Entertainment and Media

Overview

Our team of dedicated entertainment lawyers help clients find the right strategic partners, creatively structure deals, maintain ownership, and protect their rights across all entertainment and social media platforms. We understand the drivers in the entertainment law landscape and the unique factors that propel your business forward, since we represent talent, management, consumer companies, and advertising agencies that work at the intersection of talent and brand.

We work with clients ranging from emerging social media influencers on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok who need to protect and monetize their brands, to established superstar talent and estates, handling all aspects of traditional entertainment issues related to TV, film, live theater, book publishing, and music. We also represent both start-up and established consumer companies, advising on campaigns and talent engagement. Prior to joining Nixon Peabody, several of our attorneys served as in-house counsel as well as in non-legal roles in entertainment, offering our clients unparalleled industry insight and knowledge. This enables us to provide our clients with exceptional guidance tailored to the ever-evolving landscape of media and entertainment law. 

Representative Experience

• Counsel consumer brands on protecting and enforcing trademarks and copyrights, as well as negotiating collaboration agreements and global licensing deals with celebrity talent, athletes, and social media influencers
• Advise social media personalities, including some of the most-followed and highest-earning content creators on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, in connection with protecting and monetizing their intellectual property
• World’s leading concert promoters, talent agencies, music venues, festivals, and live streaming platforms in connection with negotiating tour sponsorship and endorsement agreements
• Top recording artists, music producers, and songwriters in connection with negotiating recording agreements, distribution agreements, publishing agreements, and catalog sales
• Actors and models in negotiating endorsement and licensing agreements with consumer brands, joint ventures, manufacturing, and distribution agreements for new product line launches, and negotiating publishing agreements and deals for television and film roles
• Professional athletes in negotiating a variety of agreements, including endorsement agreements, appearance agreements, and joint ventures and licensing agreements
• Advise award-winning advertising agencies on all aspects of their business including negotiating Master Services Agreements (MSA) and scopes of work (SOW) with their clients, engaging third-party vendors, IP clearance, employment, and litigation matters
• TV and film producers, writers, and directors in negotiating production services agreements, option agreements, and handling production legal for unscripted and scripted television, documentary, and feature projects

Recognition

• Recognized in Variety’s Dealmakers Impact Report since 2022