Hall of Fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.

Dale Cendali

Hall of fameKirkland & Ellis LLP

Dale Cendali is the internationally renowned head of Kirkland’s Copyright, Trademark and Internet Practice. Law360 named her an “Icon of IP” and an “MVP,” and the NLJ selected her as one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.” Dale has been named “Litigator of the Week” by AmLaw, and a “Power Lawyer” by The Hollywood Reporter. Dale routinely wins cases at the district court level on motions to dismiss, summary judgment and at trial. She is also an appellate lawyer, frequently arguing before US Courts of Appeal as well as the United States Supreme Court. Chambers routinely names Dale a top-tier lawyer and refers to her as a “phenomenal” and “power-house” lawyer with “on-point commercial and practical advice”. Among many bar appointments, she has served as Counsel to the Board of the International Trademark Association and on the Council of the ABA’s IPL Section. Dale is an Adviser for the ALI’s Restatement of the Law, Copyright project and helped draft the federal Trademark Dilution Revision Act. A prolific writer, Dale is co-editor of the ABA’s treatise, Copyright Litigation Strategies. She is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, and is an adjunct at HLS, teaching copyright litigation.

Kenneth Steinthal

Hall of fameKing & Spalding LLP

Kenneth Steinthal specializes in litigating matters in the intellectual property/media sector. His practice is focused on copyright, DMCA and antitrust/rate-setting cases involving the distribution of audio and audiovisual content, and includes counseling companies regarding the licensing implications of their product offerings.  Ken has more than three decades of experience litigating matters spanning the IP/media sector, in jury and bench trial settings and before copyright tribunals in the U.S. and internationally. Ken’s practice is focused on copyright, DMCA and antitrust/rate-setting cases involving the distribution of audio and audiovisual content. His cases typically involve the defense of copyright infringement claims and the establishment of structures and rates for the exploitation of musical works and sound recordings in both traditional (e.g., cable, satellite, broadcast) and new media distribution environments.

Next Generation Partners

Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.

Leading lawyers

The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.

Sandra Crawshaw-Sparks

Sandra Crawshaw-Sparks

Proskauer Rose LLP

Sandra A. Crawshaw-Sparks is a senior partner in Proskauer's Litigation Department, and Chair of the firm’s Entertainment, Copyright and Media Practice Group. Sandy maintains a bi-coastal practice, specializing in a wide variety of litigation and transactional matters in the entertainment industry with a special focus on music. A well-known and respected entertainment industry litigator with over 35-years of success, Sandy represents the most iconic names in music on recording, publishing, licensing and management contracts, copyright and trademark infringement claims, unfair competition claims, and the rights of privacy and publicity. While she fiercely fights high-profile battles for her entertainment clients and wins some of the most visible cases in the media today, Sandy also negotiates pre-litigation and pre-trial resolutions of highly sensitive and confidential personal and entertainment-related disputes, protecting her clients and their reputations from unwarranted media scrutiny and creative distraction. She is also recognized as an expert in the law respecting court approval of personal services contracts with minors. Sandy is the National Legal Counsel for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (the not-for-profit organization responsible for the GRAMMY Awards) and she has long served on the Board of Directors of the GRAMMY Museum’s Entertainment Law Initiative, which promotes discussion and debate about the most compelling legal issues facing the music industry. Over the course of her career, Sandy's clients have included: Madonna; Lady Gaga; Sting; The Police; Britney Spears; Shania Twain; Luther Vandross; U2; Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails; Amerie; Fiona Apple; Hall & Oates; Matisyahu; Meat Loaf; Debbie Gibson; Sally Hershberger; Judd Hirsch; Living Colour; and Just Blaze. Sandy has also represented numerous entertainment industry leaders, including: Chris Blackwell; Jimmy Iovine; and Russell Simmons. The music industry companies she has represented include: Live Nation; Sony Music Entertainment (including Arista Records, J Records, Jive Records, Provident Music Group, RCA Records, Zomba Recording Corp., and Verity Records); Universal Music Group (including Interscope Records, Def Jam Records, Geffen Records, GRP Records, MCA Music Publishing, MCA Records, Island Pictures, Island Music, Island Records, Mercury Records, Motown Records, and PolyGram Records); Warner Bros. Records; Warner/Chappell Music; BMG Rights Management; Primary Wave Music Publishing; Kobalt Music Publishing; the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; American Recordings; Cash Money Records; EMI-Capitol Music Group; EMI Music Publishing; Gee Street Records; IslandLife; the Island Trading Company; JB Music Publishing; Jellybean Recordings Inc.; Palm Pictures; Maverick Recordings; Rykodisc, Inc.; Vagrant Records; and Wind-Up Records.

Andrew Gass

Latham & Watkins LLP

Andrew Gass is a nationally recognized thought leader on emerging issues in copyright law, antitrust law and the intersection between the two. At Latham & Watkins, he is a partner and member of the firm’s award-winning global Antitrust & Competition Practice. At the UC Berkeley School of Law, he teaches both the basic Copyright Law course and an advanced seminar on Copyright, Competition & Technology in the nation’s top-ranked IP law program. In the American Bar Association, he is Chair of the IP Section’s Committee on Music, Sound Recordings, and Performing Artists.

Joshua Simmons

Joshua Simmons

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Joshua Simmons focuses his practice on appellate and trial court litigation, intellectual property counseling and strategic portfolio management, as well as regulatory and legislative policy. He litigates copyright, patent, right of publicity, trademark, trade secret, and unfair competition cases—particularly complex cases and those of first impression—along with contract, licensing, and domain name disputes. He also advises on IP matters that intersect with antitrust, fraud, false advertising, privacy, and social media. As a media- and technology-savvy attorney, Josh is lauded for both media and entertainment, as well as software and technology representations. His eye-catching litigations involve a range of media (film, news, publishing, sports, television, theatre, and video games) and technologies (artificial intelligence, computer software and services, circuitry and semiconductors, Internet-based systems, medical devices, and telecommunications). For example, he represented Fox’s Modern Family; Fox News’ telecasts; Take-Two’s, Epic Games’, and Tetris’ video games; Damien Hirst’s art; the publishing industry’s books; the Anastasia and Spider-Man Broadway musicals; and Schumacher’s designs. He also represented Cisco’s operating system, IBM’s workload-management platform, GoodRx’s eCommerce website, Motorola’s radios, Oracle’s Java platform and Solaris operating system, Samsung’s smartphones, Sharp’s chat engagement, and TriZetto’s healthcare software.