Mary Barroll
Mary Barroll practices business law with an emphasis on entertainment, technology and intellectual property. Her clients include award winning television, film and new media producers, television broadcasters, funding agencies, software and website developers and other businesses involved in the traditional and new media industries. She obtained her B.A. (1984) from the University of British Columbia, her Broadcasting Arts Degree (1986) from Mount Royal College and her LL.B. (1994) from Queen's University. She is called to both the Ontario (1996) and Alberta (1997) Bars. Mary is currently completing her Masters of Law degree specializing in E-Business at Osgoode Hall Law School.
After working as an anchor and reporter in the television news industry, Mary became legal affairs specialist for CBC in Calgary. She followed the law to Queen’s University, where she completed her LLB and later joined the national law firm of Bennett Jones. In 2000, she joined Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. as Director of Business and Legal Affairs for Broadcasting, responsible for licensing independent productions for all 13 Alliance Atlantis national television networks and all the company’s websites and interactive media initiatives. Mary also worked as in-house legal counsel to the Canadian Television Fund, a national organization that finances television and new media productions. She is now completing her Masters of Law studying emerging issues involving new media and online entertainment and commerce and carries on her own legal practice.
Ms. Barroll has won numerous national industry awards, including the CWC-Corus New Media Management Career Accelerator Fellowship, the Jeanne Sauve Professional Development Award sponsored by the Department of Canadian Heritage and participant in the Alliance Atlantis Banff Television Executive Program. Mary is a sought after public speaker about entertainment, new media and Internet law to numerous industry related organizations including the Canadian Film Centre, Women in Film & Television – Toronto, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, Banff Centre for the Arts – New Media Institute, the Banff Television Festival, “FITC” International Techology and Design Festival, the Canadian Media Producer Association. Mary also contributes through volunteer work. She was a former president of the Alberta chapter of Women in Film and Television, legal counsel to the Alberta New Media Association and former member of the steering committee (Toronto chapter) of Canadian Women in Communications and the Executive of the Entertainment, Media and Communications Section of the Ontario Bar Association.
Mary has taught “Legal and Business Aspects of Interactive Media” and “Broadcast Regulation” at Ryerson University in Toronto and is a member of the distinguished Judging Panel for the Digital Media Association of Alberta 2007 Digital Awards and a member of the program advisory group for the Digital & Interactive Media Design Faculty at NAIT. She is an evaluator of applications for funding by the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and was commissioned to develop a series of annotated legal agreements to educate new media producers about issues that arise in cross platform new media projects, published on the Bell Funds website and authored a legal tips article on cross platform media distribution for the Bell Fund’s Wiki. Mary was legal advisor and mentor to a delegation of Canadian television and new media producers to the 2005 International Kidscreen Summit in New York sponsored by Telefilm Canada, Western Diversification and the Banff New Media Institute to promote the Canadian television, film and interactive production industry and served on the advisory council and faculty of the New Media Accelerator program sponsored by those institutions.
In 2008, Mary returned to her love of creative content producing by launching a cross platform media production company, Mbmedia, based in Toronto for which she serves as President and Executive Producer. Mbmedia’s first production The Body Machine produced in collaboration with award winning UK producer, Malcolm Brinkworth, was nominated for an international Rockie Award at the 2009 Banff World Television Festival and two national 2009 Gemini Awards and won a special jury prize for best science and nature documentary at the international 2009 Gold Panda Awards in China. Mary then moved into the big screen as Executive Producer of the feature film, Beat the World, (written and directed by the writer of the blockbuster dance movie, “Stomp the Yard”) which was released in 2011 and has been sold in countries throughout the world. Mbmedia is currently in development on a number of television and film projects with national and international partners.
