Strategic Partners: How to Find a Music Lawyer

I had my second adolescence working in the record business in the mid- late 90s. It was a time when the word “piracy” called up images of peg legs and eye patches or maybe street vendors selling CDs and DVDs of dubious quality with poor color copies of the artwork. I got a job as an intern at a major label and ultimately worked my way up to management.

I bring this up because at the time when working as an A&R Executive if I liked a band I would pick up the phone and call someone. I’d pick up the phone and call my boss, if negotiations were going well I’d call music managers I respected and asked them to check out the project or my friends and colleagues in publishing to see what their thoughts were and if they wanted to give the band a publishing deal.

It was a simpler time, I was confident in my ability to find commercial artists and my ability to help them connect with talented producers and make a great record but that was about it. I had no idea about how to go about breaking a band. When a band got signed I’d call the manager to see what his plans were and we’d discuss how best to get the attention of the promotion, publicity and marketing departments. I’d call the band and the agent and often the manager and discuss what favors the three of us could put together to help the group get on a decent tour. Similar groupings would happen with myself, management and every other strategic partner the band had – the publicist, the product manager, the sales department, the publisher, show promoters, sometimes the band’s lawyer if this was a person who did more than just contract work and had connections with someone we needed.