My background is diverse and allows me to contribute to the success of many different types of entertainment and technology endeavors.

Jonathan Handel

Law and Journalism

I practice transactional enter­tainment and technology law at Feig/Finkel in Los Angeles and independently, and am a freelance journalist and media commentator. As a lawyer, I represent talent, producers, production companies, book authors, other entertainment personnel, software developers, other tech companies, software users and other businesses and individuals in entertainment transactions, entertainment guild/union relations, technology transactions and other matters.

As a journalist, I primarily cover entertainment guilds and unions, and other entertainment law and business matters. I comment in the media on those matters and some tech law and business matters, as well.

Previous Experience

I previously worked as a talent lawyer; as associate counsel at the Writers Guild; and as a litigator at a large law firm. I was a contributor to Puck for a year (2022-2023), CSO/CLO at WIO LLC, outside Special Counsel to SAG-AFTRA from 2020-2022, a contributing editor at The Hollywood Reporter from 2010-2020 and a computer scientist, tech worker and political activist prior to law school.

Books

I'm the author of several books, including The New Zealand Hobbit Crisis, which tells the story of an attempt to unionize actors on The Hobbit; Hollywood on Strike!, which chronicles and analyzes the Hollywood writers strike of 2007-2008 and the ensuing Screen Actors Guild stalemate that lasted through mid-2009; Entertainment Residuals: A Full Color Guide, which describes union reuse/royalty payments in the entertainment industry; and Entertainment Unions and Guilds: An Interdisciplinary Bibliography (345 pages). I’ve also published an illustrated kids’ book called Who Do You Want to Be?

Teaching and Academic Experience

I am a Rutgers University non-resident research fellow and was an adjunct professor for about a dozen years at UCLA Law School, USC Law School and Southwestern Law School. I come from an academic family: my parents and brother all have/had Ph.Ds. and were university professors.

Professional Recognition

I am a member of the Television Academy (the group that awards the primetime Emmys), was named by the Daily Journal as one of the top 100 lawyers in California, and have been repeatedly listed as a Southern California "Super Lawyer." I've been profiled in the book social.lawyers and by the Los Angeles Business Journal (see below). I'm rated AV® Preeminent 5.0 out of 5 by Martindale-Hubbell and 9.9 out of 10 on Avvo.

Education and Background

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College in applied math and computer science, I worked in tech before, during and after college. I was also involved in local politics as an elected delegate and Democratic party committee member and in gay politics; spearheaded, drafted and successfully lobbied for passage of the Cambridge, Mass. human rights (civil rights) ordinance; and served on the commission that the law established to investigate and adjudicate discrimination claims.

I then attended Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude in 1990, and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. During 1992-1993, while a litigation associate at a large Los Angeles firm, I concurrently served as a federal Associate Independent Counsel (special prosecutor) investigating alleged misconduct in the George H. W. Bush administration.

Writing, Commentary and Presentations

My writing has been published in/on the Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter (over 1,400 articles), Los Angeles Business Journal, Daily Journal, Huffington Post, Billboard, Campaigns & Elections magazine, Forbes.com and IMDb.com.

I've appeared over 1,500 times as a commentator on entertainment and technology legal and business issues on/in international, national and local television, radio, print and online media, including ABC, CBS and NBC nightly news and morning programs, CNN, CNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, Bloomberg News cable channel, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, NPR, BBC TV and radio, local television and radio, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand television and radio, AP, Reuters and AFP wire services, The Economist, Entertainment Weekly and more.

In addition to the books listed above, I'm also the author of a short booklet for technology executives, entitled How to Write LOIs and Term Sheets. My article on trademark registration for movie titles was selected as a cover article by Los Angeles Lawyer magazine, and my law review article Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears the Crown: Why Content’s Kingdom is Slipping Away, which discusses the struggle between content and technology, appeared in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law. I also write scripts, stories and poetry.

I've moderated and appeared on panels and presented seminars on the entertainment industry to professional audiences in Los Angeles, Park City (at the Sundance Film Festival), Nashville (at Vanderbilt Law School), Taiwan, Havana and elsewhere. For several years, I taught a film appreciation and screening class to approximately 400 students for UCLA Extension.

Profiles

I’ve been profiled a number of times: