Butler Snow’s Entertainment and Media Industry attorneys offer clients an interdisciplinary team of litigators, transactional attorneys, tax, and employment lawyers providing services to all segments of the entertainment, media and sports industries. We represent both established and emerging companies and talent.
Our litigators have decades of experience in handling high-stakes copyright and media disputes, as well as trademark and other intellectual property-based matters. Our transactional attorneys are recognized for their expertise in complex transactions.
We work across media, representing clients in music, motion pictures, television, radio, theater, other live entertainment, media, magazine and book publishing, sports, and arts and images. Our team handles First Amendment issues related to free speech, censorship and defamation. We also work with clients in developing relationships and securing agreements to exploit their creative works, providing innovative solutions through a variety of platforms.
The team’s areas of concentration include:
- Litigation involving intellectual property, contractual and business tort disputes and other issues concerning the entertainment, media and sports industries
- Agreements related to license, sale and distribution of intellectual property rights
- Acquisitions and dispositions of television catalogs
- Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances
- Motion picture tax incentives
- Digital content distribution and licensing
- Intellectual property counseling, protection and enforcement
- Talent agreements
- Labor and employment issues
- Tax counseling for high net-worth individuals
- First Amendment issues
- Piracy issues concerning audio-visual media
Our team shares your creative passion. Butler Snow attorneys have authored books, directed and produced documentaries, films and music videos, performed in bands and orchestras, and played for collegiate and professional sports teams. We understand the creative journey and seek to be a part of your team to accomplish your goals.
Highlights
- “We had a great experience working with Anita and her team at Butler Snow. They were readily available and skillfully covered both the minutiae of production legal as well as the larger, less predictable issues that inevitably arose. Additionally, they are kind, reasonable people and it was just a pleasure to work with them.” – Jana Edelbaum & Rachel Cohen, Producers, “Strange Weather”
- “Working with Anita (and the entire Butler Snow Team) on our debut feature has been an absolute joy. Not only are they efficient, but involved, attentive and personable! We look forward to any and all future opportunities to work with them!” – Filmmakers Suzanne Coote and Matt Angel, “Open House”
- “The work of Anita Modak-Truran of Butler Snow was invaluable to me as I was setting up an agency for the purpose of bringing an internationally-known pipe organ recitalist on tour in the U.S. Having no knowledge of the quite varying regulations of the individual states, I was greatly aided by the work of Ms. Modak-Truran. She and her team were able to give me all needed information for every state in the U.S. Armed with this, I was able to bring my artist-client over for a successful tour in 2015 and shall do so again in 2016 and 2017, confident that I have met all of the legal requirements.” – William Wymond, The William Wymond Agency, LLC
- “Butler Snow’s Entertainment and Media Group believes in making their client’s life easier. It’s more than a client first philosophy. These lawyers want you to succeed and apply a team approach and the firm’s resources to help you get the best results, whether it is finding different ways to generate revenue streams for a film or a television show or getting the winning results at trial. Butler Snow lawyers understand the intricacies of the entertainment business and are able to navigate their clients in transactional, intellectual property, litigation and other needs. They also help clients with their networking and introduce their clients to like-minded clients who face similar issues. These are creative lawyers who share my passion. That’s why I want them on my legal team.” – Lee Caplin, Chairman and CEO of Picture Entertainment Corp., Executive Producer of “Ali” starring Will Smith and Co-Producer of HBO’s “True Detective”
