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ShowbizU: Entertainment Attorney Ben Feldman on When to Fight & When to be Creative

Name: ShowbizU: Entertainment Attorney Ben Feldman on When to Fight & When to be Creative
Uploaded: 2019-10-29T19:23:19+00:00
Duration: 1 min 4 s
Channel: Tim Kashani
Description: In this interview excerpt, entertainment attorney Ben Feldman explains how he balances aggressive litigation tactics with creative negotiation strategies…

29 Oct 2019 · 1 min

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1:04

In this interview excerpt, entertainment attorney Ben Feldman explains how he balances aggressive litigation tactics with creative negotiation strategies when representing clients in the entertainment industry. He recounts a scenario where a claim was made to shut down a movie, prompting him to enter "fight mode" and threaten litigation to protect his client—an approach he uses sparingly but confidently, noting a perfect record of wins. Conversely, he describes a difficult negotiation where the other party refused to pay, leading him to propose offering the author net profits as a creative solution to close the deal. Throughout, Feldman emphasizes understanding the other side’s needs and tailoring tactics—whether confrontational or inventive—to achieve favorable outcomes.

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There have been cases like I was on a movie and someone said, oh, I directed the play version of this movie. I want to shut your movie down because I have somehow an owner of the movie. Then I get into fight mode. Sure. When it's a fight, and I do, I often threaten to litigate if I really feel like it's just absolutely opposing sides and I have to protect my client. And I have litigated. I've been very lucky. I've always won. It's a very weird I only do it rarely. But if you're doing a deal and you want to make the deal happen, you— yes, I do see it as like a— I think of what the other side needs. Definitely. I absolutely do that to try to close it up. I had one very difficult negotiation where they just didn't want to pay, and I offered— I said, why don't we just offer the authors net profits? And they didn't ask for it, but I offered it. So I think of— I do think that way creatively, that way. Yeah, yeah.