During the course of studying copyright law, intellectual property, and the difference between civil and criminal law (give you a hint, one leads to jail time - take your guess which) I managed to find time to track down and interview a lawyer from Chicago who specializes in entertainment law and has been involved with the entertainment industry for over four decades.
David MacTavish began as a photographer being published in various magazines and became the head of the professional photographers association and dedicated several decades of his life to this. After deciding to retire from the association and being a photographer professionally he returned to law school and became an entertainment lawyer with his own practice located less than an hour from downtown Chicago.
The full details are here:
David MacTavish, Esq. is an “entertainment” lawyer based outside of Chicago, Illinois. The term entertainment was set off by quotes in the previous sentence because, while entertainment lawyer is a relatively common term in the industry, there is no specific field of law that specifically deals with the entertainment industry. Entertainment law encompasses many various fields and David’s extended career within the entertainment industry has allowed him to become familiar with all fields of law related to the entertainment industry, including, but not limited to, copyright, trademark, and contract law. David’s law firm specialized in everything from idea protection, domain names, and trade secrets to copyrights, trademarks, and intellectual property.
David began working in the entertainment industry after becoming ill in the 1960’s with meningitis. Ironically enough, at the time he was studying to become a lawyer, but due to the illness this career was sidetracked for a few decades. During rehabilitation from the illness, David’s doctors instructed him to find something to do to keep his mind and body active as opposed to spending his time sitting around a hospital and focusing on the illness. At this time he picked up a camera and became a dedicated photographer, a choice that would forever guide him and directly influence his life for the next twenty years. As a photographer he became a member of the professional photographers association and eventually was elected president of this organization. The professional photographers association is an American society of media photographers that specializes in the advocacy of photographers’ rights and provides help in lawsuits involving photographers. David helped on a national board directly aiding photographers for twenty years, which led him back into the world of law. The association funded a lawsuit that made it all the way to the Supreme Court with David’s help and guidance. In 1991 however, David retired from the society and began law school again.
During his time in law school David focused his studies specifically on intellectual property law in order to help artists and writers when he left school. In addition to general law required to pass the bar, David worked on copyright and trademark law primarily and now concentrates his law office around copyright law, contract law, and trademark law. David has been a lawyer for ten years now and is operating a successful law firm in Maple Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago where David goes to file his cases in federal court. David’s clients mostly hire him to deal with the intricacies of trademark law and to pursue infringers upon trademarks, for example a company operating a website Hylton instead of Hilton. These types of infringers simply make a website similar to an existing companies website and hope to trick consumers into uploading their credit card’s information in an attempt to commit fraud. The companies that hire David go after these infringers.
David strives to operate his firm as client friendly as possible. When called to set up an interview, David answered the phone himself and was very polite and helpful from the start. The goal of the firm is to provide legal help to individuals and companies in plain English that is straightforward and easy to understand. Utilizing state of the art technology and cost effective methods the practice provides legal help with the goal of resolving matters to a client’s satisfaction as quickly and efficiently as possible. David focuses on each client’s background, needs, and goals; every case begins with the client (Mactavish-law.com). During his career David stated that his favorite moment of being a lawyer was his first big case he landed right out of law school. All trademark and copyright matters he deals with are in federal court, and the first case was a domain name problem in which David’s client was competing with a cyber-squatter. After several attempts to settle outside of court, David was forced to file a lawsuit, which resulted in a trial. The majority of cases dealing with intellectual property never end up in a trial, however this one did. In the end David won the case. He said that winning a case in trial is perhaps the greatest thrill of being a lawyer.
After being asked what the largest challenges he felt someone becoming an artist manager would face he explained that it was to make sure that as a manager to never accidentally end up acting as an attorney, which would be practicing law without a license. By making and reading contracts without a lawyer the manager could commit the artist to contracts without understanding what was written and thus leading to a potentially long standing deal that might not be beneficial to the artist. He suggested that always retaining a lawyer in as a good insurance policy and that spending the money would be worth it in the long run. In most states legal trouble can arise from acting like a lawyer without a license so it’s best to just consult one and avoid the potential pitfall.
When consulted on advice becoming an artist manager in the music business, David said that the business is changing a lot, and very rapidly. A person needs to be someone who is fluid and flexible, stays up to date on changes and keeps current on new technology. A person must be conversant and understand new changes and developments. One thing currently hurting older artists is that CD’s are dying and as a manager a person must understand where the new income is and where the future is going. Furthermore than just understanding this change, a manager must be able to explain this change to their client and get the client on board with the new changes. David doesn’t charge people for telephone calls; he feels that having people call and be informed on what is happening is an important thing.
Open communication leads to happier and more satisfied clients than closed or billed communication does in his opinion. He feels that artist managers need to have the same type of policy, and if an open door policy exists, it should be just that – an open door, or open phone or email account, whatever the case dictates. Everyone needs to stay current on what is going on, at all times. Keeping people informed on what is going on and what has been done in their behalf lately is vital. Artists can be touchy people that get their ego’s hurt easily at times and having them think you are ignoring them in favor of someone else is never good for anyone. Additionally David recommends getting everything in writing always, no “handshake basis” for anything with clients and the people dealt with on a daily basis. In reference to a recording contract or performance contract ask as many questions as possible during negotiation so that all topics are covered. Asking questions is vital in this business and even more so in starting out; find out as much as possible and never be afraid of looking silly or ignorant for asking something, because its possible that its an angle that no one had looked for or at yet.
The fastest and easiest way to gain knowledge on anything is to read about it, and there are more than plenty of books out on the legal industry and information on the Internet is always available. Performing rights organizations are a vital part of the music industry as well and a manager needs to understand how to explain to a new artist what each are about and the benefits of one versus the other. Each organization has its own function and works slightly differently, the easiest way to discover the differences is to go online and research each one extensively, print out all the information and build a file on each one.
Finally David explained that lawyers rates vary from a couple of hundred dollars an hour all the way up to over a thousand an hour depending on what is required, and who is consulted. A partner in a large law firm will cost much more than a junior member who just got out of college, however will have much greater knowledge in the subject matter. *Contact information removed*
The biggest thing I learned from talking to David was to be patient with the industry and to always consult a lawyer so I don't end up practicing law by accident without a license - which is typically frowned upon due to its illegality.
