- Law Job Star
Greg S. Bernstein, Entertainment Attorney, Law Offices Of Greg S. Bernstein
by Regan Morris
by Regan Morris
Aside from drawing up contracts for Theron and other actors, Bernstein says that some clients want more, meaning his job often teeters between attorney and producer. One client, he says, is the writer, director and producer of his film and doesn't have the time to organize financing and distribution plans. ''So he's asked me to try to take a quarterback lead on that, something that's maybe more what a producer would do,'' Bernstein told LawCrossing. ''Normally a lawyer would just, say, make sure all the documentation is in order… It's a lot more fun than just simply reading the contract and commenting on it, but sometimes it's a big headache.'' Bernstein, who has been working in entertainment law for over twenty years, started his career as a tax attorney. The firm he joined after graduating from UCLA law school in 1982 dissolved within a year of his working there. Several partners created spinoff firms, and he joined Gipson, Hoffman & Pancione. It was at this firm that he got his first taste of the world of entertainment law - finding tax shelters for movie producers. He says entertainment law is not about glamour - he didn't get to meet Theron and, although he attends the Cannes film festival every year, it's not to hobnob with the stars. He goes for the market meetings and to meet distributors. And while he has received several co-producer and executive co-producer credits on films, it's not something he pushes for. Bernstein says breaking into entertainment law is so competitive that it's much the same as an actor, producer or writer trying to make it in Hollywood: it takes a lot of talent and a lot of luck. His clients include actors, writers, producers, distributors, sales agents, production companies, banks and financiers. He teaches his craft to filmmakers through a UCLA extension course called ''From Packaging to Delivery'' and he writes frequent articles on the business of independent film. When the tax rules changed in 1986 to eliminate tax shelters, so did Bernstein's practice. He started helping his clients raise production money through various equity deals. He eventually joined the entertainment firm of Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman, and after several years there, he decided to start his own firm in September, 2000. ''The problem for me, as we got into 2001, the whole independent film business went in the toilet,'' he said. ''So from that standpoint, it wasn't a good move. Although who knows what it would have been like if I'd been at other firms. But from a standpoint of controlling my own destiny and doing more creative deals, I've definitely enjoyed myself.'' He says films, like soybeans, suffer from volatile price fluctuations and that changing tastes, a lack of advertising dollars and the popularity of reality television has hurt the independent film business. ''In Germany, for example, five years ago almost every single [television] show and movie you'd see in prime time was American,'' he said. ''Now it's probably less than 50 percent…. Instead of having two American movies showing at night, now they've got [an] American Idol…of Germany. And there's Survivor Germany, and there's Big Brother Germany and there's all these other things.'' He says five years ago he could sell a film to HBO or Showtime for $800,000 to a million dollars. ''Today, if you can even get them to buy, they'll pay probably between $150,000 and $350,000.'' But he says he still makes a lucrative living - particularly because it's such a niche practice. And he's optimistic that film prices will rise again. ''Independent film is a small area. There's probably only a half dozen of us in LA that really do it on a regular basis. There are loads that do a little here and a little there. So it's a small community that handles the production, the distribution and the financing of independent films. For us lawyers, the last few years have been a little tough.'' For attorneys interested in entertainment law, Bernstein says the best way to get in is to work for a big firm doing corporate or litigation work. And working in Hollywood depends on who you know, as much as what you know - so making contacts is key, he says. ''Most entertainment law firms do not hire from schools. Most of them hire lawyers who have been out four or five years working in corporate or litigation or things like that, and have shown themselves to be just very good lawyers in those areas.'' Big studios hire in-house attorneys for their legal departments, but those jobs are ultra-competitive and generally ''pay about half of what you would earn if you were working for a regular law firm.'' Bernstein says there are secrets to negotiating independent film contracts that only come from years of experience. Take ''likeness ties,'' for example. Some actors negotiate deals assuring that if the movie posters show an actor or ''likeness'' of any character, it must show them. Likeness ties to contracts can kill a deal, Bernstein says, because different distributors have different ideas about how a film should be marketed. He cites Monster's Ball as an example - many companies chose to show Halle Berry instead of Billy Bob Thornton. Sounds silly, but a likeness tie for Billy Bob could have ruined the deal to sell the film. Bernstein, who is married with two kids, says he struggled starting his own firm, but could never imagine going back to a big firm and that recently he has been ''surprised'' to get some big name clients who could easily go to a big firm. ''Maybe they're starting to realize that reputation means a whole lot more than three or four names on the door,'' he said. |
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