Dealmaking, Touring, and AI: 2026 Music Law Update

Carron Joan Mitchell represents recording artists, music producers, songwriters, actors, models, content creators, entrepreneurs, collegiate and professional athletes, and other entertainment industry professionals in a wide range of transactional matters. Drawing on prior insider experience working within the music, sports, media, and radio industries, she brings a business-minded perspective that allows her to anticipate clients’ needs holistically. She advises athletes on opportunities beyond the field and court, but is also a certified contract advisor with the National Football Players Association (NFLPA) and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). Her practice spans Entertainment & Media, Intellectual Property, and Corporate & Finance, with particular depth in the music, digital content and sports industries.

Carron negotiates a broad range of entertainment agreements on behalf of her clients, including recording, publishing, distribution, and catalog acquisition agreements; touring, merchandising, sponsorship, and endorsement deals; talent and production agreements; television and modeling contracts; talent representation agreements; athlete representation and marketing agreements, licensing; and content creation and monetization arrangements. She also advises on joint ventures, strategic partnerships and the sale and acquisition of music assets and other intellectual property.

A significant focus of Carron’s practice involves business development and strategy for talent, athletes, and founders. She works with talent to build and launch new business enterprises, including record labels, distribution companies, publishing companies, creative and marketing agencies, consumer brands, and athlete-led enterprises. She advises clients across every stage and various verticals of their careers to ensure they establish a durable foundation for long-term growth, not only as creative professionals, but as brands and businesses.

Carron also serves as outside general counsel to music, video game, Web3, blockchain, technology and digital media companies.  She regularly advises emerging entertainment platforms and production companies, including businesses in the rapid growing short-form and micro-drama content space, on talent, production, licensing, IP protection and other matters. In the outside counsel role, she collaborates with in-house legal counsel on entertainment, music, copyright and strategic issues, while also acting as a liaison across the various legal disciplines required for her clients’ evolving business ventures. She regularly counsels clients on emerging issues at the intersection of entertainment and technology, including digital assets, content monetization in virtual environments, and evolving licensing frameworks in the streaming era.

Pamela Klein is a partner in Rossi Baldivia Klein Fine & Spector, P.C. with a broad-based practice spanning nearly 30 years in the music and entertainment industries. She advises, counsels and provides creative and pragmatic solutions for clients; her contributions are anchored in her commitment to quality, critical thinking and complex problem-solving abilities. Pamela is known for providing sound counsel that results in tangible benefits for clients; for her integrity; and for training and developing others. Her clients include recording artists, record producers, songwriters, managers, talent agents, executives, independent record labels and publishers, clients engaged in the licensing of content for online exploitation as well as book authors and influencers. In addition, Pamela has been a business affairs executive at Atlantic Records, Warner Chappell Music Publishing and Warner Records. Pamela is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and a Magna cum Laude graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas.

David Shraga mediates commercial and entertainment disputes with a command of the room that only comes from having occupied every seat at the table. As a litigator, he represented large corporations and individual entrepreneurs, plaintiffs and defendants, talent and studios, building trust across the table and finding workable paths through complex disputes. As Senior Vice President and Head of Global Television Business & Legal Affairs at Miramax, and before that in multiple senior roles at NBCUniversal, he spent a decade inside the studio system structuring and negotiating high-stakes deals with the top agents, managers, and dealmakers in the entertainment industry. That full-spectrum experience, from the courtroom to the studio executive suite, gives David a ready fluency in what each party carries into mediation, and the standing to engage all of them with equal authority.

David began his legal career at Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan LLP, where he built a complex litigation, entertainment law, and intellectual property practice, before founding KSW LLP, a boutique practice in entertainment, media, IP, business, and employment litigation. After seven years leading his own firm, David moved into the studio system, progressing through senior business and legal affairs roles at NBCUniversal before joining Miramax as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Television Business & Legal Affairs. In that role, every agreement he reached required working closely with internal stakeholders across business functions to ensure alignment, and ultimately demanded durability; each one became the foundation of an ongoing creative and commercial relationship. That reality shaped how David thinks about resolution: not as an endpoint, but as something every party has to be able to live and work with. To that end, David strives to build solutions that serve the interests of all involved.

David was on the Law Review while at the University of Southern California School of Law, externed for the Hon. Dean D. Pregerson (C.D. of Cal.) and received his BA from Yale.

David is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Entertainment Law Section of the Beverly Hills Bar Association; is the Outreach Coordinator and a Co-Host for the Will Work For Food Project – a webinar series which raises donations for food banks around the world; serves as a volunteer mediator for the Los Angeles Superior Court; is a member of the Southern California Mediation Association; is on the volunteer mediation panel for California Lawyers For The Arts; and volunteers with the Western Center on Law & Poverty to train high school peer mediators.

John R. Baldivia is a partner of Rossi, P.C., where he negotiates a wide variety of contracts for major label recording artists, songwriters, and prominent influencers. John joined Rossi, P.C. with a strong background in music transactions, as well as entertainment and intellectual property litigation.

Prior to joining Rossi, P.C., John was a partner at Pierce Law Group LLP, where he negotiated various music contracts, film contracts, and reviewed complicated copyright clearance matters. John also served as a lead plaintiff-side attorney on complex litigation issues against various film and television studios. He has litigated a variety of entertainment-related claims involving fraud, breach of contract, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, misappropriation of name and likeness, employment claims, and talent agency controversies. John has won large 6- and 7-figure judgments on behalf of his clients while working for Pierce Law Group, and in 2020 and 2021, John was named as a Super Lawyers Rising Star for Southern California.

Tom Dean is a partner at LaPolt Law. Tom focuses his practice on talent representation and represents, advises and counsels numerous recording artists, content creators, producers, and songwriters in all aspects of their entertainment careers. With over 15 years of experience in the music and entertainment industry, Tom has an insiders perspective and unique understanding of both the creative and business-related issues faced by talent today. With a clear understanding of the diverse legal needs of clients today, Tom helps his clients structure and negotiate various types of agreements, such as agreements for music recording, music publishing, brand sponsorships and endorsements, content creation, live performances, merchandising, and NFT drops.

Keith Cooper is a Partner at Cooper & Iravani, LLP, specializing in traditional and digital entertainment, intellectual property, and business law. With nearly 20 years of litigation experience, his practice over the last decade has primarily focused on transactional matters in the entertainment and business industries. He has negotiated and structured agreements in music recording, publishing, licensing, management, production, and distribution, as well as video game development, copyright and trademark licensing, and film and streaming projects. His clientele includes musicians, songwriters, directors, producers, actors, designers, and internet content creators. Beyond individual creatives, Keith has represented business entities ranging from start-ups and technology firms to game developers, esports teams, and production companies, assisting with entity formation, governance, compliance, financing, and mergers and acquisitions.

In addition to his legal practice, Keith is deeply involved in the entertainment and legal communities. He is a former President and current Board Member of California Lawyers for the Arts and has served as an expert witness in high-profile copyright disputes such as Fahmy v. Jay Z and Big Ligas v. Paulo Londra. Keith has also played a key role in shaping entertainment law discussions through speaking engagements, moderating panels, and presenting on topics including digital music monetization, intellectual property licensing, and video game development. His industry experience extends beyond law, having worked for Geffen Records and Atlantic Records and co-founding both an internet video streaming company and a music promotion company. He holds a J.D. from Pennsylvania State University – Dickinson School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA.