Services & Industries

If you work in the sports, arts or entertainment industries, you work in a unique business and legal environment. You need lawyers who have the right type of experience for the environment.

Recognizing this client need, Garvey Schubert Barer created our Sports, Arts and Entertainment Group. In assembling this group we chose lawyers with the skill-sets mix required to provide optimal representation to clients like you. Our lawyers include those with business transaction and litigation practices as well as those focusing on other legal areas such as communications, intellectual property, and labor and employment.

Our Sports, Arts and Entertainment Group represents a large, diverse array of clients, both regionally and nationally. These clients are involved in virtually every aspect of sports, arts and entertainment, including film and television production and distribution, music, theater, talent, advertising and direct marketing, publishing and multimedia, and executive employment.

Endorsement and Sponsorship Agreements

We represent athletes, entertainers and corporate clients entering into contracts involving endorsements, sponsorships and corporate appearances. Our services include helping clients negotiate, evaluate and document these arrangements.

Executive Employment

Virtually every executive in the film, television and music industries enters into an employment agreement with the executive’s entertainment company employer. Our group evaluates, negotiates and documents these arrangements.

Film and Television Distribution

We represent, both domestically and internationally, producers and distributors of motion picture, television, video and ancillary productions. Our services involve evaluating, negotiating and documenting the following:

• Studio production and distribution transactions
• Negative pickups
• Network licenses
• TV syndication and barter transactions
• Foreign distribution and co-production agreements
• Pay TV and home video licensing arrangements
• Multiparty financing and distribution transactions
• Cable channel ventures
• Print and advertising financings
• Foreign sales representative engagements
• Output and multipicture transactions
• Rent-a-system transactions
• Acquisitions of motion picture and TV program libraries

Film and Television Production

Our Entertainment, Sports and Arts Group has significant experience representing clients involved in film, music and TV production. This experience includes

• Negotiating development and production agreements for motion pictures
• Creating production structures
• Negotiating screenplay option and acquisition agreements
• Life-story agreements
• Coordinating and negotiating with distributors, banks, financiers and completion guarantors
• Writer, director, producer and key crew agreements
• Negotiating talent and crew engagements
• Establishing and maintaining guild relationships
• Music, locations and other clearance and release agreements
• Postproduction agreements
• Negotiating broadcast and cable TV license and production agreements
• Distribution agreements
• Monitoring contract compliance
• Intellectual property and personality rights issues
• First Amendment issues

Television, Motion Picture and New Media Entertainment

We represent entertainment-industry clients in both traditional and innovative media. Our clients include production companies, broadcasters, content developers, distributors, and individual artists. Examples of our services include licensing of life-story rights, endorsements, motion picture financing and production agreements and digital distribution and licensing agreements.

Litigation

Our group’s lawyers are diligent in producing clear, comprehensive contracts that eliminate, or significantly minimize, the likelihood of future disputes. Still, disputes do happen, often because of unforeseen post-contract events. When a dispute occurs, we do everything possible to resolve it amicably, informally and cost-effectively. If litigation is unavoidable, we have skilled litigators who will aggressively represent a client to achieve favorable results.

Our litigation experience covers a broad spectrum of entertainment-related disputes. These include disputes over copyrights, Olympics protocol arrangements, author-publisher disputes and royalty accountings.

Music and Recording Industry

We represent some of the world’s leading recording artists, songwriters, performers, producers and music supervisors. Our group’s clients also include independent record and music publishing companies, concert promoters, personal managers, business managers, talent agencies and music industry executives.

We have extensive experience forming and developing production companies, record labels and publishing and licensing companies. This experience includes negotiating, evaluating and documenting the following:

• Domestic and international record distribution agreements
• Recording agreements
• Songwriting and publishing agreements
• Merchandising and touring agreements
• Commercial appearances, endorsements and sponsorships
• Intragroup agreements for recording artists
• Film and television music supervisor and soundtrack album agreements
• Agency and management representation agreements
• Record producer agreements
• Music and sampling clearances

Professional Sports

Professional sports has become part of the entertainment industry. Our group provides legal services for clients involved in professional sports. We represent star athletes, corporate sponsors, professional athletic tournaments, teams and touring exhibitions.

Talent

We represent many prominent clients in the talent industry, including athletes, screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, musicians, newscasters and reporters, weather and sports personalities, radio personalities and novelists. Our group also represents talent agencies and managers. Our services include

• Evaluating, negotiating and preparing talent engagement agreements
• Recommending talent clients for prominent film, music, television, literary, theater and other entertainment projects, including commercials and endorsements
• Counseling talent on contract interpretation, copyright, trademark, litigation, labor- and union-related issues and industry practices relevant to the performance of their engagement and contracts
• Agency and management agreements
• Immigration law issues for talent seeking to enter the United States or tour abroad