Find Lawyers in New York, United States for Entertainment Law - Theater
Practice Area Overview
Theater lawyers, representing producers, underlying rightsholders, investors, authors, actors, theater owners and others who participate in the development and exploitation of stage properties, will structure, negotiate and draft agreements to advance the theatrical production process. A commercial stage production typically begins with a producer licensing a finished play or, alternatively, by first securing rights in an underlying work (such as a novel) and then engaging writers to create a play or musical.
To finance development and production, producers typically raise capital from accredited investors via private offerings under Rule 506. Attorneys for investors who provide early, high-risk funding or who make large investments will seek to negotiate heightened financial terms and billing credit. Investors include investment partnerships and, increasingly, theatrical investment funds modeled after private equity funds.
Early on, the producer will enter into agreements with a general manager, a director, and often a not-for-profit theater that showcases new works. As the production progresses, there will be numerous additional contracts - e.g., with designers, actors, and a commercial theater.
Broadway has not been impacted by technology as directly as the music, publishing and movie industries, so many elements of theatrical legal practice have remained relatively stable. However, change is accelerating as movie studios seek to re-purpose film libraries, venture and private equity investors explore Broadway investing, and the Internet continues to transform theatrical marketing and is beginning to make Broadway investing more accessible.
Roger Arar focuses his goal-oriented practice on film and television development, finance, production, distribution and talent. He provides strategic counsel to television networks, film and television production companies, independent studios and distribution companies, as well as individual producers, actors, writers, directors and investors. He is passionate about structuring deals for his clients that maximize results. Roger takes a thoughtful and efficient approach to transactions involv...
Amelia K. Brankov advises companies and individuals on litigation and transactional matters, with a particular focus on arts and culture. In her art law practice, Ms. Brankov advises galleries, collectors, artist studios, artist estates and foundations, curators, art advisors, appraisers, conservators, publishers, and startups. She assists clients in all legal aspects of transactions involving artwork including purchase agreements, consignment agreements, commission agreements, and loan agree...
Aydin Caginalp’s practice concentrates on business transactions, including acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, private equity and general corporate and commercial matters, with an emphasis on international and cross border matters. He has been engaged in complex corporate transactions involving the separation of operating units as well as integration of business units into the acquiring enterprise. He has extensive experience in the issues arising within the technology, media and e-c...
Marc Chamlin is known for working across multiple legal and business disciplines in the media and digital industries, representing television, film and digital media companies, as well as actors, directors, writers, book authors and other high-level talent in the full spectrum of transactional entertainment matters. Marc’s practice includes structuring and negotiating complex investments, joint ventures, and corporate and licensing transactions for iconic media personalities, legacy lit...
Marcie Cleary is a partner in the Entertainment Group at Frankfurt Kurnit, representing clients in the film, television, digital, and book publishing industries. Ms. Cleary structures and negotiates entertainment transactions for individual and corporate clients in the film, television, digital, and book publishing industries. Her clients include actors, news correspondents, writers, directors, producers, authors, podcasters and influencers. Ms. Cleary has significant experience representing ...
Victoria S. Cook is a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit and a member of the Entertainment Group. She focuses on motion picture and television work, representing award-winning filmmakers, writers, directors, actors, television producers, film financiers, and television networks. She is immersed in both the independent and Hollywood worlds, and her clients often work in all aspects of the entertainment business -- from major studio films to cutting-edge political documentaries. Chambers USA includes ...
Lisa E. Davis is a partner and Co-Chair of the firm's Entertainment Group . She serves on the firm's Policy Committee and is Co-Chair of the firm's Diversity Committee. She represents businesses and celebrities in the film, television, publishing, music, theatre, and sports industries. Ms. Davis has been ranked as a New York-area “Super Lawyer” since 2007 and was featured on the cover of Super Lawyers magazine in a piece on her career and advocacy for racial justice. She is recogn...
Kenneth R. Florin is one of the industry’s leading experts on matters involving the convergence of advertising and promotions, emerging media, technology and privacy law. In addition to a rich background in traditional marketing and communications, he has been a pioneer in counseling clients at the increasingly blurred cross section of issues associated with the use of new technologies, digital media, and emerging content production and distribution models to extend their global reach. ...
Michael P. Frankfurt is the Senior Partner and a founding partner of Frankfurt Kurnit, one of the pre-eminent media and entertainment law firms in the United States. His experience is in all aspects of the business practice of law, focusing on entertainment and media law, representing advertising agencies, commercial film, television, publishing , graphic and fine arts and new media companies, and representing and counseling executives and talent in those and other businesses. He has lectured...
Melissa Georges is a partner in our Entertainment Group and Chair of our Content Review & Clearance Group. For more than 30 years, she has helped award winning documentary, feature film and television producers, directors, actors, writers, animators, and comedians resolve complex legal issues to get their projects cleared and distributed. She is recognized by Best Lawyers in America in the 2025 edition for Entertainment Law. Ms. Georges assesses all forms of entertainment content for lega...
Lee Goldberg is Counsel to the Entertainment Group. Ms. Goldberg has substantial experience handling a broad range of entertainment transactions, with a special focus on scripted television. She also handles copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property law matters. Best Lawyers in America included Ms. Goldberg in the 2024-2025 editions for Entertainment Law – Motion Pictures and Television. Ms. Goldberg’s practice includes representing financiers and creatives from develo...
Hayden Goldblatt is a partner and Co-Chair of the firm's Entertainment Group, where he focuses on motion picture, television, and digital media work. Mr. Goldblatt has wide-ranging experience in all areas of entertainment and media, representing producers, writers, directors, documentary filmmakers, actors, comedians, financiers, and independent distributors. He has negotiated complex single picture and slate multi-party financings both on behalf of producers and financiers, as well as struct...
Richard B. Heller is a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, PC and a longtime member of the firm's Entertainment Group. His practice focuses on motion pictures and television, new media, publishing, celebrity branding and intellectual property. Mr. Heller's clients include on-screen talent, writers, producers, directors, production companies and distributors in the motion picture and television fields, as well as numerous foreign companies , charitable organizations and individuals d...
Richard Hofstetter is Counsel in the firm's Entertainment Group. With over 40 years experience as a lawyer for the development, production, and exploitation of intellectual property in all media, and its licensing and merchandising, he offers legal expertise combined with a sound understanding of the business realities that impact entertainment clients and matters. Mr. Hofstetter's practice has particular emphasis in television media . He has represented producers and production companies , p...
Selected by Best Lawyers in the USA since 2019, Chambers USA since 2005 and by Super Lawyers since 2008 as one of the top Entertainment Lawyers in NYC, Jacobson built his unique practice by focusing on his two passions: music and film. In the music area, he represented the estates of George & Ira Gershwin, Elvis Presley and Duke Ellington and important songwriters such as Jimmy Webb, Shakira, James Brown and Holland-Dozier-Holland. He represented the digital jukebox industry in its negoti...
Jim Johnston helps sports, entertainment and media clients venture outside their comfort zone and into uncharted territory. By understanding their business goals and managing their risk, he’s cleared paths for clients to invest in film and television programs, launch streaming services, and sponsor sports arenas with worldwide audiences. Fledgling sports leagues turn to him for airtight media, sponsorship and facility partner agreements to get their brands off the ground. Jim’s cl...
Jake Levy is the founder of Levy Law. Jake’s practice encompasses a broad range of transactions in the entertainment and media industries, with an emphasis on television, motion picture, podcast, book publishing, celebrity branding/endorsement and music matters. He represents both individuals and companies, including award-winning documentary and narrative filmmakers, directors, series creators, producers, literary authors, talent and broadcast journalists, as well as leading production...
Mark A. Merriman is counsel to the Entertainment Group where he practices in all aspects of entertainment law - with an emphasis on theatre and book publishing. He is recognized in the 2023-2025 editions of Best Lawyers in America for Entertainment Law – Theatre. Mr. Merriman is listed as a “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers magazine, and has received praise in Chambers USA for his work in media and entertainment. Additionally, The Legal 500 list him as a “Key Lawyer&rdqu...
Brian G. Murphy counsels advertising agencies, advertisers, and entertainment companies as they develop and produce advertising and entertainment properties across all media. Mr. Murphy has been named the 2018 and 2025 "Lawyer of the Year" for Advertising Law by Best Lawyers in America. His practice focuses on copyright, trademark , right of publicity/right of privacy, false advertising, unfair competition, and defamation. Mr. Murphy negotiates and structures celebrity talent agreements, agen...
Julie M. Murray is a partner in the Entertainment Group at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, who specializes in representing clients in the television, documentary, digital, comedy, and branded content industries. She offers clients full service legal representation, handling all transactions from the development of a concept through delivery of the final cut, including the negotiation of network and financing agreements, distribution agreements, content licensing deals (domestic and interna...
John J. Rosenberg brings nearly four decades of litigation experience to the firm. Mr. Rosenberg, who earned a B.A. in Music (with a concentration in Ethnomusicology) from Brown University, graduated summa cum laude and first in his class from Boston University School of Law in 1979. Following his graduation, Mr. Rosenberg served as a law clerk to the Honorable Levin H. Campbell of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. At the conclusion of his clerkship, Mr. Rosenberg was ...
Edward H. Rosenthal is Chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group. He focuses on intellectual property litigation, emphasizing trademark, copyright, right of publicity, entertainment, advertising, and commercial disputes. Mr. Rosenthal counsels clients on the thorny issues concerning termination of grants of copyrights, and conducts prepublication review of books, articles, television programs, motion pictures, and other materials. His clients include businesses and individuals in ...
Alan D. Sacks is a partner in the Entertainment, IP Finance and Sports Groups. He is recognized in the 2023-2025 editions of Best Lawyers in America for Entertainment - Motion Pictures and Television and The Legal 500 for his expertise in media & entertainment law. He is also recognized by Variety in its 2021 Legal Impact Report. His blend of entertainment law and hands-on entertainment industry, transactional and advisory experience - combined with a substantial corporate finance and pri...
Stefan Schick has been practicing entertainment law for more than 16 years, with a specialty in live theater. Stefan advises clients on all aspects of creating, developing, financing, producing, co-producing and licensing Broadway, off-Broadway, touring, regional, West End and other overseas live stage productions, from the initial rights deal to opening night and beyond. His clients include film studios, producers, investors, playwrights, bookwriters, composers, lyricists, directors, designe...
Barry Slotnick is a nationally recognized intellectual property litigator who represents high-profile clients in the music and entertainment industries, as well as major brands across the advertising, licensing and merchandising sectors. Barry has litigated scores of copyright infringement cases in courts throughout the United States, as well as numerous disputes addressing the respective rights of copyright and trademark owners and users, including rights of privacy and publicity. His client...
Brian Socolow represents athletes, teams, event owners, media companies, equipment manufacturers and others in the sports industry in complex commercial transactions and business disputes. He has handled transactions ranging from media broadcast and distribution agreements, sponsorships and trademark licenses to venue agreements and the purchase and sale of sports properties. Most recently, Brian has represented smart home services provider Vivint in its naming rights deal for the arena home ...
Monika Tashman is a Manatt Entertainment partner in the firm’s New York City office. With a broad-based practice spanning over 25 years in the music and entertainment industries, she advises and provides creative, pragmatic solutions for clients at the intersection of entertainment and innovation—from independent artists and record labels to new media entrepreneurs and emerging technology companies—aiming to strategically expand and transform their organizations, business mo...
Jean Ward is counsel to our Entertainment Group. She is one of New York’s best-known theatre lawyers, with over 30 years’ experience representing producers, authors, film companies and other stage rights holders, not-for-profit theatre companies, theatre owners, creative personnel, and investors. She is recognized in the 2023-2025 editions of Best Lawyers in America for Entertainment Law – Theatre and is listed as a “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers magazine. She n...
Michael R. Williams is a partner and Chair of the firm’s Fashion Group and Co-Chair of the Celebrity Branding Group. Mr. Williams’ clients include major television and motion picture actors, leading fashion designers, top models, fashion show production companies, photographers and executives in the entertainment and fashion industries. Mr. Williams represents actors in the negotiation of deals to perform in film, television, theater and other media. He also works to assist client...
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