As detailed in a Advertising sign Featured this week, entertainment attorney John Branca represents many of pop music's biggest legacy artists — most famously, the Michael Jackson estate, of which he is co-executor. But Branca is not a lone wolf. His partners in Ziffren Brittenham's music department — David Byrnes, David Lande, Mitch Tenzer and Kelly Vallon — comprise, he says, “the most important contemporary music practice of any law firm in the world.” Certainly, along with Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, and Taylor Swift attorney Donald S. Passman's firm, Gang Tire Ramer, it is one of the top law firms for the music industry.
Lande primarily represents Selena Gomez, Pharrell Williams, SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, Rosalía and Justin Timberlake (when asked if Timberlake called him after his recent DUI arrest, Lande says, “No, I called him”) and Byrnes' major clients include Travis Scott, Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton and the estates of Kurt Cobain, Mac Miller, Tom Petty and Eazy-E — it's not even an exhaustive list of their or the company's clients. However, all partners work collaboratively to serve the firm's clientele, which also includes industry executives.
For example, Byrnes and Lande represent Beyoncé as a team. Lande — who served as a tour manager and tour accountant for artists like Elton John and Madonna during breaks from his undergraduate and law school years — says he was involved in every aspect of 2023 Renaissance world tour, “from making the initial deal with Live Nation, reviewing all the business plans, working with her and her team on what this business would look like as a tour, to the final execution.” Byrnes, who worked on the MTV show IRS Records presents: The Cutting Edge and as an editor at the now-defunct music trade paper Cash boxconsulted with the company's film/TV division to negotiate deals for Beyoncé's 2019 and 2020 films; Returning home and Black Is King, respectively. Tenzer and Vallon work on many clients.
Given their depth and breadth of experience in the music industry, legal and non-legal — Tenzer was director of business affairs at Sony Music, and Vallon's resume includes roles at CAA, AEG, various labels and The Colbert Reportfor example — “We have very good market knowledge of what's cutting edge and what's possible, and we all end up being business advisors to our clients — helping them think through deal structure and the kinds of deals they should do,” says Lande.
With more artists preferring independence to label deals and labels remaining to sign acts until they have established a significant fan base, deals before the label's music division have evolved significantly. “There's a plethora of independent distributors and labels out there offering development-type deals, and we deal with them every day,” says Byrnes.
And Lande explains that artists are now more interested in creating long-term value through equity. “Years ago, it was just, 'Pay me this amount and I'll endorse your product or service,'” he says. Those deals are still happening, but “more and more, our clients are entering into joint ventures, funding things themselves and building businesses that capitalize on their celebrity organically. They take more risk doing that and it takes longer to build value,” he continues. “But the ultimate payoff is significant.”
This story will appear in the July 20, 2024 issue Advertising sign.
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