John Branca Best in the West

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CaliforniaLawBusinessSupplementlo the Los AngelesDailyJournal and the San FranciscoDaily Journal Monday,March21,'1994

Reprinledby permissionfromTheDailyJournalColP.



LAW

N THE

n the srnalt,elite circle of high'pol.ered enlertainment la$yers, it wasthe c l ient coup of 1993.JohnBranca, indispulably the top musiclawyer on the West Coast and per-

haps in tle country - his friend,New York's Allen Grubrnan,being

Brancais gladMichaelJacksonis

hisclient,butevenwithouthimthehadhisthreemostproductiveyears.

By ICHAEL D. HARRIS

only tsue competitor for the latter tide -

with superstar entertainer Michaelwho was about to become deeply

in battlins child nolestation

Back in 1979,Mr. Branca was ayouns taxth e now-defunctHardee,

Konecky & Braun, when he ]vas

to work on Mr. Jackson'saccourLJackson'scareer skyrocketed

the 1982release of the mega-platjnumalbun - the bissest-sel:ins

- Mr. Branca took otrdcals for the enter-

and helpilg to managehim. In theMr. Brdnca mad€ his repu[adoo as

asmillions ofdollars.But in 1990, that muhally lucratjve rela-

ground to a halt R€portedly at theentertainment czar David Gefien,

felt Mr. Branca ]vas wielding too muchwith the superstar,Mr . Jackson

ircd the attomey andjumped shipBert Fields,primarily kno\rn as a heavy-

entertainmentlitjSator.lrte last year, however, Mr. Fields - a

partner with Century City 'sFields, Claman &

- resigned for undisclosedr€aJackson'sattorn€y a month

paid mi!

led agarnst bim by al4yearcld boy.

And Mr, Branca,a name partner at& Branca, the premier

boutique, oncehandling the sef-styled

of Pop's"substartialbody of music

For that he will be forever glateful. ButBranca,43, feels the media hasperpetu-

about the three or sohe was in exile from the Jackson

he did lihle more thanplotting how to get the superstar

away from Mr. lietds and back into his ownd^zzling stableof clients,a virtual Wio'swho ofrock'n' roll andpopmusic.

Nothins could be turther trom the truth,Mr. Branca says.In fact, he maintains, thoseyearswere the mostproducdveof his careerby Iar. "Of course I wanted Michael back,'saysthe soft-spokenattorneywho rarelygrants intewiews. "But I never mounted ac"mpaisn to set him back. I was not sittinsthere Iyins in wait. Tbat is simply not thecase.Michael makes his ortl decisions.'

'The fact that Michael Jacksoncame backto me was a nice vindication in a s€nse,"h€says,"but it wasn't something I was basing

my care€r on. The past three yearshavebeen the most productive of my caree/ inwhich he negotiateda majority of the mega-afiist deals in the record business.

Those deals inctud€d representinsA€rosmith in a four-album. S30millionrecordins contract ltith Sony Music, theRotlinc Stones in a threealbum, $40milionrecording agreernentwith Wgin Records-

the largest in history for a rccording gmup- and Elton John in a S39 million musicpublishingdealwith Warner/Chappel

Other dealsincluded representing ZZTopin a fivealburn, $30nilion recording asreement with BMG Recordsand negotiating,alongwith fello]v ZiI&en BrittenhampartnerGary Stiffelman, the Prince/Warner Bros.deal worth a reported 5100million. (Before

switching to Zif&en Brittenham, Prince usedto be representedby prorninentmusic attor-ney lee Phillips, a namepartner with westLos Angeles' Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.Prince filed suit against Manatt Phelps andhis former accountantsfor breach of fiducia

ry duty and conspiracy to deiaud, but theactionw?s later settled.)

But thafs not all. During that period, Mr.Brancaalso repr€sentedJVCin negotiationswith MCA to €stablish a Japanesejoint ven-ture record companlt DefAmerican Recordsand its founder, Rick Rubin, in establishingajoint venture with iryamer Bros. Records;and Interscope Communications in es.tablishing a joint venture rvith AtlanticRecordsand the formation of InterscopeRecords.

In addit ion, he represented Rh inoRecords in establishiry joint ventures with

Time/wamer and DeliciousVinyl in theestabl ishmentof a jo int venture wi th'Iime/Warner,

and helped establish a joint

venture between Sony Music and Dick

Clark Productions for the creation of newrecordings and the telemarketing ofrecords.

H€ also began representingthe estateofElvis Presley andpicked up as clients a hostof alternative and rap artists such asNiwana, Rage Against the Machine, Tool,Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogsy Dog, Sir Mix-a-l,ot,Megadethand Toad the Wet Sprockel

Durig that period, he also started doingmusic work for such esiablished recordingart is ts as Don Henley, Duran Duran,Traveling Wilburys, Kiss, Dwight Yoakan,Meatloaf,Tony Toni Tone, Chris Isaak,George Winston al|d former Motley Crueleadsingervince Neil.

The new clientsexpandedMr. Branca's

alreadyformidable roster of clients thatincludes such personal favorites as theBeach Boys and the Doors. (BeIoresettinshis law degree from UCLA in 1975,Mr.

Brancaplayedkeyboards in a band thatopenedfor Jim Morrison and companyatthe \4liskey).

Mr. Brancawas obviously a very busyman during his years away from Mr.

Jackson- so busy, he says, that he wasn'tleft with a lot of time to worry about how toget the superstar back with ZiffrenBrittenharn.

He sayshis reunion with Mr. Jacksonsternned fom a lunch he had last summerwith fte entertaine/s manager, &ndy Gal-lin, with whom he had representedthe ult!mately disgmced Mi i Vanilli. Mr. B.ancasays he and Mr. Gallin practicallywentthrough the en6,"elunch without discr.rssingthe supeFtar, but 6naly did after Mr. Galin

/ Monday,March21, 1994 CALIFORNIAI



B{B

DAZZLINGCLIENT LIST_

"l was forlunalein that a

numberol very imporlantclientsshowedconlldenceinme by retainingme,"saysatlorneyJohn Branca,whorepresenlsrnusrcneavy-weighls(lromlett) DonHenley;Aerosmith,lor whomhe negotlaleda $30 millionrecorddea; [,lichaelJackson,who returnedlo lhefold in lhe clientcoup ofi993i andPrince,ior whomhe and parlnerGarySllflelmanhandleda dealwilh Warner Bros.repo edlyworth$100mil l ion.

nameup.Mr. Branca says, Mr. Gallin

Mr . Jackson,who in tum teleMr. Brancaseveraldayslater and

o once againjoin the team.quicldy reap€d the benefits

\,\,ithMr Branca-brokered for him the larsest

deal in history.worlh anS100rni l t ion-Under ir . Mr.

\€st publishing holdings- whichi of the bnnon/Mccartney

as well as soDgsby Mr, Presley,- will be

by EMI Music.who has been a nameparher

Brittenhan since 1984,lets on thatJacksonleft him shalen

period of time.if youre viewed as lut

you'velost your power base, the

lultures start circling," he says."And peoplewere waiting to seeif that was it, hoping ihatI would ride into the suns€L"

'So yeah, there \rere some nervous

times,'he alows. 'But I nust say that I wasfortunate in that a number of very importantclients - both corporate and artists -

showed confdence in me by retaining me.And in retrospecL the pmctice continued togrow without missing a beaL"

Mr, Branca denies reports that ever sincebeing 6red by Mr. Jackson,he's been was'ing a war of revengeagainst Mr. Geffen.

'Asfir as I'm concemed,there is no dis

pute.,vithDavid Gefren,' he says.But industry observers note Mr. Branca

took Aerosmith from Geffen RecordstoSony and started representing ex-EagleHenley, who is suins to leave Gefien.

To that, Mr. Branca says,"I'm a personwho peopleidentify as somebody$,ho is

independent,and who will stand up andrepresenta client ag$€ssively."

The past few years have seen ZiffrenBdttenham hit with several conllict{iinter-

est suits.One was dismissedon summaryjudsmenq onewassetded and two are p€nd-mg.

Mr. Brdnca sals they're all Stoundless.'"!Vhat'sreally happening,"he says,'is

that when you're successful,peoplecomeout of the woodwork looking to t le a shot,to see if they canget a settlemenl"

"Conlticts are absolutely ineviiable in anybusinessas small as the musicbusiness,"hegoeson. "I t may be a big doll ar business,but there ar€ only six major distnbutors inNorth Arnerica and five international disfib-utors. And without being arrogant, I wouldsay the number of top law firms that arehandling most of the tr-ansactionsare maybefour or 6ve."

Monday,March21, I994/

John Branca Best in the West

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