Entertainment attorneys John Mason and Darrell Miller are tuning up a new firm; both are professional musicians turned lawyers.
And after working in separate law firms for more than a decade, they have launched their own boutique entertainment firm in Century City, Mason Miller LLP.
The four-attorney firm focuses on representing creative talent in the entertainment and sports industries.
“We saw the opportunity to do something that hadn’t been done before, including expanding the brands of the celebrities we represent through endorsements and sponsorships,” said Mason, who was a professional guitarist with the Marketts before becoming a lawyer.
As veteran entertainment lawyers, Mason and Miller have experienced the digital revolution that is affecting the motion picture, television and music industries.
“People are not discontinuing their taste for television, movies or music. They are just looking for new platforms to experience that,” said Miller, who was a professional singer, traveling the world in musical theater troupes.
Mason said the firm is working on a reality television project with a trio of singing sisters.
Mason Miller is also helping Andr & #233; Benjamin, better known as Andr & #233; 3000 from the musical group OutKast, launch a clothing line in September.
Mason and Miller are affiliated with New York-based Dreier LLP, which houses 225 attorneys.
Founder Marc Dreier serves as a common partner of Mason Miller, but the firm is run independently from Dreier’s offices.
Doughnut Labor
One business is taking its outside law firm to task over its labor and employment legal advice.
City of Industry-based Yum Yum Donut Shops Inc. filed a lawsuit July 30 against its outside legal counsel, Reed Smith LLP.
Yum Yum claims the firm failed to make sure the company’s employee handbook was in compliance with California labor laws.
Family-owned Yum Yum, which operates 64 shops in the state, purchased Winchell’s Donut Houses Operating Co. LLP in 2004. Following the acquisition, Yum Yum management jumped from 50 employees to 1,000 employees, and decided to revamp its employee handbook.
Kevin Nowicki, Yum Yum’s attorney, said the company used Winchell’s handbook as a guide to develop an updated version, which included a policy that required employees to waive their rights to meal breaks.
“If they had paid closer attention, they would have known that with the use of these waivers you need to figure out how many employees are working during any given shift and comply with whether or not a meal break needs to be taken,” Nowicki said.
Reed Smith declined to comment on the pending litigation.
After Reed Smith reviewed and approved the employee handbook, Nowicki said employees filed two wage and hour class action lawsuits against Yum Yum in 2006.
The company settled both suits for $3 million last month.
Nowicki said Yum Yum wants to recover the $3 million it paid to settle the suits, in addition to punitive damages.
Employee Competition
Local businesses looking to prevent departing employees from soliciting business or performing services for company clients are going to have to look a little harder.
Last week, the California Supreme Court reaffirmed a state law that prohibits employers from making employees sign non-compete agreements. Under a non-compete agreement, an employee agrees to not pursue a similar profession or trade in competition with their employer once he or she has left the company.
The state Supreme Court reviewed a case involving a former Arthur Andersen LLP employee, who sued claiming the company’s non-compete agreement prevented him from working within the accounting industry. The court ruled that the employer should not have tried to do so.
“It’s a lesson for employers,” said Anthony Oncidi, a labor and employment attorney in the Los Angeles office of Proskauer Rose LLP. “If employers include a non-compete agreement, they run the risk of not only having the agreement thrown out, but being sued for interfering with the employee’s ability to get a new job.”
Labor and employment lawyers said local industries, including the entertainment, biotechnology, real estate and insurance sectors, will have to readjust their practices following the high court’s ruling.
Jennifer Redmond, a labor and employment attorney at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, said non-compete agreements tend to be an issue in the entertainment industry.
One local company, Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard Inc., was closely watching how the court ruled on the matter because it’s concerned about workers taking business from them when they leave.
The video game publisher’s lawyer, Paul Grossman, said Activision was pleased by another item in the ruling, where the court found that employers can make employees sign a general release form in exchange for severance pay. A general release form requires employees to discharge any claims, suits or agreements the employee holds against his or her employer.
Staff reporter Alexa Hyland can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.
