Entertainment & Sports

Overview
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Overview

Greenspoon Marder’s Entertainment & Sports practice group provides multidisciplinary and innovative legal counsel to clients in the entertainment, media and technology industries across the United States. There is opportunity in chaos. Technological advances are quickly shifting the evolution and re-evolution of business models. As trusted advisors to both creatives and business people in the entertainment and sports industries, we counsel clients in entertainment talent negotiations, providing outside general counsel services and assisting companies with corporate structuring, financing, operations, sales and acquisitions, trademarks, copyrights, employment advice, record contracts, music and book publishing, and we have extensive experience negotiating multi-million dollar licensing, branding and media deals.

Our team includes experienced practitioners in a variety of related practice areas that can assist our clients. Additional practice areas include: hospitality, leisure and alcohol industry group, cannabis law, corporate & business, labor & employment, litigation, tax, international wealth & asset planning, criminal law and a wide range of business related legal areas. Greenspoon Marder’s Entertainment & Sports practice group is poised for the future, not reacting to change, but anticipating and embracing new developments to find opportunities in the ever-changing entertainment landscape. Our team serves to assist our clients in creating new forward thinking business models in the legal and business realm.

Greenspoon Marder’s Entertainment & Sports practice group provides advice and counsel in a wide variety of areas within these disciplines including:

Sports

At Greenspoon Marder, we know that professional sports are big business, and professional athletes are entrepreneurs in their own right. That’s why successful athletes invest in experienced, business-minded professionals who have the knowledge to help them excel at the business of sports. Our team has worked with entrepreneurs for more than 40 years. Our attorneys guide our clients through contract drafting and negotiations, inter-state tax issues, asset planning, trust and estate planning, finance and transactions, and when necessary, civil and commercial litigation.

The firm has a strategic relationship with a reputable full-service athlete representation firm, known for negotiating several record-breaking contracts with the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL). Together, we focus on an athlete’s specific professional and personal needs, from the transition out of college, throughout his or her career, and even into “retirement,” with all of the new opportunities it presents. Additional services include marketing and endorsements, licensing and merchandising, and career counseling. This depth and versatility, combined with our knowledge, experience and personal attention to detail, allows Greenspoon Marder to maximize opportunities for clients.

Music

Counsel to Recording and Publishing Companies Including:
- Operational Issues
- Startup Financing
- Operations
- Rights Acquisition
- Management
- Licensing
- Contract Negotiations
- Branding

Counsel Involving Institutional Clients:
- Outside General Counsel Services
- Purchase and Sale Agreements
- Catalogue Acquisitions

Counsel to Internationally Acclaimed Artists:
- Recording Agreements
- Deliverables
- Touring Matters
- Music Publishing
- Corporate Structure
- Deal Negotiation
- Merchandising and Branding
- Equity Deals
- Management of Intellectual Rights and Persona
- Estate and Tax Planning

Television

Counsel to Domestic and International Television Projects and Personalities Including:
- Production Counsel for Scripted and Non-Scripted Productions
- Programming Development
- Production Services Agreements
- Project Financing and the Purchase or Sale of Content
- Licensing and International Distribution Deals

Technology & New Media

Counsel Involving Various Areas of Focus and Transactions Including:
- Technology Related Transactions, Including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), App and Web Development, License, Data Transfer, and Service Level Transactions
- Digital and Traditional Marketing Arrangements (Advertising, Promotion, Distribution) Including Online Campaigns
- Content and Music License, Distribution, Marketing Across Traditional and New Media Platforms
- Manufacturing and Retailer Agreements
- Social Media Regulations

Film

Counsel to the Film Industry On Several Different Fronts Including:
- Independent Film Financing
- Production Counsel and Prepare All the Necessary Agreements Related to Film Projects
- Assist in the Overall Administration of Obtaining the Necessary Funds, Rights and Clearances
- Above-the-Line and Below-the-Line Talent in Deal Negotiations and Overall Management of their Legal Rights and Intellectual Properties

Corporate

At Greenspoon Marder our corporate & business, labor & employment, real estate and tax teams work with our Sports & Entertainment practice group to provide counsel on a wide variety of corporate governance matters to public and privately held business entities and entrepreneurs including:

Corporate Formations
Mergers and Acquisitions
Debt and Equity Financing
Private Equity and Venture Capital
Joint Ventures
Corporate Governance for Start-Ups, Emerging, Established, and Publicly Traded Companies
Employment Agreements
Real Estate Acquisitions

Intellectual Property

Greenspoon Marder’s Entertainment & Sports practice group has a keen understanding of copyright, trademark and related areas of law. Intellectual property is the foundation for the majority of our clients’ entertainment related assets and our team knows how to identify, leverage and protect those rights. We serve the intellectual property needs of both institutional and personal clients and our services range from patent, trademark and copyright registrations to full oversight and rights management and litigation services to protect and defend our client’s intellectual property.