BACKSTAGE PASS / Top Music Lawyers 2019
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.Paul Schindler
Senior chair, New York entertainment and
media practice; Greenberg Traurig
BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL
The rise earlier this year of Jon Platt to
chairman/CEO of Sony/ATV followed a contract
negotiation by Atlanta-based Katz, 75, whose
clients include multiple C-suite executives
as well as such artists as Willie Nelson, Tim
McGraw & Faith Hill, George Strait and Jimmy
Buffett. With Katz, Rosenbloum, 50, negotiated
the recent 10-year extension of the Latin Grammy
Awards partnership with Univision worth a
reported $250 million. Rosenbloum’s team of
10 also oversees “the largest global digital music
practice in the world,” he says, with over 100
clients in the sector. Rosen negotiated Lady
Antebellum’s move to Big Machine Records
and cheered longtime client Kacey Musgraves’
Grammy victories. Cooper has made deals for
superstars and blockbuster projects in just
about every corner of the entertainment
industry, recently working for Katy Perry and
Sheryl Crow, and negotiating on behalf of
composer John Williams for the forthcoming
Star Wars: Episode IX. Schindler hashes out the
details for one-of-a-kind events, such as Billy
Joel’s July performance at Baltimore’s Oriole Park
at Camden Yards, the first concert ever staged
at the ballpark.
Derek Crownover
Equity partner/international
entertainment, media and sports practice
group leader; Dickinson Wright
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE COLLEGE OF LAW
Noah McPike
Of counsel, Dickinson Wright
UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE FRANKLIN
PIERCE SCHOOL OF LAW
“Today, there are at least 20 different routes to
success in the music business — before, there
were three,” says veteran Nashville attorney
Crownover, 52, who with McPike, 37, counts
Jason Aldean, Luke Combs and Kane Brown
among Dickinson Wright’s many clients. From
the firm’s Music Row office, “we’ve also led
three of the largest catalog sales in the history
of Nashville music publishing in the last 18
months, totaling almost $70 million in value,”
adds Crownover (though he declines to identify
the clients involved). Of Combs’ and Brown’s
success, McPike says, “They’ve been on a page
that’s almost unheard of for younger country
artists these days.”
RECENT MEMORABLE CONCERT
McPIKE “Van Morrison. Hands down one of the
best performers I’ve seen.”
Doug Davis
Founder/principal, The Davis Firm
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Davis, 47, negotiated executive contracts for
Ryan Press as president of U.S. A&R for Warner
Chappell and for DJ Mormile as executive vp
West Coast for Def Jam and also brokered Dionne
Warwick’s Las Vegas residency. Last fall, Davis
executive-produced American Dreamers: Voices
of Hope, Music of Freedom, a Grammy-winning
jazz album that featured 53 musicians who
benefited from the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program. “Finding a way to use clients
and their resources to further causes was so
rewarding,” he says.
Ilene Farkas
Partner, Pryor Cashman
FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
James Sammataro
Partner, Pryor Cashman
DUKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Donald Zakarin
Partner, Pryor Cashman
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
“We have been at the forefront of the protection
of writers and publishers,” says Zakarin,
69, whose firm represented publishers and
songwriters in the successful Copyright Royalty
Board action to raise mechanical royalty rates
for interactive streaming. The firm also helped
assemble the industry consensus group that
has formed the Mechanical Licensing Collective
under the Music Modernization Act. For clients
Ed Sheeran and Roc Nation, Farkas, 51, mounted
a defense against copyright infringement suits
involving the singles “Thinking Out Loud” and
“All the Way Up,” respectively. Sammataro, 46,
reports he “netted impressive results for Enrique
Iglesias in a royalty dispute [and] success
in copyright infringement actions for Sony
Music Entertainment, Spotify, The Orchard,
Shazam, Amazon, Deezer and Spanish
Broadcasting System.”
Sid Fohrman
Partner, Sheppard Mullin Richter &
Hampton
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Since joining Sheppard Mullin last year to
lead its music industry team, Fohrman, 47, has
closed deals that have generated more than
$100 million in revenue, with clients including
Spirit Music Group, Lakeshore Entertainment
and Warner Music Group. “I’m incredibly proud
of the team of lawyers we’ve assembled and the
value we’ve been able to provide our clients in
helping them navigate the music space,” he says.
Leslie Frank
Partner, King Holmes Paterno & Soriano
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS, SCHOOL
OF LAW
Henry Gradstein
Partner, King Holmes Paterno & Soriano
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GOULD
SCHOOL OF LAW
Howard King
Managing partner, King Holmes Paterno
& Soriano
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES,
SCHOOL OF LAW
Peter Paterno
Partner, King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano
UCLA SCHOOL OF LAW
Laurie Soriano
Partner, King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano
UC DAVIS SCHOOL OF LAW
Before the Music Modernization Act ensured
that songwriters would get paid by streaming
services (and ensured that songwriters
would no longer sue streaming services),
Gradstein, 63, filed a class action against
Spotify. In May 2018, “we settled it for roughly
$100 million,” he says. “That money will be paid
out to songwriters and not-large publishing
companies.” The window for claims opened in
May. King brought an end to the multiyear legal
dispute between Lil Wayne and Cash Money
Records; helped secure “a fairly life-changing
amount of money” for Wayne, he says; and
cleared the way for the release of the artist’s
fourth No. 1 album, Tha Carter V, in October
- Says Soriano: “It has been a busy year
for my clients,” with Travis Scott, twenty one
pilots and rapper NF releasing new albums, and
Karen O collaborating with Danger Mouse on
Lux Prima. Soriano also works with Jane Petty
to protect her ownership rights to songs and
recordings created (through 1996) by her late
ex-husband, Tom Petty. Frank has brought legal
guidance to hitmaking collaborations: Zedd,
Maren Morris and Grey’s “The Middle”; Skrillex
and Poo Bear’s “Would You Ever”; and BTS’
“Waste It on Me” featuring Steve Aoki. She also
advises Metallica and negotiated Skrillex’s Las
Vegas residency. Paterno, 67, helped Pharrell
Williams and his team launch the Something
in the Water festival and reps Game of Thrones
composer Ramin Djawadi. Paterno offers
perspective on high-priced music publishing
catalog deals in the streaming age: “If you’ve
got 100 million [streaming service] subscribers
today and you buy a catalog at some crazy
20-multiple [of its valuation], and in three years
there are 300 million [streaming] subscribers,
all of a sudden [a high price] doesn’t look so
crazy anymore.”
Fohrman
Frank
Gradstein
King
Paterno
Soriano
Davis (right)
with singer
Kandi Burruss
in 2017.
Crownover
McPike
Davis
Farkas
Sammataro
Zakarin
Schindler