Billboard Names Brooklyn Law to “Leading Law Schools of the Top Music Lawyers” List

Billboard magazine listed Brooklyn Law School as one of the best law schools in the country for its role in educating the finest music lawyers in the business.

The Law School, which was named in the newest issue released April 21, has for more than a decade regularly been named to the annual list of top schools for music lawyers. The list, which includes only 13 schools, is based on the number of “top music lawyers” featured in the magazine who name Brooklyn Law School as their alma mater.

Congratulations to the alumni who were featured this year. Here they are:

In the Publishing category, this year, once again, Peter Brodsky ’90, executive vice president of business and legal affairs and general counsel, and Nicole Giacco ’00, senior vice president of business and legal affairs, were named alongside members of their team at Sony Music Publishing for their work in facilitating the Queen catalog acquisition, deal extensions with Usher and Lainey Wilson, and new agreements with Mike Dean, among other stars.

Other alumni were named in the Talent & Litigation category.

Cynthia L. Katz ’10 and Alex Threadgold ’06, both partners at Fox Rothschild, were named as part of a team that handled a $500 million debt financing for HarbourView Equity Partners that was backed by its music royalties’ catalog and was “among the music industry’s biggest deals of the past year,” Billboard said.

Jordan Bromley ’05, partner and leader of Manatt Entertainment at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips was part of a team whose credits include providing pro bono legal services for FireAid, a benefit concert held in January that raised more than $100 million for wildfire relief in Los Angeles. Bromley told the publication, “Our team helped identify and solicit sponsors and then drafted, advised on, negotiated and closed over 50 sponsorship deals and 20-plus streaming agreements to bring the concert to various platforms.” They also drafted and negotiated agreements related to the event and oversaw rights and clearance issues.

Paul Schindler ’71, a senior chair of the New York entertainment and media practice at Greenberg Traurig, was part of a team that helped facilitate a deal that will make ABC and fellow Walt Disney Co. properties Disney+ and Hulu home to the Grammys ceremony beginning in 2027. It had been on CBS for 50-plus years.

Dorothy Weber ’81, a partner at Herbsman Hafer Weber & Frisch, was recognized as part of a team that represents John Lennon’s estate and worked “extensively” on the critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary box set of his 1973 album, Mind Games, which arrived last July and won the Grammy earlier this year for best boxed or special limited-edition packaging.

Alexander Kaplan ’00, a partner at Oppenheim + Zebrak, was part of a team that represented music publishers in a legal battle against Anthropic “over the unlawful use of lyrics to train its AI models,” according to Billboard, which resulted in a judge ruling that publishers can intervene when they suspect copyright infringement.

Edward Shapiro ’91, a partner at Reed Smith, was named as part of a team that represents A-list clients including Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, and Justin Bieber, among others.

Although not a Brooklyn Law School alumnus, Adjunct Professor Vernon Brown, founder and president of V. Brown Associates, also made the list. Brown, who was noted for his work representing clients such as Cash Money Records’ co-CEOs Ronald “Slim” Williams and Bryan “Birdman” Williams, was featured for his efforts to get fair compensation for artists in an era when the streaming model favors major labels and platforms. “Artists only get fractions of a cent per stream, which means they can’t make real money unless they hit absolutely massive streaming numbers,” Brown told Billboard.