Request My Consultation

How Can We Help?

Quick Contact Form

Send My Info

With approximately 30 years of experience, Kenneth D. Freundlich is a business, entertainment, and IP attorney, renowned for representing individuals and companies with his pragmatic aggressiveness, relatability, business acumen, and ability to handle everything from everyday business disputes to complex, ground-breaking cases. Ken is licensed to practice in the state and federal courts of New York and California (among other courts) and has had notable successes in multiple arenas, from California Labor Commissioner proceedings, IFTA arbitrations, Copyright Rate Court proceedings, and Guild arbitrations, to trial and appellate courts (including the United States Supreme Court).

A proud graduate of UCLA's joint JD/MBA program, Ken is one of the few attorneys who does not shy away from the quantitative or business side of cases. Whether it is grilling the opposing party's experts about complex royalty statements, unraveling a party's intricate corporate structures and related corporate issues, or negotiating and drafting a settlement that maximizes a client's bottom line, Ken has the tools and experience for success.

Areas of Practice

  • General Business Litigation
  • Artist-Manager Disputes/Talent Agencies Act
  • Royalty Accounting
  • IFTA Arbitrations
  • Guild Arbitrations
  • Defamation
  • Copyright Infringement
  • DMCA/Internet matters
  • The "Seven-Year Rule" under California Labor Code §2855
  • Termination of Transfer of Copyrights
  • Trademark/Trade Dress Infringement
  • Domain Name Disputes
  • Idea Submission
  • Right of Publicity/Privacy

Professional & Community Affiliations

  • American Bar Association, Chair, Litigation Section of the Forum on Entertainment and Sports Law
  • Beverly Hills Bar Association, Board of Directors
  • Los Angeles Copyright Society, Member
  • Harmony Project, Board of Directors
  • Singers-in-Law, Founding tenor in dynamic jazz vocal quartet
  • Los Angeles Lawyers Philharmonic's Legal Voices Choir, Tenor

Panelist/Moderator

Mr. Freundlich has been a frequent panelist and moderator at conferences worldwide on many topics including Defamation, Rights of Privacy Publicity, Copyright issues, Child Labor laws, Communications Decency Act, Royalty Accounting and litigation update panels given by:

  • The Beverly Hills Bar Association, Beverly Hills, CA
  • The American Bar Association's Sports and Entertainment Forum
  • NEMO Music Conference, Boston MA
  • Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA
  • "Perfect Pitch" Executive Seminar, Los Angeles, CA
  • CMJ Music Conference, New York, New York
  • Future of Music Coalition, Washington, D.C.
  • Berkman Center of Legal Studies, Cambridge, MA
  • California Lawyer for the Arts Music Business Seminar, Los Angeles, CA
  • The California Copyright Conference, Los Angeles, CA
  • The State Bar of California, Copyright Section
  • USC Entertainment Law Institute, Los Angeles, CA
  • Southern Regional Entertainment, Sports and Intellectual Property Law Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • Billboard R&B Conference, New York, New York
  • Practicing Law Institute New York, New York, and Los Angeles, CA

Bar Admissions

  • California State Bar
  • New York State Bar
  • United States Supreme Court
  • United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
  • United States District Courts for Central, Southern, and Northern Districts of California
  • United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
  • United States District Court for the District of Columbia

Education

  • J.D. and M.B.A. (joint degree program), UCLA 1985
  • B.A., Magna Cum Laude, Organizational Behavior, Brown University 1981

Previous Experience

Ken is the only attorney to have trained and been mentored in New York and Los Angeles at the premier boutique entertainment litigation powerhouses, Lavely & Singer in Los Angeles and Parcher & Hayes (now Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP's New York Office) in New York. Working in the crucibles of L&S's and P&H's intense and challenging atmospheres under the guidance of Peter Parcher, Marty Singer, Jay Lavely and Steven Hayes, Ken was head first and knee deep in the most complex litigations whether involving insurance disputes, copyright, right of publicity, contract, defamation, trademark infringement, artist-management disputes, talent agency act disputes, profit participation cases, idea submission cases, partnership disputes, Guild arbitrations, executive disengagements and labor issues, rights disputes, credit disputes and the like.

In addition to his litigation work, Ken co-produced Paul Simon's Concert In Central Park in 1991. Ken was also a Board member of Concordia: A Chamber Orchestra founded by his client Marin Alsop who is now the Maestro at the helm of The Baltimore Symphony and is one of the world's leading conductors.

From 1993-1999, Mr. Freundlich had his own Law Firm in New York City representing such clients as Spacehog, the Spin Doctors, Joan Osborne, Chuck D and Flava Flav of Public Enemy, the John Lennon Music Awards, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Marin Alsop, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, Leon Gast, David Sonenberg, James Steinmen, MusicNet, Kool Mo Dee and the producers of the academy award winning film about Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, When We Were Kings.

In 1999, Ken relocated to Los Angeles as an Executive Vice President of Atomic Pop, LLC, an internet-based record company (way ahead of its time) that sought to provide a platform to distribute entertainment content through digital media. At Atomic Pop, Ken honed his business skills leading the company through complicated new media legal and business issues, acquisitions, strategic and financial planning, syndication, joint ventures and due diligence management.

After the implosion of Atomic Pop, Ken returned to the private practice of law.