Joel Katz, the highly effective longtime music legal professional whose purchasers included James Brown, B.B. King, Willie Nelson and the Recording Academy, has died, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. He was 80 years outdated.
Katz spent many years as one of the crucial excessive profile attorneys within the music enterprise, negotiating the Recording Academy’s $600 million 10-year settlement between the Recording Academy and CBS for the Grammys (that deal will lastly finish subsequent 12 months as The Grammys will transfer to Disney), and he was a outstanding determine within the Michael Jackson property’s $750 million sale of its stake in Sony/ATV Publishing.
Different purchasers of his had included Huge Machine Label Group, Jason Owen and Sandbox Leisure, BMG, Kenny Chesney, Justin Timberlake, Brad Paisley and lots of others.
Katz, who lived in Atlanta, was the founding chairman for the leisure and media follow at main legislation agency Greenberg Traurig, the place he practiced for almost 25 years from 1998 via 2020. He resigned from the agency in 2021, transferring to Barnes and Thornburg. In 2016, Katz was honored with the Metropolis of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award, becoming a member of different outstanding business figures who’ve been given the respect akin to Irving Azoff, Coran Capshaw and Lucian Grainge.
In a press release to The Hollywood Reporter, longtime shopper Jason Owen, CEO of The Sandbox, mentioned: “The architect is gone, however the blueprint he left behind — of boldness and perception in his purchasers — will form this business endlessly. Joel was my buddy, my champion, and a once-in-a-lifetime power. He believed in me earlier than I believed in myself. I’ll miss his chortle, his wit and his capacity to invoice me again for 15 minute conversations. I beloved him like household and can miss him each single day.”
Again in 2020, Katz was embroiled in controversy when simply previous to her excessive profile ouster, former Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan had accused the legal professional of sexually harassing her. The allegation was included in an explosive grievance filed with the Equal Employment Alternative Fee the place Dugan additionally known as into query the integrity of the Grammy voting course of. Katz had denied the claims.
