Best Lawyers in New York, United States for Entertainment and Sports Law

Marcie Cleary is a partner in the Entertainment Group at Frankfurt Kurnit, representing clients in the film, television, digital, and book publishing industries. Ms. Cleary structures and negotiates entertainment transactions for individual and corporate clients in the film, television, digital, and book publishing industries. Her clients include actors, news correspondents, writers, directors, producers, authors, podcasters and influencers. Ms. Cleary has significant experience representing ...

Richard B. Heller is a partner at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, PC and a longtime member of the firm's Entertainment Group. His practice focuses on motion pictures and television, new media, publishing, celebrity branding and intellectual property. Mr. Heller's clients include on-screen talent, writers, producers, directors, production companies and distributors in the motion picture and television fields, as well as numerous foreign companies , charitable organizations and individuals d...

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...

Daniel A. Etna is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Sports Law. Daniel A., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2015. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Daniel A. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Matthew H. Giger is a co-founder of Rosenberg, Giger & Perala PC and an attorney based in New York, New York, with more than twenty years of litigation experience. He represents clients in a broad range of litigation, dispute resolution, and advisory matters. His practice includes Entertainment Law – Music, with a substantial focus on copyright disputes and litigation arising within the music and entertainment industries, as well as matters involving trademark, commercial, real esta...

Alan D. Sacks is a partner in the Entertainment, IP Finance and Sports Groups. He is recognized in the 2023-2025 editions of Best Lawyers in America for Entertainment - Motion Pictures and Television and The Legal 500 for his expertise in media & entertainment law. He is also recognized by Variety in its 2021 Legal Impact Report. His blend of entertainment law and hands-on entertainment industry, transactional and advisory experience - combined with a substantial corporate finance and pri...

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...

Lisa A. Alter is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Copyright Law and Entertainment Law - Music. Lisa A., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2021. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Lisa A. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

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.

Anthony J. Dreyer is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Sports Law. Anthony J., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2020. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Anthony J. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

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...

Michael P. Frankfurt, a Partner Emeritus, is retired from the firm. He was one of the founding partners of Frankfurt Kurnit, one of the pre-eminent media and entertainment law firms in the United States. During his long career, he represented advertising agencies, commercial film, television, publishing, graphic and fine arts and new media companies, and represented and counseled executives and talent in those and other businesses. He also lectured often at various conferences and schools, in...