There are numerous jokes about the legal profession and down the years a few unscrupulous individuals may have hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. But there can be no doubt that media lawyers champion the rights of this country’s talent more than anyone else in the business.
Industry veteran Michael Eaton now works as business manager for former client Eric Clapton. Eaton is also known as the legal brain who helped guide the career of the Bee Gees for more than 30 years, from the 1970s until about the time of Maurice Gibb’s death, while his former company also took care of acts such as Frankie Goes To Hollywood, the Police and Sting.
‘Lawyers have been the most important people in terms of getting the pendulum to swing back in favour of the artists,’ says Eaton.
As one of the pioneers in helping bring about such changes, Eaton has seen many developments since he first started looking after artists and songwriters in the 1960s. ‘When I started out, the rogues were the people who ran a garage and became friendly with a band and started to manage them,’ he tells M. ‘Nowadays the major record companies have made those shady dealings an art, craft, mystery and science: what the majors tend to do is give an act what looks like a great deal, but 45 pages later in the contract they try to take it away again.’
Another vastly experienced player is Stephen Lea of Manchester-based Lea & Co, who has been acting for more than 30 years on behalf of indie labels and publishing houses, as well as artists, songwriters and producers.
‘The people that contact me now certainly have changed from, say, 20 years ago,’ he reports. ‘Back then everyone wanted to be on Top Of The Pops, but now people are content with making a living from their music, rather than being famous, so I have a number of clients who write music for specific uses, such as television, film or adverts, as well as writing songs for other people.’
'you have to be willing to open your address book to your clients'
Just like their counterparts at record labels and publishing companies, the music industry’s legal outfits have to take a risk when it comes to unproven talent.
One of the most recognised names in legal circles is Sheridans, which represents artists such as Paul McCartney, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Pink Floyd, Robbie Williams, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Kylie Minogue, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, Kaiser Chiefs, and Franz Ferdinand.
‘We try to get involved at an early stage and the benefit of being at Sheridans is that we can offer people some breaks in terms of fee structure,’ says Stephen Luckman, who joined the firm when he was newly qualified in 1990. ‘Sheridans is probably the biggest company in terms of music-related fee earners: we have 12 music practitioners of all ages and experience working here, from the people who go to gigs every night of the week to the ones who qualified more years ago than they care to remember.’
Lea agrees. ‘Obviously a lot of acts can’t afford the bigger fees when they start out, so you have to take a hit sometimes. Thankfully, better off artists tend to have a degree of decency about them in that they know they might be subsidising up and coming talent.’
Lea has represented the Charlatans since day one, while other clients include New Order and Happy Mondays. He also had a long standing relationship with late music entrepreneur Tony Wilson and was involved in the Keep Tony Alive Fund, which raised funds to pay for the Factory Records founder’s cancer treatment.
One of Lea’s latest acts is Scottish outfit The View. He reveals, ‘Nearly everything comes through word of mouth. The View’s manager knows a client of mine who owns an internet business and he recommended me. So I took on the band 18 months before anyone had heard of them.’
That reliance on existing clients to generate new business works both ways, according to Ann Harrison, who after nearly 20 years in the business established her own bespoke speciality practice four years ago. Among her impressive client roster are Fionn Regan, who received a Mercury Music Prize nomination this year, Soulsavers and The Automatic.
‘The relationship between a client and lawyer is quite intimate at times, and we do have to hand-hold people in life situations,’ explains Harrison. ‘You get to experience people’s low points and high points and you have to be willing to open your address book to your clients to point them in the direction of specialists if and when they are needed.’
Such instances might require a criminal lawyer having to be called in at short notice if a client was, for example, found in possession of drugs.
Harrison remembers a more bizarre episode:
‘I received a call from a distraught guy asking me how he could go about getting a blood test because he had been accused of fathering her child.’
Patience is also a virtue. Eaton says: ‘I remember getting a call in the middle of the night from an artist in the States who heard that a certain company had collapsed and he wanted to check about his shares in that company. The thing is, he didn’t have any shares in that company or indeed any other.’
But there’s a thin line between too much contact with your lawyer and not enough. ‘I once got a call from someone who had just got married, asking if he could still get a prenuptial agreement drawn up,’ says Harrison.
'in the 60s it was word of mouth, now it's dog eat dog'
Mark Davies of Statham Gill Davies highlights one aspect of a lawyer’s skills which is often overlooked.
‘Each firm has a different modus operandi, but by and large we can introduce songwriters to an array of producers, record labels, publishers, managers, agents or whoever they need, depending on the individual,’ says Davies.
Established in 1991, Statham Gill Davies represents artists such as The Darkness, Kasabian, Mcfly, Oasis and Radiohead.
Davies can offer his clients some unique insight as, along with DJ brother Gary Davies, he also runs the publishing company, Good Groove Songs.
‘Obviously the talent on the roster at Good Groove cannot be clients of the law firm, as that would be a conflict of interest, but I live and breathe publishing,’ says Davies. ‘Looking at a contract is one thing, but understanding the mechanics of how music publishing works helps enormously when negotiating deals as a lawyer,’ he says.
Davies acknowledges that the nature of the legal business is changing and perhaps not for the better: ‘These days, a hot new band that has not instructed a law firm will probably get cold calls and end up meeting a bunch of law firms. It has become a bit of an ambulance chase, unfortunately.’
He continues: ‘These days the majors only seem to be interested in singer songwriters as they are perceived as being less of a risk. So producer songwriters and songwriters are finding it more difficult to get signed and it’s being left to the indies to develop and nurture that talent. However, that means it’s a fantastic time for the indies, as there are so many quality writers not getting a look-in with the majors.’
But Harrison warns: ‘Some UK-based lawyers are now starting to do US-style deals where they will shop an act around, which is sort of blurring the lines between artist management and legal.’
‘I act purely on a fee basis, but some firms are beginning to do business on a percentage basis, while others will deny it, but their fees will curiously amount to 10% of the value of a deal,’ she says.
Despite such stories, there are still a lot of reputable lawyers out there. Indeed, Lea is one of the lawyers who participates in a PRS legal referral scheme: ‘PRS members can contact me, provide their CAE number and as long as they have a songwriting issue of any description, the first hour of my time is free,’ says Lea, although he smiles, ‘invariably the caller might be a songwriter, but the issue isn’t about songwriting.’
And some things have definitely changed for the better: ‘In the early days some bands had no independent representation at all and thought that the record company lawyer was looking after their interests,’ says Eaton.
‘Then again, when I started in the 1960s, all business happened by word of mouth and there was more than enough work for everyone. That was a long way ahead of today’s dog eat dog, overselling yourself and slagging off the opposition: it’s incredibly competitive now.’
That competitive edge can lead to some hard sales techniques, and Davies provides some sage advice for anyone looking to instruct a lawyer: ‘The bottom line is that people should choose a firm that has a decent reputation. Quite often cheap turns out to be expensive in the long term.’