Best Lawyers in New York, United States for Entertainment and Sports Law
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Cities
Lawrence Kanusher is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Entertainment Law - Music. Lawrence, who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Lawrence is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Melissa Georges is a partner in our Entertainment Group and Chair of our Content Review & Clearance Group. For more than 30 years, she has helped award winning documentary, feature film and television producers, directors, actors, writers, animators, and comedians resolve complex legal issues to get their projects cleared and distributed. She is recognized by Best Lawyers in America in the 2025 edition for Entertainment Law. Ms. Georges assesses all forms of entertainment content for lega...
Victoria S. Cook is a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit and a member of the Entertainment Group. She focuses on motion picture and television work, representing award-winning filmmakers, writers, directors, actors, television producers, film financiers, and television networks. She is immersed in both the independent and Hollywood worlds, and her clients often work in all aspects of the entertainment business -- from major studio films to cutting-edge political documentaries. Chambers USA includes ...
Aydin Caginalp’s practice concentrates on business transactions, including acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, private equity and general corporate and commercial matters, with an emphasis on international and cross border matters. He has been engaged in complex corporate transactions involving the separation of operating units as well as integration of business units into the acquiring enterprise. He has extensive experience in the issues arising within the technology, media and e-c...
Jean Ward is counsel to our Entertainment Group. She is one of New York’s best-known theatre lawyers, with over 30 years’ experience representing producers, authors, film companies and other stage rights holders, not-for-profit theatre companies, theatre owners, creative personnel, and investors. She is recognized in the 2023-2025 editions of Best Lawyers in America for Entertainment Law – Theatre and is listed as a “Super Lawyer” by Super Lawyers magazine. She n...
Hayden Goldblatt is a partner and Co-Chair of the firm's Entertainment Group, where he focuses on motion picture, television, and digital media work. Mr. Goldblatt has wide-ranging experience in all areas of entertainment and media, representing producers, writers, directors, documentary filmmakers, actors, comedians, financiers, and independent distributors. He has negotiated complex single picture and slate multi-party financings both on behalf of producers and financiers, as well as struct...
Brian Socolow represents athletes, teams, event owners, media companies, equipment manufacturers and others in the sports industry in complex commercial transactions and business disputes. He has handled transactions ranging from media broadcast and distribution agreements, sponsorships and trademark licenses to venue agreements and the purchase and sale of sports properties. Most recently, Brian has represented smart home services provider Vivint in its naming rights deal for the arena home ...
Karen M. Lent is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Antitrust Law and Sports Law. Karen M., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2019. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Karen M. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Scott Wilcox is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Entertainment Law - Theater. Scott, who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Scott is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
John J. Rosenberg is a partner at Rosenberg, Giger & Perala PC in New York, New York, and brings nearly four decades of litigation experience to his practice. He earned a B.A. in Music, with a concentration in Ethnomusicology, from Brown University and graduated summa cum laude and first in his class from Boston University School of Law in 1979. After law school, Mr. Rosenberg served as a law clerk to the Honorable Levin H. Campbell of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circ...
Anne McGuire is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Entertainment Law - Motion Pictures and Television. Anne, who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2025. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Anne is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Monika Tashman is a Manatt Entertainment partner in the firm’s New York City office. With a broad-based practice spanning over 25 years in the music and entertainment industries, she advises and provides creative, pragmatic solutions for clients at the intersection of entertainment and innovation—from independent artists and record labels to new media entrepreneurs and emerging technology companies—aiming to strategically expand and transform their organizations, business mo...
Jim Johnston helps sports, entertainment and media clients venture outside their comfort zone and into uncharted territory. By understanding their business goals and managing their risk, he’s cleared paths for clients to invest in film and television programs, launch streaming services, and sponsor sports arenas with worldwide audiences. Fledgling sports leagues turn to him for airtight media, sponsorship and facility partner agreements to get their brands off the ground. Jim’s cl...
Maura J. Wogan is a partner and Co-Chair of the Litigation Group at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz with over 30 years of experience in all aspects of sophisticated intellectual property law, including litigation, counseling, and pre-publication review of content in all media. Ms. Wogan focuses on litigation of copyright , trademark , right of publicity , defamation and entertainment matters. Her clients include media companies (both traditional and online publishers ), filmmakers, televisi...
Amelia K. Brankov advises companies and individuals on litigation and transactional matters, with a particular focus on arts and culture. In her art law practice, Ms. Brankov advises galleries, collectors, artist studios, artist estates and foundations, curators, art advisors, appraisers, conservators, publishers, and startups. She assists clients in all legal aspects of transactions involving artwork including purchase agreements, consignment agreements, commission agreements, and loan agree...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.