Best Lawyers in America for Sports Law
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Over more than 35 years of practice, David Halberstadter, the firm's deputy general counsel, has established a reputation among leading entertainment companies as a no-nonsense advisor and talented litigator. When other options fail, he aggressively pursues and defends lawsuits, with a focus on intellectual property-related disputes. Across all his work, clients value David's clear thinking, strategic wisdom and practical business sense. David represents motion picture studios, production com...
Paul Kelly is a principal in the Boston office of Jackson Lewis P.C. He has extensive experience in white collar criminal defense, internal investigations, NCAA enforcement investigations and infractions cases, and complex civil litigation. Paul chairs both the Collegiate and Professional Sports industry group and the White Collar and Government Enforcement resource group at the firm White Collar and Investigative Experience Paul is a trial attorney with substantial experience in both state a...
Jonathan Steinsapir is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Entertainment Law - Motion Pictures and Television, Entertainment Law - Music and Litigation - Intellectual Property. Jonathan, who practices law in Los Angeles, California, has been recognized since 2023. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Jonathan is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Julia R. Haye’s entertainment practice includes successful resolution, at trial and in arbitration, of complex business disputes involving profit participation, motion picture production and distribution, rights ownership, copyright and trademark infringement, idea submission, and other entertainment-related conflicts and contractual disputes. Her counsel and interests encompass every genre of entertainment and media, including studio and independent motion pictures, television, music, ...
David C. Eisman represents companies, investment banks and private equity funds in connection with a variety of corporate, securities and M&A transactions, including private and registered securities offerings, public and private acquisitions, strategic investments and joint ventures. He also represents private equity, hedge fund and other private fund sponsors in structuring and forming their funds, registering as investment advisers and dealing with regulatory issues. Transactions in wh...
Joseph M. Leccese is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Sports Law. Joseph M., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2005. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Joseph M. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Jason D. Russell is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Commercial Litigation, Litigation - Securities and Sports Law. Jason D., who practices law in Los Angeles, California, has been recognized since 2021. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Jason D. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Matthew V. Wilson is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Entertainment Law - Music and Trademark Law. Matthew V., who practices law in Atlanta, Georgia, has been recognized since 2024. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Matthew V. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Jeffrey L. Kessler is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Antitrust Law, Commercial Litigation, Litigation - Antitrust and Sports Law. Jeffrey L., who practices law in New York, New York, has been recognized since 2006. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Jeffrey L. is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
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...
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 E. Davis is a partner and Co-Chair of the firm's Entertainment Group . She serves on the firm's Policy Committee and is Co-Chair of the firm's Diversity Committee. She represents businesses and celebrities in the film, television, publishing, music, theatre, and sports industries. Ms. Davis has been ranked as a New York-area “Super Lawyer” since 2007 and was featured on the cover of Super Lawyers magazine in a piece on her career and advocacy for racial justice. She is recogn...
Steven Marenberg is the Chair of the firm’s Entertainment and Media Litigation Group and the Chair of the Century City Litigation Group. Mr. Marenberg’s practice encompasses a wide range of commercial litigation matters in various industries, with particular concentrations in the areas of entertainment-related litigation, technology-related disputes, copyright, trademark and other intellectual property litigation, and antitrust and business tort disputes. His clients have included...
Steven S. Sidman is a deeply experienced, highly regarded transactional attorney dealing in the business of pop culture. His practice focuses on the modern entertainment, food & beverage/hospitality, lifestyle/branding, and sports industries. For nearly 28 years, Steve has provided sophisticated, insightful, front-line legal advice and business affairs counsel to highly creative talent and high-profile individuals and corporate entities, along with their various entrepreneurial ventures. ...
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...
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.