Partner Ilene Farkas and Donald Zakarin, co-chair of Pryor Cashman's Litigation practice, and James Sammataro, partner and co-chair of the Media + Entertainment practice, have been listed among Billboard's 2020 Top Music Lawyers.
Listed in the 'Talent and Litigation' section, the Pryor Cashman team is lauded for a wide variety of legal work at multiple levels of the music industry. As noted in Billboard:
Ilene Farkas
Partner/co-head of music litigation practice, Pryor Cashman
Fordham University School of Law
James Sammataro
Co-chair, media and entertainment group, Pryor Cashman
Duke University School of Law
Donald Zakarin
Partner/co-head of the litigation group, Pryor Cashman
New York University School of Law
Sammataro, 46, an in-demand litigator in Latin music, is representing Luis Fonsi and Universal Music Group in a copyright infringement claim related to the megahit "Despacito," and he secured a dismissal of an infringement claim against Warner Music and Sony Latin involving the musical works of Tito El Bambino. He co-represents Chris Cornell's estate and widow Vicky Cornell in a federal suit over the rights to the last audio recordings composed by Cornell, which members of Soundgarden claim are the band's final album. Farkas and Zakarin are advising Ed Sheeran, Sony/ATV and Atlantic Records in the claim that Sheeran's song "Thinking Out Loud" infringes on the copyright of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." Pryor Cashman, led by Zakarin, represented the National Music Publishers' Association and Nashville Songwriters Association International in their successful bid to have the Copyright Royalty Board boost mechanical royalty rates for the five-year period from 2018 to 2022. (Spotify and Amazon are still appealing the rate hikes.)
Read the full Billboard's 2020 Top Music Lawyers list online.
Originally published 28 July, 2020
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