Entertainment Experience
- Outside general counsel for the entities that own all rights to Bob Marley’s music, name and likeness. Successfully obtained summary judgment against international coffee licensee and against a film production company seeking to make an unauthorized biopic of Bob Marley’s life. Licensing agreements in all areas including cannabis, apparel, coffee, restaurants, film and television, music publishing, books
- Represented the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien against New Line Cinema in obtaining a settlement of its profit participation rights in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
- Represented Marvel Entertainment in protecting its rights to Spider-Man and its distribution rights to films starring its other Marvel characters
- Represented Jeffrey Katzenberg in landmark action to recover his profit participation against the Walt Disney Company
- Represented a victim of sexual harassment in CBS’s investigation of Les Moonves
- Recovered the rights to the Alvin & The Chipmunks characters for the original owners from a major motion picture studio
- Represented Paramount Pictures in its appeal of the now famous Art Buchwald profit participation decision and successfully defended Paramount against a profit participation antitrust class action lawsuit brought by the Estate of Jim Garrison
- Represented various studios and film producers defending against authors and heirs of authors who seek to terminate and recapture their copyrights in film and television productions
- Represented composer Hans Zimmer in partnership litigation and general business, copyright and other music and film matters
- Represented Daily Variety in asserting its First Amendment right to attend and report on the legal dispute over the Spider-Man character
- Obtained jury verdict in favor of animation company that owned Casper The Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich against its former agent
- Represented DreamWorks in successfully obtaining summary judgment against a producer who brought an action for breach of contract and fraud
- Represented the owners of rights in Winnie The Pooh in their action against The Walt Disney Company for recovery of royalties
- Represented a world famous Olympic athlete before the California Labor Commissioner to terminate her obligations and recover commissions paid to her former personal manager
- Obtained dismissal in favor of a publicly held international entertainment conglomerate against a $30 million claim for misappropriation of trade secrets and won a trial court award of $300,000 in attorneys' fees
- Represented Elle Macpherson in a successful defamation action against an attorney who made false statements to the media regarding the circumstances of his client's burglary and attempted extortion against the famous supermodel
- Represented Geffen Records against a world renowned, Grammy-winning artist who refused to deliver any further record albums based on his claim that he was released from his contract after seven years