Music Law

As music industry experts, we focus on helping those who create achieve fair and profitable relationships with essential avenues to success.

Targeted and experienced legal advice is an indispensable part of success in the music industry. We are here to help singers, rappers, songwriters, composers, solo artists, bands, band members, with the wide range of professionals and service industries that are essential avenues to success.

Transactional services

We draft, review and negotiate contracts and agreements to make sure they are legal and fair, including:

• Contracts with record labels, managers, agents, concert promoters and concert producers, music video producers, radio stations
• Marketing and merchandizing deals
• Tour crew agreements
• Music licensing arrangements
• Royalty agreements
• Recording studio rentals
• Copyright and Trademark issues, ensuring protection from illegal use of a copyrighted song
• Recording, CD and Music Video production and management agreements

We help you maintain relationships with studios, record labels and influential professionals and keep current on deals being made throughout the industry. Our savvy allows us to quickly close the best deals for our clients.

For beginners in the music business - we are here to teach

We help musicians who are new to the industry understand how the business works:

• Unraveling the mysterious language of contracts, analyzing and clarifying which types of contracts are best for our clients' particular needs
• Identifying pitfalls in business deals
• Clarifying musicians' rights as performers
• Providing expert guidance in finding managers, agents, accountants and other essential music business contacts
• Assisting new recording artists with financial or real estate decisions

Entertainment Law

Contracts are binding - We make sure they work to your advantage.

We help individuals and companies involved in the widely diverse areas of the entertainment industry - film, radio, television, news, radio music, publishing, theater, digital and multimedia. Our clients are actors, playwrights, comedians, models, composers, musicians, engineers, production companies, distributors, broadcasters, media companies and more.

Each entertainment area has its own complex and special requirements. We handle negotiations, draft contracts and agreements; handle trademarks and copyright issues and more, with services targeted to the needs of each area:

Transactional Services

TV/Radio

• Agreements and contracts with stage talent and technical crew
• Employee contracts
• Agreements with production studios, networks and distributors
• Licensing arrangements
• Image and music use agreements
• Trademarks and copyrights
• Space and equipment rentals and cost negotiations
• License, assignment and royalty agreements
• Retransmission consent and distribution agreements with internet companies, cable, satellite, and wireless operators

Film and Motion Pictures

• Financial backing arrangements
• Studio contracts
• Contracts with stars and acting talent
• Employee contracts
• Distribution agreements
• File suit over pirated film
• Production liability issues
• Merchandising and product placement arrangements
• Copyright and trademark issues
• Literary and screenplay rights

Theater

• Contracts with talent and crew
• Rental agreement
• Co-production negotiations and agreements
• Producer agreements and contracts
• Production liability issues
• Ticket sale agreements
• Intellectual property rights (including copyright, trademark infringement, and disputes)

Digital Media

• Development agreements
• Distribution agreements – electronic sell-through (EST) digital downloads etc.
• Intellectual property rights (including copyright, trademark infringement, and disputes)

Visual Arts

Artistic success is a blend of essentials – Talent, Imagination, Execution, Audience.
We make sure you achieve the fifth essential - Profits

As pioneers in the field of Art Law, we share your passion. We love to look at your paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations, outdoor arts, and conceptual pieces. We know you love to do the work – we love making sure they bring you financial rewards.

Transactional Services

We help Fine Artists with a wide range of legal matters including:

• Artist/Gallery Contracts
• Artist/Museum Contracts
• Expense Contracts
• Exhibition Agreements
• Consignment Agreements
• Payment Plan Agreements
• Rental/Purchase Agreement
• Commission Agreements
• Model Releases
• Property Releases
• Reproduction/Copyright & Trademark issues
• Licensing Agreements

Fashion Law

It's sleek, it sizzles, it moves, it glows with stars, its signature is passion,
It's everywhere you look…
But its filled with risks, pitfalls, and mazes – we are here to see you safely through

We understand the sophistication and the complexity of today's national and global fashion scene.

We work with designers, make-up artists, hair stylists, photographers and photo stylists, models, and other industry professionals – protecting their property, both intellectual and creative such as handbags, apparel and print designs. We help with registering logos, deal with trademark and copyright issues, and ensure that their business complies with federal and international law.

Transactional Services:

Negotiating, drafting and finalizing contracts with:

• Designers
• Models
• Manufacturers
• Sponsorship and Advertising Agreements
• Registering Trademarks and securing Copyrights
• Protecting trade secrets
• Trade dress registration
• Dealing with unfair competition and antitrust issues
• Licensing agreements
• Compliance with Federal Trade Commission labeling regulation issues

Book Contracts

We make sure your writing profits are not gone with the wind.

We work with authors, journalists, book and magazine publishers, literary agents, editors, and others in the publishing industry to secure equitable pre- and post-publication income, royalties, copyright protection and more.

Transactional Services:

• Author Agreements and contracts
• Copyright and Trademark issues
• Publishing Agreements
• Contractual grants
• Production contracts
• Advertising and marketing agreements
• Digital rights
• Pre-publication revenue
• Ancillary revenue
• Libel and IP defense
• Legal compliance

Science & Technology

For those who deal with today's technology and the mysteries of life
we help you unravel the mysteries of law.

Bio technology, nano technology, medical research, the complexities of the internet – all hot issues with great potential and great risk. Nzengha Waseme and her team have first-hand knowledge of the world of science and our passion for it has never waned. Having worked closely with scientists in laboratory settings, we have an intimate understanding of the legal issues facing the registration, protection and marketing of discoveries and inventions and the protection of online content. We are committed to helping both individuals and businesses achieve their investigative, creative and financial goals. Our services focus strongly on intellectual property concerns and include regulatory issues, business formation and maintenance, taxes and litigation.

Life Sciences and Healthcare

We represent individuals and entities in the areas of biomedical research, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostic and treatment technology.

Nanotechnology

In this highly promising field of particle science of the "extremely small" we work as counsel in a wide range of areas including medicine, automotives, electronics, cosmetics, food packaging, environment, and sports.

Our services include:

Transactional Services

• Advice regarding the complex issues that arise in copyrights, patents and trademarks, websites and e-commerce, advertising and promotions, technology transfer and licensing, outsourcing, and other intellectual property matters, including strategic planning and protection programs
• Formation, sale and dissolution of corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies, including drafting and negotiating stockholders' and partners' agreements
• Governing board and corporate compliance programs
• Mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures
• Financial advice including venture capital, angel, friends and family, and other forms of investment and private equity financing
• Counseling on strategic alliances, partnering relationships and commercial contracts, including technology transfers, research agreements, co-development, and licensing and sub-licensing agreements
• Advice, preparation and negotiation of software licensing and systems agreements, leases, equipment leases, and purchase agreements
• Advice and advocacy on commercial and asset-based lending, equipment leasing, acquisition financings, sale leaseback investment, and bank and other forms of debt and tax-exempt financing

Business & Non-Profit

A law firm with a special emphasis in the field of business law is an essential part of smooth business operation. We counsel companies through proper entity formation, daily operations matters, expansion, restructuring and more.

Entity Formation

Whether you are starting a new business or expanding your existing one, it's important that you choose the right structure of operation. Based on your company's needs and goals we advise on the most viable and advantageous type of business entity. We take you through the entire process of business formation with emphasis on making sure you understand every step of the way.

The most common entity types are:

• Sole proprietorship
• Partnership
• General partnership
• Limited partnership
• C Corporation
• S Corporation
• Professional Corporation (PC)
• Nonprofit Corporation
• Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC)
• Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

We provide representation for a wide range of established companies both large and small, entrepreneurships, partnerships, privately owned companies, or publicly traded corporations. We handle transactions, disputes, operational, financial, employment matters and more. We prepare a wide range of business documentation including:

• Employee Agreements
• Contractor Agreements
• Partnership Agreements
• Operating agreements
• Non-Disclosure Agreements
• Non-Compete Agreements
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Shareholder agreements
• Real Estate matters
• Promissory Notes
• Corporate Buy-Sell Agreements
• Corporate Terminations and Dissolutions
• Stock Purchase and Sale Agreements
• Intellectual Property Licensing

International Law

The world doesn't stop at our nation's borders
We help companies do business all around the globe

We work with many different types of commercial and professional players on the global stage. Whether you import fabric from Holland to Ghana, have your goods produced in China, own an art gallery in Beijing and sell in New York City we provide expert representation in all types of international business matters.

• Commercial transactions
• Trust matters
• Foreign investment
• Non-compete and confidentiality concerns
• Shareholder, partnership or other ownership issues
• Employment disputes
• Employment issues