68 BILLBOARD | AUGUST 24 , 2 019
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.BACKSTAGE PASS / Top Music Lawyers 2019
for passage of the European Union’s Copyright
Directive. “There’s a 24-month clock ticking now
for national legislation to implement the directive,”
says Logan, who sits on IFPI’s board and legal
committee. “Hopefully it paves the way to a fairer
music licensing environment.” Tappe, 52, is
focused on WMG’s capital structure and favorable
terms for debt refinancing, which has allowed the
company to save millions of dollars. “The business
is viewed very favorably,” he says. “We’ve done three
large bond deals.” Maness led the development of
anti-harassment classes, training 2,000 people in
a 12-month period. “We made them very specific to
the music industry,” she says. “The sessions led to
some really rich conversations.”
FREE LEGAL ADVICE
MANESS “Trust your instincts, and network
like crazy.”
LIVE
Michael Rowles
Executive vp/general counsel, Live Nation
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF LAW
In response to the 2018 passage of the California
Consumer Privacy Act, which regulates commercial
use of personal data (like similar EU legislation),
Rowles’ focus during the past year has been
securing the privacy of Live Nation’s 100 million-
plus customers. Alongside chief privacy officer
Hannah Mason, he has beefed up the promoter’s
data privacy team to eight full-time staff. “In
today’s world, data privacy and cyber security are
so important,” says Rowles, 53. “It is a big priority
for any company, but with a company like Live
Nation or Ticketmaster that has so much data at its
disposal, it’s huge.”
Shawn Trell
COO/general counsel, AEG Presents
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER
In April, Trell, 52, helped close the deal for AEG
Presents to acquire 50% of Australia’s Frontier
Touring, following a multiyear negotiation. Led
by co-founder Michael Gudinski, Frontier ranked
as the world’s third-largest promoter for 2018,
according to Billboard Boxscore. “Not unlike a
lot of longtime independent promoters, [Frontier
was] reticent to take that next step and align with
one of the bigger players in the industry,” says
Trell. “But as I always remind people, we’re also an
independent promoter. We’re just the largest one.”
RECENT MEMORABLE CONCERT
“The Elton John farewell shows at Staples Center.
He is a very rare breed, if not one-of-a-kind
entertainer, songwriter, performer, singer, musician.
I am glad we’re associated with that tour.”
MUSIC
PUBLISHING
Danielle Aguirre
Executive vp/general counsel, National
Music Publishers’ Association
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW SCHOOL
After gaining the support of tech firms and
streaming services as a lead negotiator for the
Music Modernization Act, Aguirre, 41, went back
into battle against those very same companies
when they appealed the Copyright Royalty Board’s
decision to increase royalty rates for songwriters
and publishers. “We’ve gone from working
alongside streaming services for the Music
Modernization Act to fighting them,” she says. “It’s
disappointing.” As the NMPA guided
the creation of the Music Licensing Collective
under the terms of the MMA, Aguirre also has
overseen a $150 million suit against Peloton for
unlicensed use of videos by numerous superstar
artists and writers.
Peter Brodsky
Executive vp business and legal affairs,
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL
Brodsky, 56, led the team responsible for
closing the $2.2 billion deal through which Sony
Corp. acquired the 60% share in EMI Music
Publishing that it didn’t already own from a
consortium led by the Mubadala Investment
Company. He made several appearances in front
of the European Commission, where the purchase
“was approved unconditionally,” he says, “the best
result you can get.”
DEAL POINT HE WOULD LIKE TO SEE
“With respect to our contracts with digital
services, especially ones that have platforms
that allow for user-uploaded content, I would
like to see takedown/stay-down provisions.
Once we take something down, it actually stays
down. I’d also like to see the services take more
responsibility for the content that’s uploaded
onto their sites.”
David Kokakis
Chief counsel, Universal Music Publishing
Group
SETON HALL LAW SCHOOL
Michael Petersen
Senior vp business and legal affairs,
Universal Music Publishing Group
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES,
SCHOOL OF LAW
Kokakis serves as chief counsel of UMPG but
also works closely with Universal Music Group
labels to maximize digital revenue for publishing
and recorded music. Deals he has worked on
helped UMPG pass the $1 billion revenue mark
for the first time last year. Yet, he says his biggest
accomplishment is building “the best legal affairs
team. They are passionate, dedicated, tough and
thoughtful.” As a member of that team, Petersen,
57, has been involved in some of UMPG’s biggest
signings of the last 18 months, negotiating the
agreements that brought Bruce Springsteen,
Billy Joel, Maroon 5, Jon Bon Jovi, Justin
Timberlake, Paul Simon and the estate of Glenn
Frey, among others, to the publisher’s roster.
RECENT MEMORABLE CONCERT
KOKAKIS “A string quartet in a small church in
Paris. It was one of the most moving experiences I
have ever had with a live concert.”
Scott McDowell
Executive vp/head of legal and business
affairs, Warner Chappell Music
CHICAGO-KENT COLLEGE OF LAW
With Guy Moot and Carianne Marshall tapped
to lead Warner Chappell in the past year, “I’m
most proud of my team for managing that
transition with aplomb,” says McDowell. He
notes the publishing company has “something
like 60,000 to 70,000 clients, and my team has
developed relationships throughout that client
base and the marketplace.” McDowell and his
colleagues work to maintain the strength of
those relationships “so senior management can
transition and get established.”
FREE LEGAL ADVICE
“Warner Chappell always has tried to be writer-
friendly. We don’t usually have knock-down,
drag-out battles over particular deal points.
For the most part, we get what we want and give
what the other side wants in order to get the
deal closed.”
PERFORMING
RIGHTS
Clara Kim
Executive vp/general counsel, business
and legal affairs; ASCAP
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Kim was instrumental in negotiating the passage
of the Music Modernization Act last year. “I’m
gratified I was able to play a leadership role,”
she says. At ASCAP, Kim oversees deals and
enforcement of contracts that generated more
than $1 billion in royalties in 2018. Her team
has negotiated music licensing agreements
with all the major streaming services and major
media companies. And she’s driving ASCAP’s
discussions with the Department of Justice over
reform of the consent decree that has inserted
the government into music licensing since 1941.
DEAL POINT SHE WOULD LIKE TO SEE
“Every composer and songwriter [should retain]
the right to collect their writers’ share of public
performance royalties from the performing rights
organization of their choice. For many decades,
this has been the industry norm. However, in the
past several years, streaming companies and
broadcasters have been demanding ‘buyouts’
that deprive composers and songwriters of the
royalties on which they have always relied.”
Brodsky
Kokakis
McDowell
Petersen
Kim
Brodsky (right) with
Ed Sheeran in 2017.
Rowles
Trell
Aguirre