Art and Media Law

The Firm maintains an active art and media law practice. It represents artists, writers, and musicians, as well as galleries, publishers, music publishers and record labels. The Firm’s practice includes transactional matters, litigation, intellectual property protection, and estate planning. The Firm negotiates licenses and performance agreements, assists with corporate restructuring, and addresses family law issues, trusts and estates, and royalty collection.

The Firm represents clients in cases involving contested ownership of works of fine art. It also has represented artists, musicians and publishers in high-profile disputes over copyright ownership and First Amendment protections. At its clients’ request, the Firm monitors foreign litigation for potential impact in the United States.

The Firm’s clients include a number of foundations and non-profits active in the cultural field. The Firm works with these clients to navigate the specific issues relevant to not-for-profit institutions.

The Firm has perhaps unrivaled knowledge and experience in transactions and travel involving countries subject to U.S. economic embargoes. In both small and large matters, the Firm regularly advises United States and third-country filmmakers, art foundations and galleries, record companies, publishers and others on the legal possibilities for informational and cultural transactions consistent with U.S. restrictions. When needed, it obtains appropriate licenses from U.S. government authorities.

United States Economic Sanctions Programs

The Firm assists numerous U.S. and third-country clients – corporations, foundations, universities, associations and individuals – in coping with U.S. restrictions on transactions with targeted countries.

The Firm litigated the case that established an exemption for art from the U.S.’s embargo programs (Ashton v. Newcomb). The Firm drafted the 1994 Congressional legislation that exempted the Internet, television broadcasts and other electronic transmissions of informational material from the U.S.’s embargo programs. It represents the oldest U.S. charter and travel company specializing in travel to Cuba.

After establishing the constitutional status of the right to travel abroad (Kent v. Dulles), the Firm litigated each of the Supreme Court challenges to the U.S.’s prohibitions on travel to Cuba (United States v. Laub; Zemel v. Rusk; Regan v. Wald), as well as the major post-Cold War challenge (Freedom to Travel Campaign v. Newcomb).

Michael Krinsky, one of the Firm’s principals, authored, with another of the Firm’s lawyers, UNITED STATES ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA: PROCEEDINGS IN THE UNITED NATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ISSUES (Michael Krinsky & David Golove eds., Alethia Press 1993), based in part on the Firm’s work for Cuba on the first General Assembly resolution condemning the U.S. embargo. Supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the book was praised by both the American Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs .

The Firm litigated the case that established an exemption for artworks from the U.S.’s embargo programs, and drafted the 1994 Congressional legislation that exempted the Internet, television broadcasts and other electronic transmission of informational material from the U.S.’s embargo programs.

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