The business of talent is often a multifaceted, crossover enterprise. Actors direct films, directors form production companies, musicians become movie stars, chefs host reality TV series, and athletes design and endorse fashion labels. With the potential to earn millions by optimizing their fame, those in the public eye need strong advocates to vigorously defend their personal brands and negotiate lucrative branding deals.
Pryor Cashman's clients hail from many industries and rely on our industry experience to preserve and maximize the value of their names, likeness, and intellectual property. Turning a personal brand into a business empire requires advisors who understand the angles, are well versed in the law and know the players.
Strategically situated in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, Pryor Cashman maintains a broad and extensive network in the entertainment, sports, arts, fashion, music, and publishing industries. We represent stakeholders on all sides of the table and understand the business needs and opportunities in each industry. Our close personal and professional ties with executives throughout the major studios, independent film companies, and music companies as well as in digital media and publishing enable us to identify new business opportunities for our clients and introduce them to potential funding sources to meet their creative objectives and commercial goals.
What We Do
We work with talent in all of the entertainment and sports industries, helping them to commercialize their unique abilities and determine a strategic direction for their businesses and brands. As our clients consider entering into service contracts, employment agreements, or other types of business arrangements, we advise them on how best to develop and protect their intellectual property and the tax consequences of their deals. We litigate and arbitrate business disputes between artists and their managers, agents, and others, including studios, record companies, and product and service providers. We also assert and defend intellectual property and other claims, including those involving the rights of privacy, publicity, and defamation.
With talent in demand around the world, our stellar Immigration Group assists international executives, entertainers, and celebrities in obtaining the necessary visas and authorizations to work and perform in the United States.
It’s All About the Brand
Collaborating with our clients’ business management teams, we negotiate licensing and employment agreements, performance contracts, and endorsement deals that enhance our clients’ earnings while protecting their ownership and intellectual property rights through the work of our award-winning Intellectual Property Group.
We advise on joint ventures, endorsements, and sponsorships across all platforms, including feature films, documentaries, video games, mobile apps, network, and cable television, reality TV, digital and streaming music and media, and live theater. In every deal, we factor in the future - anticipating nascent and emerging channels and formats that have the potential to either enhance our clients’ brands or make them vulnerable to local and international imitation and misappropriation.
Finance and Investment
Knowing all sides of entertainment financing, production, and distribution, we are well equipped to develop and negotiate investment vehicles for talent and financiers. Often the talent we represent are integrally involved in the financing process for their projects, and on their behalf, we develop agreements that involve deferments, participations, backend investor compensation, and other contingent compensation arrangements.
Many of Pryor Cashman's talent clients are also true entrepreneurs creating new ventures. Working with our Corporate, Media & Entertainment, Banking & Finance, and Tax Groups, we help these clients structure businesses with a view to future expansion and investment.
Talent Executives + Management
Attracting and retaining talented leaders and managers can be as important to an entertainment company assigning the performers and artists whose work they produce and distribute. We have been in the thick of management changes at major studios and record labels and played a critical role in the successful hiring and exiting of key executives. We advise on the enforcement and avoidance of restrictive covenants; negotiate and structure equity participations, incentive compensation, severance packages, and claims; and offer litigation counsel, family + marital counsel, and tax advice.
