law Society Alumni of the Year Award in 2019 for her inspiring accomplishments in entertainment law.

Prior to working at Sesame Workshop, Erica was an in-house attorney for The Collective, also known as Marc Ecko or Ecko Unlimited.

Erica received a B.A. in Communications, with a minor in Public Relations, in 2010 from Belmont University, where she was an NCAA Division I student-athlete. She earned a J.D. and Certificate in IP, Media, and Information Law in 2015 from Brooklyn Law School, where she also received the Gwen J. Greenberg Prize and a CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Negotiations. She is admitted to the bar in New York State.