America’s Top 100 Entertainment ‘Power Lawyers’ (2015)

Those working in the Biglaw world may think they’re living lifestyles of the rich and famous, but their prestige pales dramatically when compared to those working in the glittery world of Hollywood glamour.

Those working in the Biglaw world may think they’re living lifestyles of the rich and famous, but their prestige pales dramatically when compared to those working in the glittery world of Hollywood glamour. Representing celebrity clients is likely to catapult your name into the news and turn your practice into a household topic of conversation. You may be making it rain with behind-the-scenes work from the comforts of your corner office, but it’s nowhere near as fabulous as keeping Jennifer Lawrence’s nude pictures off the internet.

Those behind the entertainment law bar have worked with some of the most celebrated (and sometimes reviled) clients in the country, and in most cases, the world. There should be some sort of a ranking to evaluate Hollywood’s top attorney talent.

Luckily, the Hollywood Reporter has been in the rankings game for nearly a decade, and this year’s list is rather… entertaining. Check out the new list of the entertainment industry’s top 100 “power lawyers,” which we’ve dubbed the Hollywood 100.

Here’s how THR chose the names for this entertaining list:

To determine Hollywood’s 100 most influential attorneys (listed in alphabetical order — it’s impossible to rank them), THR researches the biggest deals and legal cases of the past year. Lawyers are identified as talent dealmakers, litigators or corporate dealmakers and evaluated against their peers based on cases won/nature of deals closed as well as their reputation within the entertainment legal community. In-house studio, network or talent agency legal executives are not eligible (it’s too difficult to gauge influence within a corporate structure). Music and Broadway lawyers are evaluated separately against their peers.

We mentioned earlier that behind-the-scenes work doesn’t make as many headlines as representing Hollywood talent in the public eye, and that’s evident when you look at the breakdown between talent, litigation, and corporate lawyers on this list. While the corporate segment of the list names only 15 lawyers, the talent segment names 53 lawyers. At 32, the litigation segment has a respectable number of lawyers, many of whom hail from brand-name Biglaw firms.

Overall, this list is exciting in that it shows you what small firms have the power to do in niche markets, but when stepping away from the glitz of Hollywood to see the big picture, the lack of female and minority lawyers here is depressing. When taking a look at the individual the lawyers on the list, the first thing we see is that it’s a sea of white male faces. Out of the 100 lawyers on the list, only 14 of them are women and less than a handful of them appear to be minorities. We can surely aim higher and level the playing field.

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Congrats to everyone who made the list. It’s well-deserved recognition for all of your work in an industry featuring clients who are some of the hardest to deal with in the world.

Power Lawyers 2015: Hollywood’s Top 100 Attorneys Revealed [Hollywood Reporter]
Power Lawyers 2015 [Hollywood Reporter]

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