Ken Basin’s practice is a unique hybrid of entertainment transactions and entertainment litigation, a rare mix that hearkens back to an “old Hollywood” breed of entertainment lawyers who took on any matter that came in the door.

As a transactional attorney, Ken principally represents actors, writers, directors, and producers in their dealings with studios, networks, and production companies.  Ken has actively participated in the negotiation of agreements for Hollywood A-listers such as Tom Cruise, Warren Beatty, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Larry King, and Lawrence Kasdan, while representing up-and-coming creative talent such as the comedy troupe behind the popular 5secondfilms.com.  Ken has also drafted and negotiated several writing, directing, and rights acquisition agreements for the U.S. development slate of CJ E & M Corporation, the largest entertainment company in Asia, and has worked on behalf of studios such as River Road Entertainment, United Artists, and The Weinstein Co.

As a litigator, Ken specializes in high-profile disputes involving profit participation, motion picture production and distribution, rights ownership, copyright and trademark infringement, defamation, the right of publicity, and other entertainment-related conflicts.  In that role, he has served as a core member of small teams representing clients such as Marvel Entertainment (owner of Spider-Man, Iron Man and numerous other iconic characters), Toho-Towa (the largest film distribution company in Japan), producer Joel Silver, and actress Katie Holmes.

In 2010, Ken co-founded Greenberg Glusker’s award-winning Law Law Land Blog, a self-described “lawyer’s look at the weird, wacky, wonderful world of the entertainment industry” that tackles complex entertainment news and legal issues with humor, insight, and a fair dose of Ken’s trademark snark.  He currently serves as Law Law Land’s Editor-In-Chief, personally editing every article and managing the day-to-day operations of the blog.  In 2011, Ken was named by Variety as one “the best and the brightest . . . attorneys that stand above the crowd and represent the next generation of sharp legal minds in the entertainment business” in its 2011 “Hollywood Law:  Up Next” feature.

• Served as lead production attorney on major studio film, drafting and negotiating all major cast, crew, location, lease, and production agreements
• Represented established and up-and-coming screenwriters in negotiation of writing and option agreements with motion picture studios and producers
• Negotiated acquisition of motion picture remake rights from major studio
• Negotiated agreement for short-film producers to create series of advertising shorts for advertising agency and its client
• Negotiated television hosting agreement for major international stage performer
• Negotiated agency agreement for a television producer client
• Reviewed and revised form production, acting, and directing services agreements on behalf of movie studio
• Represented major video game publisher in licensing negotiations with major studio for video game adaptation of motion picture

• Part of a two-person team that obtained an arbitration award of over $5 million in a dispute between a motion picture distributor and a film producer
• Part of a three-person team that obtained a favorable settlement and license termination for the aggrieved licensor in an international trademark licensing dispute
• Represents a major U.S. entertainment company and motion picture producer in numerous audits, profit participation matters, and other general litigation
• Part of a three-person team that obtained an arbitration award of nearly $6 million in a dispute between motion picture co-financiers
• Researched and drafted discovery motions in complex international litigation on behalf of foreign social networking website

• "Copyright Termination and Loan-Out Corporations: Reconciling Practice and Policy," 3 Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law 55 (2012) (with Aaron J. Moss)
• "Pure entertainment: Five cases to watch because you can't help yourself," Los Angeles Daily Journal, January 3, 2012
• "Five important cases you should watch in 2012," Los Angeles Daily Journal, December 21, 2011
• "Not as easy as A-B-C," FoxSports.com, February 2011
• "What all of Hollywood can learn from Warner Bros.' loss," The Hollywood Reporter, ESQ., June 1, 2010
• "'I Could Have Been a Fragrance Millionaire': Toward a Federal Idea Protection Act," 56 Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. 731 (2009) (with Tina Rad)
• "The Bloody Case That Started From a Parody: American Intellectual Property Policy and the Pursuit of Democratic Ideals in Modern China," 16 UCLA Entertainment Law Review 237 (2009) (with Robert S. Rogoyski)
• "YouTube litigation: Google’s tough DMCA tests," The Hollywood Reporter, ESQ., August 7, 2007

• Quoted, "Hunger Games Drama: What's Keeping Gary Ross From Returning for the Sequel, Catching Fire?" E!Online, April 2012
• Quoted, "Actor marketing stipulations questioned," Los Angeles Daily Journal, March 30, 2012
• Panelist, University of Tennessee College of Law Entertainment Law Conference, "Metamorphosis: How Technology is Reshaping Entertainment," March 2012
• "Media & Entertainment Cases To Watch In 2012," Law360, January 1, 2012
• Syllabus Co-Editor, UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium, 2012
• Panelist, Harvard Law School CSEL Entertainment Law Symposium, "The Democratization of Entertainment," November 2011
• "Film market begins, but where are the lawyers?" Los Angeles Daily Journal, October 31, 2011
• Profiled, "Up Next:  The best and the brightest," Variety, June 30, 2011
• "What's Next for Violent Video Games," The Street, June 29, 2011
• Guest Lecturer, “Preventing Bad Settlement Decisions and Impasse Using Brain Science, Game Theory, Animated Communication, and Micro-Interventions" (Don Philbin & Douglas Noll), Pepperdine School of Law Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, June 2011
• Guest, Law School Interactive Podcast, Entertainment Law
• "Coming Out of the Blocks Full Speed: Greenberg Glusker's Young Associate Sprints to Success," Of Counsel, April 2011
• "Kinect SDK Could Open New Worlds for Motion-Controlled Interfaces," MacNewsWorld, February 23, 2011
• "Ride the Super Bowl Coattails, Safe From Suits," TheStreet.com, February 2011
• "10 Things Game Shows Won't Tell You," SmartMoney.com, January 2011
• "Avatar Kinect Puts Your Best Face Forward," TechNewsWorld, January 2011
• "Are Disney Stars Like Demi Lovato Even Allowed to Get in Trouble?," E! Online, November 2010
• Attorney Volunteer, UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium, 2010-11
• Panelist, "Junior Associates and the Practice of Copyright, Trademark, and Entertainment Law," Harvard Law School, March 2009
• Profiled, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Ken Basin, Harvard Law '08, Sure Does," Above the Law, August 25, 2009