86 BILLBOARD | AUGUST 24, 2019
LEPERA: DAVID CROSS. MARTÍNEZ: VILMARIE CARDENAS. MILOM: ZANIMAL CREATIVE. MODABBER: GITTINGS LEGAL PHOTOGRAPHY. PASSMAN: LES COHEN. POSTER: DAVID BLATTEL. REINHOLD: CHRIS SORENSEN. ROTHENBERG: GABRIEL OLSEN. SCHWARTZ: JOSH LAVORGNA. WEINRIB: COLBY BLOUNT.BACKSTAGE PASS / Top Music Lawyers 2019
RECENT MEMORABLE CONCERT
“The Doyle and Debbie Show. It’s a Spinal Tap-like
satire of country music, an over-the-hill duo and
the industry. Brilliant and hilarious.”Zia Modabber
Managing partner, Katten Muchin
Rosenman
LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL
The client list for Modabber, 57, speaks for
itself: Stevie Wonder, Trent Reznor, Live Nation,
The Recording Academy, Sony Music and the
estate of Michael Jackson, among others. But he
declines to discuss his deals or accomplishments.
“Clients insist I don’t talk about them,” he says.
“You’ll find very little of me talking publicly in my
30-year career.”
FREE LEGAL ADVICE
“Be a brilliant artist, but never hand over the
business of your career and check out. You
need to stay engaged with your team and
professional advisers.”Donald Passman
Partner, Gang Tyre Ramer Brown &
Passman
HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
Negotiating Taylor Swift’s new worldwide deal
with Universal Music Group — with UMG’s
Republic Records as her U.S. partner — was a top
achievement for Passman, but don’t expect him
to discuss that November pact or his work for his
other A-list clients, including Adele, P!nk, Camila
Cabello, Stevie Wonder, Heart and Paul Simon.
Somehow, he’s also finding time to update his
must-have industry primer, All You Need to Know
About the Music Business, which will reflect the
growth of the digital sector.
PRESSING ISSUE
“The move to streaming has been the most
profound change in the history of the music
business. Since the days of wax cylinders and
piano rolls, music was monetized by selling
something [physical], and that’s no longer
true. It’s a radical shift in the economic model
and in terms of the way that music is marketed
and positioned.”Michael Poster
Partner, head of corporate and securities
group; Michelman & Robinson
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Poster, 47, a self-described “recovering
guitarist,” works to ensure “there’s a music
eye on the corporate side” of the complex
financial transactions he oversees, he says. “I’veChristine Lepera
Partner, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp
NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL
Representing producer Dr. Luke (aka Lukasz
Gottwald), Lepera last year defeated Kesha’s
attempt to invalidate her recording contract with
Gottwald’s Kemosabe Records on appeal, after
her claims were dismissed in 2017. “It’s always
good to win twice,” says Lepera, whose clients
also have included Jay-Z, Drake, Timbaland and
MAC Presents founder Marcie Allen. Gottwald
won a ruling in August 2018 that unsealed
communications between Kesha’s legal and
public relations teams.
RECENT MEMORABLE CONCERT
“The Who at Madison Square Garden. Roger
Daltrey yelled at everyone in the first row because
they were smoking pot and ruining his voice. It
was hysterical.”
Angela Martínez
Founder/owner, Law Offices of Angela N.
Martínez
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW
Martínez, 42, worked with longtime client
Ozuna to negotiate a worldwide publishing
administration deal with Kobalt, the distribution
of his chart-topping albums Aura and Odisea
through The Orchard, a touring agreement with
Elite Media & Marketing and an endorsement
deal with Adidas for Latin America. She also
represents Alexis y Fido, Mike Bahía, Greeicy,
Ricardo Montaner and Mau y Ricky.
PRESSING ISSUE
“Fair and transparent accounting statements,”
says Martínez, “so that artists are aware of their
current financial standings with [their] record
label, music publishing [and] neighboring rights
collection agencies.”
Mike Milom
Partner, Milom Horsnell Crow Kelley
Beckett Shehan
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Milom estimates he negotiated deals in the past
year that will generate “several hundred million
dollars” for his impressive roster of country
superstars, including Luke Bryan, Alabama,
Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Emmylou Harris,
Hank Williams Jr. and Kelsea Ballerini (who
recently stepped up to arena headliner).
“Big public deals receive well-deserved
attention,” he says, “but representing our clients
expertly in the negotiation of the multitude of
seemingly routine and mundane deals is what
sustains our clients’ careers.”
represented lenders in over $250 million in credit
facilities to the music publishing industry in the
last year alone.” For clients Concord Music Group,
Spirit Music Group, City National Bank and
others, he aims “to be a true collaborator. That’s
what makes a good transactional lawyer — you
need to understand how clients run their business
and strategize together.”Berkeley Reinhold
President, Business and Law Office of
Berkeley Reinhold
WHITTIER LAW SCHOOL
As the longtime general counsel for Lollapalooza,
Reinhold negotiated the expansion of the festival
into Stockholm, its sixth territory, and also served as
lead counsel brokering deals for the festival debuts
of Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water in
Virginia Beach, Va., in April and Allen Sanford’s
Beachlife Festival in Redondo Beach, Calif., in May.
Reinhold spent two days in a Miami hotel room
closing Marc Anthony’s $160 million touring deal
with CMN, the dominant Latin promotion company
led by Henry Cárdenas. “Anthony’s company said
we’re not leaving until all terms agreed,” she recalls.
“We unlocked the door and had a deal.”
DEAL POINT SHE WOULD LIKE TO SEE
“This contract must be reviewed, distributed and
signed electronically. Save paper.”Paul Rothenberg
Partner/co-founder, Rothenberg Mohr &
Binder
COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL
In March, Rothenberg’s longtime client Logic
published the novel Supermarket (the first rapper
to top the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction
bestsellers list), as well as releasing a soundtrack
to the novel and the album Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind. (Confessions reached No. 1 on
the Billboard 200.) “There was so much going on,”
says Rothenberg, 50, who oversaw new publishing
and merchandising deals for Logic. His clients
also include Charlie Puth, A$AP Ferg, Trey Songz
and D’Angelo, while his firm has expanded to eight
lawyers in New York, Miami and Los Angeles.
DEAL POINT HE WOULD LIKE TO SEE
“The death of the 360 provision [giving labels
claim to multiple artist-revenue streams]. The
rationale for it is much weaker today because
[labels are] making a lot more money.”Rose Schwartz
Partner, Franklin Weinrib Rudell & Vassallo
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAWKenneth Weinrib
Partner, Franklin Weinrib Rudell & Vassallo
BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW
As counsel for New York’s Metropolitan Opera,
Schwartz negotiated the deals behind the ongoing
success of The Met: Live in HD, the high-definition
video satellite feed to movie theaters in over
70 countries. The program has sold 26 million
tickets worldwide since it was launched in 2006.
Schwartz also has been an adjunct professor at
New York University Law, her alma mater, for 34
years. Weinrib, with a practice that encompasses
music, theater, film and TV, has closed deals in the
past 12 months for Idina Menzel, Harry Connick Jr.,
Joshua Henry and Macaulay Culkin.
RECENT MEMORABLE CONCERT
WEINRIB “Henry Threadgill at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C. He’s a [National
Endowment for the Arts] Jazz Master and the
winner of the Pulitzer in composition — and
quite wonderful.”SchwartzWeinribReinholdUNIVERSITY OF Rothenberg
SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA GOULD
SCHOOL OF LAW
Los Angeles
Enrollment 614THE BEST THING ABOUT MY
LAW SCHOOL WAS
“The entertainment concentration,
which includes the business
and cinematic arts schools.”
Robert Windom
AppleUNIVERSITY OF
TENNESSEE COLLEGE
OF LAW
Knoxville, Tenn.
Enrollment 360THE BEST THING ABOUT MY
LAW SCHOOL WAS
“I helped to recruit Joel Katz to
give some of his mounds of
money for the new law library,
which is now named after him.”
Derek Crownover
Dickinson WrightYALE LAW SCHOOL
Yale University
New Haven, Conn.
Enrollment 666
THE BEST THING ABOUT MY
LAW SCHOOL WAS
“The best thing was actually
going back and teaching at
Yale Law. It’s just full of
extremely thoughtful,
interesting people.”
Jacqueline Charlesworth
Alter Kendrick & BaronTop Music Law Schools
ModabberPassmanPosterLeperaMartínezMilom