California Business Litigation Blog

It’s an old Hollywood tale: Someone makes a film. Someone else finances and produces it and even before the editing is finished the question of who controls the film rights becomes a legal battle. The twist is that the filmmaker is only eleven (yes 11) years old! With 23 movie credits (see New Yorker Article), Kay had always planned to direct. In his directorial debut “Saving Angelo” creative differences arose between Kay and Malibu neighbor/producer Conroy Kanter, who contributed $11,000 to the making of the film.

In last month’s settlement, Kay got full ownership and creative control of the 15 minute film and Kanter got a producer’s credit. By the way, Kevin Bacon plays a fireman in “Saving Angelo”.

Now that the legal issues have been settled, Kay can return to more important things like finishing the editing in preparation for the film’s submission to festivals.

Returning to the law, this case like so many, illustrates the importance of having a contract that spells out each parties rights and responsibilities. Sadly, huge numbers of contracts are not written well enough to avoid litigation, and that my friends is one of the reasons our courts are clogged and more states are creating Business Courts (see March 10, 2007 post " Business Lawsuits Heard in Their Own Court...Will California be next?”)

The remaining question is: Will Dominic Scott Kay become the next Ron Howard?

Posted by Richard Oppenheim | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Contract Litigation   Intellectual Property

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Today on his corporate blog “The Legal Thing, notes from a General Counsel”, I was pleased to see a view of litigation and its true costs which so closely mirrors the foundation on which we built Sylvester, Oppenheim & Linde. While our clients have heard our (very similar) version of Mike’s litigation principles, it is refreshing to see them communicated by such a highly respected General Counsel.

While I have never met Mike, I can tell that he is a truly outstanding General Counsel, not just from this blog post " On Litigation...(Azul Systems)" but also because he takes time to post items which could ultimately improve the public’s perception of the legal profession. And remember, Mike has nothing to sell. As a corporate officer of Sun Microsystems, his opinion is clean & clear, as is his writing.

Here are Mike’s litigation principles:

No. 1 - You only litigate when you have an important interest to protect. Litigation is costly. Incredibly costly. But it is not the expense that is the real issue, it's the diversion of resources. Time employees spend reviewing e-mails and documents, educating lawyers and preparing for depositions is time away from the business. That's the real cost of litigation.

No. 2 - A non-judicial resolution is almost always preferable. When you file a complaint, you are turning over resolution of an issue to a third party - be it a judge, arbitrator or jury. To a great degree you lose control of the outcome.

No. 3 - You litigate when you have a high degree of confidence that you will prevail. Bluffing is for weekend games of Texas Hold'em . When you file suit, you need to have fully evaluated all aspects of the case to ensure that the outcome will be favorable.

No. 4 - You litigate to win. This means that your employees, board and management team fully understand and support the commitment (both financial and time) required to prevail. It also means having seasoned litigation counsel who understand your business and objectives.

Illustrating that Mike lives true to his word (another attribute of an outstanding attorney), he tells the story of Sun’s conflict with Azul Systems; how he tried to resolve it without litigation and how it progressed when that failed.

Continue reading "Principals of Litigation from Mike Dillon, General Counsel, Sun Microsystems Inc." »

Posted by Richard Oppenheim | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Business Litigation

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