Elisabeth Moriarty is Chair of Greenberg Glusker’s Litigation Department. She is an experienced litigator who handles complex, high-profile disputes.
Media, Entertainment, and Intellectual Property Litigation
Liz has represented plaintiffs and defendants in some of the entertainment industry’s most significant, high-stakes disputes involving copyright, trademark and trade dress infringement, motion picture production and distribution, defamation, unfair competition, the licensing of intellectual property rights, and contractual disputes. She is skilled at working on large, high-profile entertainment matters where a confluence of issues come together to span a wide variety of disciplines.
She has extensive experience litigating major profit participation matters on behalf of talent, artists and rights holders, including the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien, Marvel Entertainment and the rights holders to the Winnie the Pooh property. Liz has close, long-standing relationships with the top entertainment auditors/accountants in the field, and has unique experience interpreting complex contractual royalty provisions and convoluted participation statements.
Liz has also handled matters involving online and digital media, television and music rights and idea submission disputes.
High-Net-Worth Divorce Proceedings
While Greenberg Glusker does not have a traditional family law practice, Liz has significant experience litigating business issues in complex, high asset divorce proceedings, including cases involving marital property characterization, valuation and division, apportionment, marital agreements and complex marital property issues.
Liz draws on her sophisticated litigation expertise, her creative, problem-solving approach and her discretion to help her clients successfully navigate and resolve, by way of settlement or trial, the contentious, sensitive, and challenging financial disputes that often arise in high-stakes divorce litigation.
Trial Experience
Among Liz’s successful trial and litigation achievements are serving on the trial team in Jeffrey Katzenberg’s landmark action to recover his profit participation against the Walt Disney Company, and serving as second chair in a 14 week jury trial on behalf of best-selling novelist Clive Cussler in his contentious legal battle with Crusader Entertainment over the film rights to Cussler’s novel Sahara.
Publications
Article
Be Prepared: Using Public Relations to Manage a Dispute or Stop it in its Tracks
July 24, 2023
Litigation Partner, Elisabeth "Liz" Moriarty, published the article, "Be Prepared: Using Public Relations to Manage a Dispute or Stop it in its Tracks" to Los Angeles Business Journal Trusted Advisor column. Excerpts: Earthquake kits can be life-saving—a curated assemblage of food, water, and other survival supplies (e.g., gummy bears) that provide peace of mind and protection when the big one hits. Think of public relations as a key ingredient in your “litigation survival kit.” High-profile lawsuits are often waged in the arena of public opinion, not the courtroom. Partnering with a PR firm before disaster strikes is a proactive strategy that can make the difference between managing a crisis and averting one. Read the full article here.
Article
An Olympic Games only the sponsors could love
July 27, 2012
Sebastian Coe, chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), rapidly backtracked, but it wasn’t hard for many observers to believe the Games he is organizing are more about brands and corporations and less about fans and sports. The Pepsi PEP, -0.34% comments captured a big part of what the Games are about — Coca-Cola Co. KO, +0.09% is one of the International Olympic Committee’s main sponsors, and it was all-too-easy to think the Games’ organizers would throw out any fan showing preference for a partner’s business rival. The presence of so-called brand police, staff who will be on the lookout for any sign of a non-Olympics sponsor trying to market itself at the Games, and some of the aggressive actions taken by Olympics bodies against innocuous parties, tell a sorry tale. To view full article, click here
News
Events
Industry Conference
48th Annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium
June 21, 2024
UCLA Schoenberg Hall
Bonnie E. Eskenazi, Graham Fenton, Alla Savranskaia, Julia R. Haye, Brandon Milostan, Vish Mohan, Ryan D. Webb, and Elisabeth Moriarty
Networking
2025 In-House Connect Networking Mixer
June 12, 20255:00 PM – 8:00 PM PT
Terra at Eataly L.A.
Steven Stein, Ira M. Steinberg, Elisabeth Moriarty, and Sherry E. Jackman
