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The art, sports, and entertainment industries have fast-paced, unique, and sophisticated legal needs. You need a highly informed and experienced legal team with connections to these industries to guide you with the special issues these industries present. With extensive experience in commercial transactions, litigation, employment, intellectual property, and emerging technologies, and as one of the few firms with an established blockchain technology practice, we can advise you on all the legal issues that arise in the art, sports, and entertainment industries.

Art Law: Protecting Investments, Businesses, and Creativity

We understand creatives and speak their language. Our firm has a long history of supporting the arts and we pride ourselves on our involvement in the local art community. Our attorneys sit on governing boards and act as outside general counsel for non-profit arts organizations, teach art law courses at universities, and consult and present on art law topics throughout the country and world.

Our firm advises a wide range of clients in the arts, including buyers, dealers, artists, collectors, private wealth professionals, investors, donors, institutions, galleries, art advisors, museums, auction companies, and other arts-related businesses and organizations. Our practice focuses on more than legal issues in the visual arts realm; we assist performing arts organizations, dance companies, film professionals, and authors.

The sale, donation, and inheritance of art can generate a host of legal issues. We regularly advise clients on issues related to authenticity, provenance, consignment agreements, forgeries, fraud, tax compliance, theft and damage claims, money laundering, loan and donation agreements, and inheritance disputes. Our team also understands the importance of confidentiality and endeavor to discretely resolve these types of matters.

We counsel our gallery and art advisory clients on all legal needs that arise in the industry, from helping new gallerists open their first gallery to counseling established galleries regarding exhibition, consignment, and artist representations agreements.

Our team also works with artists and arts-organizations to protect their intellectual property. We assist with copyright protection and registration, licensing and commission agreements, NFT creation and licensing, consignment and gallery representation agreements, preventing and halting copyright infringement, and take down requests. We understand artists face many legal issues that may be intimidating to navigate and resolve, but we are here to help. Protecting creativity is of utmost importance to our attorneys.

Sports Law: Your Legal Needs Align with Our Experience and Strategies

The sports industry is constantly growing as new projects, developments, and innovations increase the industry’s intersection with national and local communities and businesses.   Trends like the rise of sports gambling and athletes’ embrace of innovative blockchain technology through cryptocurrencies and NFTs continue to blaze new ground. Disputes within the business of sports frequently arise. With so much at stake, you’ll need talented counsel that you can count on. That’s where we come in.

Sports law touches on almost every legal specialty, including litigation, commercial transactions, intellectual property, real estate, employment, estate planning, and business law. Serving as a multidisciplinary group across many areas, our lawyers capably counsel individuals, teams, leagues, businesses, associations, and governmental entities in a myriad of issues stemming from professional and amateur sports.

Our team adeptly handles both traditional and cutting-edge matters. From contract disputes to virtual tokens to data privacy concerns, our talent and depth of knowledge makes us uniquely qualified to help advance your goals and advise you on legal issues that arise in the sports industry. 

Entertainment Law: Helping You Navigate this Dynamic Industry

The rise of ubiquitous entertainment has ushered in questions, complexities, conflicts, and legal challenges requiring shrewd legal counsel. Whatever capacity you operate in within the world of entertainment, film, reality television, gaming, music, or media, we can help you resolve the issues and problems that come your way. With years of experience assisting film producers, reality television personalities, gaming companies, musicians, actors, and entertainers, we can adroitly handle a host of matters within the entertainment industry. Our attorneys regularly advise on matters related to distribution, production, infringements, trademarks, copyrights, licensing, copyright clearances, works made for hire, endorsements, sponsorships, transactions, financings, contractual and employment issues, publicity disputes, likeness approvals, and patent and intellectual property cases.

How We Work: Tackling Problems, Pursuing Projects

Whether you’re facing disputes, pursuing deals, establishing commercial ventures, seeking to maximize your business’s performance, or struggling with a novel issue, you need a customized approach. Using a personal touch, our team will capably address your circumstances in strategic and practical ways.

As advisors you can count on, we’ll talk to you in depth about your concerns and aspirations and match you with the right lawyer or lawyers for the situation — appropriately staffing your case or matter in the most efficient way possible. From there, we’ll figure out how to best use this focused collaboration to tackle problems or pursue projects. Because we believe that strong relationships are crucial to building successful outcomes, we’ll get to know you and your business well so we can best work with you to achieve your objectives. Our team regularly embraces creative strategies and finds innovative ways to get clients where they need to be.

Primary Contacts

Areas of Focus

  • Litigation
  • Virtual Tokens and Blockchain Technology including NFTs and digital assets
  • Transactions
  • Business formation, development, dissolution, and disputes
  • Contracts
  • Intellectual property (copyright, trademark, and patent)
  • Licensing
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Employment issues
  • Trusts, estates, probate

Significant Matters

Art Law

  • Represented art collector in fraud lawsuit against an auction company who sold the collector approximately 83 forged artworks. Achieved a settlement resulting in a return of collector’s full investment.
  • Represented estate in a repatriation matter involving Incan antiquities. Achieved favorable results allowing the estate to sell the antiquities.
  • Represented art collector against an auction company who mispresented the condition of a painting. Achieved a settlement resulting in a return of collector’s full purchase price paid.
  • Represented an artist against a major prime time talk show for copyright infringement of a painting. Achieved favorable license terms and fees for artist.
  • Represented art advisors in many public and private projects for the procurement and curation of art collections. Achieved favorable contract terms for the art advisors.
  • Represented world-class art fair in the creation of an e-commerce site and protecting their brand.
  • Represented numerous emerging and successful artists in negotiating commission agreements, licensing agreements, and gallery representation agreements.
  • Represented various galleries in negotiating exhibition agreements and artist representation agreements.

Sports Law

  • Represented sports event producer, and its related entities, in all aspects of their businesses including without limitation negotiating numerous deals with the NBA, NFL, MLB, and PGA including multiple media contracts.
  • Represented collegiate sports marketing group.
  • Represented internet company in IP and licensing matters.
  • Represented sports marketing firm in all of their endeavors including sponsorship negotiations, event production, corporate, M&A and general contracts.
  • Represented client in their bid efforts associated with Soccer World Cup.
  • Represented a sports event and sponsorship company.
  • Represented a high-end golf agency.
  • Represented numerous companies in their sports sponsorship, intellectual property and event endeavors.

Entertainment Law

  • Represented world-renown dance company in commission, work for hire, and licensing agreements. Achieved favorable terms for dance company.
  • Defended famous voice actors from bad faith defamation lawsuit brought by another famous voice actor who sexually harassed them. Achieved full dismissal of the bad faith lawsuit and received sanctions against the plaintiff.
  • Represented reality television personality in defamation lawsuit.
  • Represented author in the sale of script to production company.
  • Represented boardgame company in securing music license agreements and copyright clearances.
  • Represented music venue in securing trademarks and brand protecting.
  • Represented producer in acquiring life rights’ agreement for documentary.