Legal Expertise

Commercial litigation with a focus on copyright, trademark, internet rights, enforcement of personal services contracts, contract and commercial disputes, rights of publicity, and unfair competition.

Representative Matters

• Represented American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in federal rate court proceedings against YouTube LLC.
• Represents long-standing client Apple Corps Limited (The Beatles) throughout United States in wide variety of contentious and non-contentious matters, including intellectual property policing and licensing. 
• Successfully opposed a motion to dismiss Apple Corps Limited’s claims of breach of fiduciary duty and fraud against EMI Records Limited and Capitol Records Inc. in connection with sales of Beatles recordings in action before New York Supreme Court. 
• Represented Scholastic Inc. enforcing the embargo of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the United States before the book’s worldwide release on July 21, 2007. This nationwide task required leading a team of attorneys in five cities, along with computer forensics experts and investigators. During the last weeks before the book’s release, the efforts involved issuance of numerous subpoenas under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, civil litigation, coordination with law enforcement, and informal enforcement efforts. 
• Represented McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. and former Business Week writer in defamation action, Manfredonia v. Weiss, et al., in New York Supreme Court. 
• Represented Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne in two actions in federal court in New York against claims of slander by former Congressman Gary Condit in connection with the disappearance of Chandra Levy. 
• Represented a major insurance company in multi-district litigation involving financial fraud and the enforceability of surety bonds guaranteeing payments under subprime equipment leases. These cases involved claims totaling over $400 million. 
• Represented H.J.M. Hunt, successor of E.H. Shephard, original illustrator of “Winnie the Pooh,” in litigation with Stephen Slesinger, Inc. and Disney Enterprises, Inc. regarding terminations of grants of copyright interest. 
• Represents Shawn Carter p/k/a “Jay-Z” and Timothy Mosley p/k/a “Timbaland” in copyright infringement litigation.
• Represents Taylor Swift in currently pending litigation.