JMBM's lawyers understand both the law and the business of entertainment. We have built a reputation as industry leaders by providing top-quality service to leading multinational entertainment and media companies, the independent producers and artists who drive the creative process, and the investors who help turn concepts into reality.

Our innovation and skill at advising them matches the high standards they expect and reflects our lawyers’ years of personal industry experience. That is why our clients include: 

• Institutional financiers of motion pictures and television programs 
• Actors, directors, screenwriters, authors, recording artists, composers and music producers 
• Completion guarantors insuring on-time and on-budget production 
• Senior executives in publicly and privately held entertainment and media companies 
• Multi-lingual radio and television station groups 
• Independent producers and production companies 
• Computer and video game developers and distributors 
• Advertising and public relations firms, talent agencies and personal and business managers

Whether the issue is a contract or licensing dispute, a nine-figure syndicated financing, or wealth and tax planning services, JMBM has the capabilities that get results for entertainment-industry clients.

Our team of lawyers includes a former EVP of Business and Legal Affairs for the motion picture group of one of the world’s largest studios, one of California’s Top 10 entertainment intellectual property (IP) litigators as named by California’s largest legal news provider, and a founding member of the UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium, and a Hollywood Reporter “Power Lawyer” – one of the top 100 most influential attorneys in the entertainment industry. We know entertainment law because we have a personal familiarity with how the industry, its artists, executives and investors operate.

Our lawyers represent lenders, borrowers and investors in the U.S. and in the major capital markets throughout the world, as well as other providers and users of capital in the entertainment industry.

We negotiate and document loans for particular projects as well as complex overall credit lines. In the past several years, we negotiated and documented more than $1 billion of motion picture production financing through project, asset and receivables-based structured transactions, as well as foreign and domestic tax credit and sale/leaseback arrangements. That includes everything from negotiating a production financing facility for an $85 million independent motion picture starring multiple Academy Award® winning actors, to representing a major independent production company in more than $500 million in syndicated and project financings.

Our transactional work for the industry includes more than financing. We regularly draft and negotiate agreements relating to the distribution, sale and acquisition of motion pictures and other entertainment content. That includes acquiring, licensing and selling film and television libraries containing thousands of titles. Clients also rely on us to structure motion picture, television, videogame and recording royalty participations. Finally, members of our team have supervised numerous audits of studio records on behalf of film and television revenue participants.

JMBM lawyers have resolved legal issues involved in the production of some of the most critically and financially successful motion pictures, television series, record albums and songs in the history of the entertainment industry. They have included projects for which our clients received Academy Award® and Emmy® recognition, as well as various international awards.

Often these production arrangements involve complex corporate matters, such as our representation of Academy Award®-winning producers and production companies in connection with licensing domestic distribution rights in proposed films to major distributors, in return for a substantial advance against the budget and a back-end participation, all while retaining foreign rights. We also represented:

• A “first dollar gross” actor in negotiating three different actor/producer agreements for pictures with combined world-wide box office grosses exceeding $1.2 billion 
• A “first dollar gross” director in negotiating a motion picture project that required requiring accommodation of several gross and adjusted gross participants

Just as frequently, our work on the production-side of the business involves resolving complex disputes over ownership and financing arrangements. In one example, we represented the producers of an Academy Award®-winning major motion picture in a dispute with their former partner over the operations and profits of their production company.

Our lawyers represent the interests of actors, directors, producers and writers in all types of talent agreements. The firm’s clients include Academy Award®, Emmy® and Grammy® winners and nominees, as well as newcomers to the business. In dealing with these clients, we understand that their true passion is for creating art, not tending to business details. Often we need to balance a client’s immediate desire to record an album, publish a book or sell a screenplay with the long-term benefits that such talent creates.

Our lawyers take the time to understand the career goals and objectives of creative artists, and use our negotiating skills to ensure that their efforts are properly compensated and protected.

This includes ensuring that the IP embodied by our clients’ artistic expression is properly protected, and that this protection is enforced against infringement and other violations. In that regard, JMBM lawyers have represented: 

• A well-known songwriter/recording artist in a successful lawsuit to terminate a music publishing agreement
• The popular recording group, The Eagles, in enjoining the release of an unauthorized “greatest hits” album 
• A multi-million dollar writer in the negotiation of an agreement to adapt a best-selling book to the screen 
• An award-winning television journalist whose IP rights were infringed by the use of his voice-over and video images in a movie about the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan without proper clearances and attribution credit 
• An Academy Award® and Golden Globe-nominated film star in his action against the production company of a major motion picture for breach of an oral agreement regarding the use of his services

Our litigators have a proven track record representing clients in important and high-profile entertainment, media and IP cases. We are skilled inside and outside the courtroom, and combine tenacious trial skills with the ability to resolve disputes without litigation or publicity.

We serve our clients with a total commitment to excellence and skill at resolving disputes over contracts, copyrights, First Amendment issues, infringement, monetary issues, personal injury and torts such as fraud.

Our experience in entertainment and media cases crosses a wide range of matters in film, music, publishing and television, as well as artist management and agency issues. We have litigated cases for plaintiffs and defendants surrounding copyright, defamation, publicity rights and trademark matters, in addition to disputes involving allegations of breaches of contract and fiduciary duties.

Just a sampling of these matters illustrates the range of our capabilities. For example, JMBM litigators: 

• Defended both studio and production company executives against the breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty claims asserted by an actor over a horror movie and its sequels 
• Represented the executrix and estate of a television writer in an action brought by his former talent agency for commissions from an award-winning, long-running television series 
• Defended a production company accused of breaching the contract of a supposed producer of a television program based on a beauty pageant
• Defended the age discrimination claims of a long-term employee of a motion picture production company
• Defended a television network against claims of trademark infringement over the use of a name for a fictitious airline in an episode of a most popular television series 
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of a television network and motion picture studio on claims by a television writer who sought the theatrical motion picture rights to a 1960s television series under the “separated rights” provisions of a collective bargaining agreement

We also represent entertainment industry artists and executives in confidential matters such as tax, trusts and estate planning, wealth management and personal staff/employment concerns. In addition to leading entertainment industry talent, we often advise leading figures from the worlds of sports and the media.

JMBM has special capabilities in entertainment-related personal services controversies over royalties, contracts and commissions. Every client can rely on our absolute personal commitment to confidentiality, and a majority of our work comes to us from personal recommendations and referrals by current clients.