Attorney Charles J. Sanders has served as counsel to the Songwriters Guild of America, Inc. since 2005, and as a legal and legislative advisor to MCNA since its founding. He likewise advises many other music community non-profit groups, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Fair Trade Music, Inc. Between 1986 and 2004, Sanders served as counsel and senior vp to the National Music Publishers Association, Inc., during which time he oversaw the collection and distribution of over $4 billion in royalties. He is licensed to practice in New York, California, Washington, DC, and before the US Supreme Court. Sanders is also the board chair for the National Music Council of the United States.
Among Sanders’ related pursuits, he is chairman emeritus of the music industry’s leading social justice outreach group WhyHunger, is the recipient of an Emmy Award for the copyright education short subject “Copy Kid,” is a thirty year voting member and former NY governor of NARAS, is an award winning musician, military historian, and author, and has served as an adjunct professor of music business practice at New York University for twenty-five years. One of the most widely travelled ski mountaineers in the world, Sanders also recently became among the few persons ever to have recorded alpine ski descents on all seven continents, and has served as a member of the board of the United States Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame since 2012.