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Bryan Sullivan Quoted in Bill Donahue’s Law360 Article
Category: News, Press | Thursday, October 17th, 2013 | Comments Off on Bryan Sullivan Quoted in Bill Donahue’s Law360 Article
EA Out Of Antitrust Suit But NCAA Won’t Budge An Inch
Law360, New York (October 03, 2013, 7:12 PM ET) — EA Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Co. both reached settlements last week to escape a high-profile antitrust class action seeking payment for college athletes, but experts say the NCAA likely has too much at stake to reach a similar compromise any time soon.
Under the settlement, EA and CLC reportedly agreed to pay $40 million to thousands of current and former NCAA student-athletes, over antitrust claims based on the use of their names and likenesses in commercial exploitations like EA’s yearly college football video game. That leaves the NCAA alone to defend against a claim that more or less directly challenges decades of NCAA status quo: that the student-athletes deserve a cut of the revenue big college sports programs bring in, including the hundreds of millions in yearly money from television deals.
But the NCAA has said it won’t back down from the challenge the way its co-defendants did. Donald Remy, the association’s chief legal officer, told USA Today last week that the NCAA was prepared to “take this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” adding that the organization is “not prepared to compromise on the case.”
That’s partly because the NCAA has far more to lose in compromising than a company like EA Sports ever did. The video game giant was using the players’ likenesses to sell millions of games, but the college football game was just one among a big stable of consistent cash cows like the Madden football and FIFA soccer series.
“EA is just a company. It’s a business decision — it’s that simple,” said Bryan M. Sullivan, a partner at Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP. “The NCAA has other issues. If they pay off a settlement, it may have an effect going forward. What policy changes are they going to have to make in the future? Do they have to pay players now?”
The NCAA’s member schools sell broadcasting rights to college football games that bring in hundreds of millions a year. For example, the Big Ten and the Pac-12 — the NCAA’s highest-grossing conferences — each made $250 million on television deals last year, according to Forbes.
With EA gone, the suit is now going to focus on the bigger issue of whether the age-old system of college amateurism needs to change in order to share a slice of that revenue pie with the players. So for the NCAA, the case is putting at risk more than just one video game, meaning there’s a strong disincentive to reach a similar settlement.
“[If the] principle becomes that student athletes are going to get paid for their skills, for playing football or basketball, then the whole house of cards that the NCAA is built on crumbles,” said Gregory Herbert, a shareholder with Greenberg Traurig LLP.
And while the tide of public opinion might be turning toward a system that eventually does pay some of the college game’s biggest stars, the actual legal case at hand is no slam dunk for the plaintiffs that would immediately force NCAA to cut its losses and settle. After all, it’s already more than four years old.
“There are a lot of folks out there who seem to think there’s a lot of pressure on the NCAA to settle now. I don’t think so,” Herbert said. “They can have all the sympathy in the world behind them, and it might be pretty tough for a jury to find in favor of [the NCAA], but it might not get that far.”
The first reason, and perhaps most obvious, is that the U.S. Supreme Court has already technically said bans on student pay are legal. In its 1984 ruling in NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, an antitrust case over television deals that the NCAA actually lost, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote one key line: “[A]thletes must not be paid, must be required to attend class, and the like.”
The sentence wasn’t directly tied to the central issue of that case, and the players in the current case clearly dispute that it applies to their claims, but it’s a strong piece of case law they’ll have to overcome, attorneys say.
Another issue is class certification. The Supreme Court has been none-too-friendly to class actions in the last few years, and college athletes pose a unique problem for class status: Does Heisman winner Johnny Manziel deserve the same cut of damages as a second-string punter?
“Legally speaking, the claims have a number of hurdles to clear,” Herbert said.
Aside from monetary incentives and strong legal routes, the NCAA is also seemingly willing to fight until the end. With deals like the 14-year, nearly $11 billion contract the association signed with CBS and Turner Sports in 2010 for the annual NCAA tournament, it has plenty of money to do so.
“They certainly have the war chest to fight this for a while,” Sullivan said.
The student-athletes are represented by The Lanier Law Firm and Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, among others.
The case is In re: Student-Athlete Name & Likeness Licensing Litigation, case number 4:09-cv-01967, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
–Editing by Elizabeth Bowen and Edrienne Su.
Source: Law360
Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae Wins Outstanding Web Award
Category: Press | Tuesday, October 1st, 2013 | Comments Off on Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae Wins Outstanding Web Award
Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae is proud to announce that its website has won a 2013 Web Award: Outstanding Website from the Web Marketing Association.
The WebAwards are the standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks based on the seven criteria of a successful Web site. It recognizes the individual and team achievements of Web professionals all over the world who create and maintain outstanding Web sites.
“The WebAwards look into all aspects of website development, It’s not just a beauty contest for Websites,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association. “Our expert judges evaluate the entire interactive experience and reward those sites that are best in their industry. The goal of the WebAwards is to both recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective Web sites on the Internet today and also provide valuable feedback to entrants on how their sites stack up against their peers and their industry’s standards of excellence.”
Stephen Ma Quoted in Chicago Sun Times
Category: News, Press | Thursday, September 5th, 2013 | Comments Off on Stephen Ma Quoted in Chicago Sun Times
Early Sullivan Partner Stephen Ma was quoted in Chicago Sun Times music writer Mark Guarino’s piece “Kid Rock banks on $20 tickets to thwart scalpers.”
Early Sullivan Lawyers Successfully Defend First American Title Insurance In $26 Million Bad Faith and Breach of Contract Case Following 3 Week Arbitration
Category: News, Press | Friday, August 23rd, 2013 | Comments Off on Early Sullivan Lawyers Successfully Defend First American Title Insurance In $26 Million Bad Faith and Breach of Contract Case Following 3 Week Arbitration
On June 25, 2013, after more than a year of hard fought litigation and a 3 week trial, a Panel of 3 arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association denied a wealthy plaintiff’s claims for breach of contract and bad faith against Early Sullivan client, First American Title Insurance Company, stemming from a dispute involving the most exclusive personal residence in Maui, Hawaii. On August 8, 2013, the Arbitration Panel’s Award was confirmed by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in the case captioned First American Title Insurance Co. v. Lochland Holdings LLC (USDC C.D.Cal., Case No. 11-01861) (AAA Case No. 72 159 Y 00274 11). The case, handled by Early Sullivan attorneys Eric Early, Scott Gizer, Peter Scott and Amy Beverlin, was first reported in the title insurance industry’s premier publication, The Legal Description. A full copy of the article describing the case can be found by clicking the PDF icon on the right.
Devin McRae Earns Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating 5.0 Out Of 5.0
Category: Awards, News, Press | Tuesday, July 30th, 2013 | Comments Off on Devin McRae Earns Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating 5.0 Out Of 5.0
“A Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating reflects a combination of achieving a Very High General Ethical Standards rating and a Legal Ability numerical rating…AV® Preeminent™ (4.5 – 5.0) – An AV® certification mark is a significant rating accomplishment – a testament to the fact that a lawyer’s peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.”
Source: Martindale-Hubbell
Scott Gizer Quoted in “Rising Interest Rates Could Trigger Flurry of Real Estate Deals” – Law360
Category: News, Press | Friday, July 12th, 2013 | Comments Off on Scott Gizer Quoted in “Rising Interest Rates Could Trigger Flurry of Real Estate Deals” – Law360
Scott Gizer was quoted in leading national legal publication Law360 in Kaitlin Ugolik’s article “Rising Interest Rates Could Trigger Flurry of Real Estate Deals.” The article discusses the impending surge of real estate sales and refinancings due to the governments wind-down of economy-stimulating efforts. Gizer is quoted as saying:
“People have dealt with higher interest rates for most of their lives…[An increase in deals] could continue the growth and rise in prices we’ve been seeing, and create more positive momentum by putting some people who weren’t able to refinance before in a better position to do so.”
Sophia Lau Provides Expert Advice in July 2013 California Lawyer
Category: News, Press, Publications | Sunday, July 7th, 2013 | Comments Off on Sophia Lau Provides Expert Advice in July 2013 California Lawyer
Sophia Lau is featured in the July 2013 edition of California Lawyer. Her article “Duty To Cooperate” discusses McGrory v. Applied Signal Tech., Inc., 212 Cal. App. 4th 1510 (2013), the recent California appellate decision which says an employee is obligated to assist his or her employer in the investigation of another employee’s discrimination claim.
The Ten Commandments Of Crowdfunding
Category: News, Press, Publications | Thursday, May 16th, 2013 | Comments Off on The Ten Commandments Of Crowdfunding
Forbes recently published “The Ten Commandments of Crowdfunding” by Bryan Sullivan and Stephen Ma.
With the success of the Veronica Mars and Garden State-sequel Kickstarter campaigns, it appears that the crowdfunding business model has made its way to mainstream Hollywood. While crowdfunding certainly has advantages, including giving filmmakers more creative control over their projects, this business model is open to potential claims of fraud, misappropriation, conversion and embezzlement, which lead to the risk of financial exposure in the form of adverse judgments and the cost of litigation, and can potentially stop the project. In order to minimize risk, people using the crowdfunding business model should first consult an attorney, and follow what Sullivan & Ma have coined as the “Ten Commandments of Crowdfunding.”
Read the full article here.
Bryan Sullivan Named Media and Entertainment “Rising Star”
Category: Press | Thursday, May 16th, 2013 | Comments Off on Bryan Sullivan Named Media and Entertainment “Rising Star”
Rising Star: Early Sullivan’s Bryan Sullivan
By Bill Donahue
Law360, New York (April 11, 2013, 7:16 PM ET) — Working with slew of celebrities and professional athletes — after successfully founding a multimillion-dollar law firm and a legal aid nonprofit — was more than enough to earn Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP’s Bryan Sullivan a spot among Law360’s group of the four top young media and entertainment attorneys.
Indeed, as with most of the under-40 attorneys named to Law360’s Rising Star list, Sullivan has an impressive client list. In the past few years, he’s handled cases for clients including pop singer Miley Cyrus, actress Whoopi Goldberg, Lionsgate Films Inc. and Major League Baseball star Robinson Cano.
Serving as what he describes as a “problem solver,” Sullivan handles a broad swath of cases for his clients, from entertainment contracts to intellectual property to a criminal case against a man convicted of trespassing at Cyrus’ home.
But in the case of the 37-year-old Sullivan, some of his biggest accomplishments in his career have been the organizations he’s helped start, not the cases he’s closed.
In mid-2010, Sullivan, Eric Early and three other partners left Los Angeles-based entertainment firm Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard & Shapiro LLP and founded Early Sullivan. Three years later, the firm is thriving and has doubled in size to 20 attorneys.
According to Early, a lot of that is attributable to Sullivan, who he said has “a great business mind.” “There are so many things that come into play in running a law firm that most lawyers working for bigger firms really never have to address directly and on a regular basis,” Early said. “We have to have a Bryan Sullivan in this firm to make it hum like it’s been humming.”
Breaking away from Glaser Weil — an entirely amicable split, by the way — was a risk for Sullivan. It’s much easier for a general counsel or a celebrity manager to send their work to the big firm, to the older attorney with more experience. If someone like that loses a case, it’s easier to explain.
But looking back — one successful boutique firm later — Sullivan said the move was the right one. “I really feel that if I stayed at a big firm, the opportunity wouldn’t be there for me,” he said. “I’d always be under the rubric of some big name 60-something attorney with a 35-year career of success, and nobody would actually see me.
“I felt that now was the time to take that risk and start building my own reputation.”
Sullivan also helped his colleague Daniel J. Bramzon — another Glaser Weil alum — found and run BASTA, a nonprofit group aimed at helping tenets assert their rights in landlord disputes through aggressive litigation.
One of the group’s major accomplishments has been to start demanding jury trials during eviction proceedings, something low-income, unrepresented tenets might not know to do. The prospect of a full jury trials meant landlords and, more importantly eviction attorneys, had to more thoroughly consider whether they were being fair in the process.
“We changed the way evictions are done in Los Angeles,” Sullivan said about BASTA.
Trying to explain his partner’s early success in representing high-profile clients and in helping start their firm, Early said Sullivan has a “thoughtful, creative, imaginative and exacting legal mind.”
“When you have somebody like that — who not only gets along well with clients but can come up with very innovative and spot on solutions that other people may not be able to think of — you’ve got a special person,” he said.
Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP Claims One of the “Top Defense Verdicts of the Year” by Daily Journal
Category: Awards, News, Press | Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 | Comments Off on Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP Claims One of the “Top Defense Verdicts of the Year” by Daily Journal
Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP was honored by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, California’s premier daily legal publication, for its trial victory in Central Pacific Bank v. Fidelity National Title.
A copy of the article in which Early Sullivan was honored can be found by clicking the PDF icon on the right.