In this solo presentation, Wendy Day (Rapp Coalition) explains why an entertainment lawyer is a critical member of a musician’s team and how to select one. She distinguishes two lawyer types—transactional (deal‑making) attorneys who handle contracts, licensing, advances, and label negotiations, and litigators who handle lawsuits. Day stresses that only lawyers with dedicated entertainment‑law experience understand the complex royalty structures and unique contracts musicians face. She advises finding attorneys through trusted referrals rather than Google or yellow‑pages, preferring those based in New York or Los Angeles because those markets house the industry’s network. Her hiring process includes interviewing multiple lawyers in person (often flying to New York for a 2‑3‑day meeting), evaluating responsiveness, power, and comfort level, and choosing someone more powerful than the artist but not overly entangled with label executives. She outlines common fee models—hourly rates ($500‑$1,000) or a percentage of the advance (e.g., 10%)—and warns that these incentives can bias lawyers toward closing deals rather than protecting the artist’s long‑term career. Day explains when to hire a lawyer (when there is a concrete deal to negotiate and sufficient buzz), how lawyers can also provide networking opportunities, and the importance of maintaining a stable team, noting that firing an attorney can disrupt momentum. She concludes with practical tips: the first meeting should be free, the lawyer must be responsive, and the artist should leverage their bargaining power to secure the best representation.
Chapters
Hi guys, this is a continuation of how to put together your team, and today I'm going to talk about lawyers. Um, a lawyer is a key component of your team, and you're going to need to do a little bit of research to find a great attorney. With lawyers, there are two different kinds that you're going to use in regards to your music career. There are transactional attorneys. These are the attorneys that negotiate deals, um, do the paperwork. If you're a rapper, they will do the paperwork for the tracks that you purchase. If you're a producer, they will do the negotiations with the artists and the labels for the tracks that you sell. Um, if you're a songwriter, they will do the agreements between you and the label and the artist for the songs that you write. Um, and for any of you, they will do the licensing agreements for synchronization so that if you get a song in, um, a TV show or commercial, they will do the paperwork. Um, if you're putting out an album, rappers, they are the ones that will do your producer decks. They will do the agreements. If you sign any artists to your company, they will do the artist agreements. If a major label um, wants to pick you up, they will do the paperwork for the major label for your distribution deal. That's a transactional attorney. They're just called entertainment attorneys. If somebody steals one of your songs, or if you have an agreement with somebody and they don't deliver what they're supposed to deliver, then you will use a litigator, and that's a different type of attorney. I hope you guys never find out what one of those is. They're basically the folks that, um, you you utilize to sue people, or if somebody sues you, to defend you. Today I'm talking about transactional attorneys. They absolutely, abso-fucking-lutely have to have experience in entertainment law to work with you. And there are plenty of attorneys out here that don't, that will say that they can represent you, they can do deals for you, but they can't. You want somebody that specializes in entertainment. These contracts are too unique to anything else in the world to have somebody that doesn't specialize in entertainment looking over anything for you. Royalties are the way that you're going to get paid, and it's so intricate that you really need somebody that speaks the language, right? So you're going to look for an entertainment attorney. Referrals are the best way to find a great entertainment attorney. It's not like you can just go on to Google and Google entertainment lawyer. That's a really, really bad idea. Finding one in the yellow pages is a really, really, really, really bad idea. Um, finding someone quoted in an article and trying to hire them is a better idea, but still not a great idea because you just don't know if they're great at what they do or not. Um, I, I personally prefer the more experienced attorneys. My attorneys are all in New York and LA, and I know that every attorney watching this that's not in New York or LA is like, fuck you, Wendy Day. But the reason I like attorneys that are in New York and LA is because that's the mecca for the music industry. And when you're in the arena, you have the opportunity to really network and hang out with the folks that you're doing business with. You want somebody that has a relationship with them, but not in bed with them, right? So you want them to have a good enough relationship where somebody will take their calls and answer their emails, but not so great of a relationship where you question whether they're selling you out. Um, there's a lot of really shitty lawyers out here. My biggest complaint about attorneys is that they get paid, um, for doing deals. They either get paid by the hour or they get paid a percentage of the advance that you get on a deal. So there's incentive for them to get the deal done but there's not incentive for them to protect you from everything that could possibly go wrong. I know that when I negotiate a deal, I do it based on what's best for the artist, and while I do want you to have an advance, I'm more concerned about you having a future and a career. With attorneys, they don't necessarily negotiate from that point of view because they're in a situation where at their firm, they need to bring in a certain quota, a certain amount of money every month, and then they get their bonus paid at the end of the year based on that income. So they have a little bit of a different business model in negotiating a deal than an artist or somebody like myself that's an artist advocate would have, right? But regardless, you need to have an entertainment attorney on your side to look over your paperwork, quite possibly to negotiate a deal for you. So you're going to do some research and get referrals from people in the business that you trust. Talk to the lawyer, see who you're comfortable with. You don't have to do it in person, you can speak to them over the phone. I personally interview attorneys in person, um, if I'm choosing a new, new attorney. I'm going to fly to New York after setting up appointments. I'll set up appointments over like a 2 or 3 day period, and I'll fly to New York and I'll do nothing but just meet with attorneys. And then I'll choose the one that I'm most comfortable with and the one that I feel is gonna pay the most attention to me. It's not just necessarily about how powerful they are or who I like the most, although I always choose powerful attorneys. I want somebody more powerful than me on my side, right? But I don't necessarily choose an attorney based on who's the most powerful or the most well-connected. I also wanna make sure that they're gonna get back to me in a timely fashion, that it's not going to take me a week to get them on the phone when I need to be in the midst of negotiating a contract. When do you hire an attorney? You hire an attorney when you've got something to negotiate. It's going to be very difficult for you if you're utilizing an attorney because most don't shop deals, right? You've got to have, you've got to have a deal on the table when you come to them, and then they might start a bidding war by calling other labels to, to get in on it, but they certainly aren't just gonna shop a deal for you because they think you're a great artist. When you, when you choose your attorney, you're gonna have something to negotiate. You're gonna have enough of a buzz where the labels are calling you. There's got to be a reason that you're about to hire an attorney, and they're motivated by money. So if you've got paperwork already coming into you and you're meeting with them and trying to choose who's best, you're gonna get the best response when there's some work for them to do. If you're just meeting with them in September because you think you're gonna get a deal proposed to you in January, you might not see the best side of them because you're kind of just shopping. You're not really looking for somebody that's gonna make some money with you relatively quickly. And remember, this is a business, not just for you, But for everybody around you, for all of your ancillary people, your— not your entourage, but your team, they're incentivized by making money. So the more opportunity that you have, the better leverage you're gonna have to get to the top people, to get to the people that are in the inner circle, the people that can call the president of record labels at 3 o'clock in the morning and ask for favors, or if you're not happy, to express that some changes need to be made. Attorneys not only look over paperwork, but they also sometimes help you when you're having trouble with the label, or they will step in and find other opportunities for you. Maybe they represent a company that is looking for an endorsement and they represent you, so they may put you with that company that they represent. I've seen lawyers put artists that they represent together. So if the attorney is representing, you know, Mika Mill and you, maybe they'll make a connection once you have, um, once you have a buzz and once you have a movement behind you that makes sense for them to put you with an artist that's a little bit larger. Maybe they'll make that connection. That doesn't mean for sure that they will. You don't choose an artist because they represent Drake— I mean, a lawyer because they represent Drake. You choose a lawyer that you feel comfortable with and you feel has your best interest at heart. And they will get paid on an hourly basis. Um, lawyers in the entertainment industry can be anywhere from $500 to $1,000 an hour, or they'll get paid as a percentage on the back end of your deal. So if your advance is half a million dollars and they're being paid 10%, then they're going to get $50,000 for doing your deal. And in addition to that, they're going to do all of the paperwork that's necessary for you to deliver that first album. That's part of of what the— they're getting paid for. So that's how you choose an attorney. Again, don't Google. Call, ask people that you respect that have careers in the music industry. Ask them who their attorneys are, who they used to work with, why they don't work with them anymore. Learn as much as you can about choosing your team, because for the most part, these are folks that are going to be with you for a while. Not that you can't change attorneys— you can. You're not going to have a contract with your attorney. You could fire them tomorrow if you wanted to. The problem with firing people— you don't hire people knowing that you could just fire them to get rid of them because it changes the dynamic of the team. And when you've got a well-oiled machine, you've got, you know, 5 or 6 different people as your team that you're all moving forward and you're all stepping on the same foot at the same time. When you remove somebody from that team, it throws everything off balance. It kind of fucks shit up for a while until somebody new comes in and kind of gets going, and that can sometimes take 6 months to a year. So just know that you can get rid of people, but there's a price for you as an artist for getting rid of people. So choose wisely. Choose the best people that you can. Choose them when you've got the leverage to be able to land the best person for your career. And that first meeting that you take with an attorney to, to get to know them, if they're charging you for that meeting they are not the right attorney for you. A, a, a really legit good attorney is not going to charge you for that first meeting. I don't care who they are. Okay, y'all, take care. Thanks for tuning in. This is Wendy Day from Rapp Coalition. Choosing your team. I'm out.
