Lawyer Overview
David Chidekel is a partner in Dorf Nelson & Zauderer's Corporate Department and Head of the firm's Media, Entertainment & Technology Group. Mr. Chidekel is an esteemed commercial lawyer providing high-level legal and business affairs advice and guidance to top-tier talent, senior executives, and companies operating in the media and entertainment industries with respect to complex commercial transactions and disputes. Throughout his career, Mr. Chidekel has acted as outside general counsel to a range of major-label and independent record companies, production companies, and music publishers, film and television production and distribution companies, modeling agencies, and talent agencies. A meaningful part of Mr. Chidekel's work has also involved guiding emerging, high-growth startups through formation and corporate governance, documentation of employment and compensation arrangements, equity and debt financing and capital raising, and securing and protecting IP.
Complementing his entertainment work, Mr. Chidekel has advised and collaborated with many of the entrepreneurs and technologists who drove the rise of digital music and decentralized peer-to-peer networking. Beginning with his work with Napster, eMusic, Grooveshark, and BitTorrent, and continuing with the new generation of Web3 entrepreneurs, Mr. Chidekel is known for facilitating and negotiating complex transactions between technology entrepreneurs, artists, and established entertainment companies. He has cultivated a web of important relationships across the entertainment and technology ecosystem, and regularly advises founders, senior executives, boards, and financiers on both legal questions and overall business strategy.
In addition to media and entertainment matters, Mr. Chidekel has served as the Chief Commercial Officer of the iconic P2P file sharing platform, BitTorrent, Inc., where he led the company's commercial transactions as well as its legal, business-affairs, and corporate and business-development functions. He subsequently co-founded and was the Managing Member and General Counsel of a fintech company applying digital payments technology to reinvent how sponsorships are structured for sports, music, corporate, and other live events. Most recently Mr. Chidekel served as Special Advisor to the CEO and U.S. Outside General Counsel for a Canadian low carbon energy and AI infrastructure development company.
Mr. Chidekel's primary areas of professional focus include:
Music: Over the course of his career, Mr. Chidekel has represented a range of major-label and independent record companies and music publishers, structuring joint ventures, acquisitions, funding and distribution arrangements, and other agreements governing the rights of recording and performing artists. His client roster also includes prominent recording artists, producers, songwriters and composers, musicians, DJs, and artist management firms, for whom he handles the full spectrum of recording, publishing, distribution, agency, management, production, mixing, master-use and synchronization licensing, touring, branding, endorsement, bandmember, and rights-acquisition agreements.
Film & TV: Mr. Chidekel has represented television networks, film distributors, and film and television producers, acting as finance counsel and supervising the work of production counsel, while also negotiating and drafting agreements that govern the licensing, sale, and other exploitation of rights for directors, actors, screenwriters, and composers. He is also proud of his work as a sought-after advisor to leading documentary filmmakers.
Name, Image & Likeness Rights: Mr. Chidekel also assists clients with the exploitation of name, image, and likeness rights, handling advertising, branding, sponsorship, and licensing agreements for recording artists, actors, influencers, podcasters, high-net-worth individuals, and athletes in action sports and beyond. He has also represented merchandising, branding, modeling, and fashion companies.
Digital Media, Technology & Gaming: Complementing his entertainment work, Mr. Chidekel has collaborated with many of the entrepreneurs and technologists who drove the rise of digital music and decentralized peer-to-peer networking. He has counseled digital-media companies developing interactive content for large-screen environments and augmented/virtual/mixed reality productions, along with video-game developers and distributors. He also provided outside counsel services for a major media and internet incubator and financing company and one of its online, television, and mobile production and distribution studios.
Prior to joining Dorf Nelson & Zauderer, Mr. Chidekel was a partner at Pierson Ferdinand. He has also been a partner at national firms, such as Phillips Nizer and Fish & Richardson, together with co-founding boutique entertainment firms such as Glinert & Chidekel and Roberts Ritholz Levy Sanders Chidekel & Fields.
Awards & Accomplishments
David has earned repeated recognition on Billboard's annual "Top Music Attorneys" list and on Variety's Legal Impact Report. His perspective has also been featured and quoted across a wide range of outlets, among them Forbes, Billboard, Variety, The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Los Angeles Times.
Speaking, Teaching & Publications
Speaking Engagements:
- Moderator and panelist at the New Music Seminar
- South by Southwest Music Conference
- Philadelphia Music Conference and NEMO
- Digital-music panels for Billboard Magazine
- Digital Music Forum East
- New York State Bar Association
Teaching:
- Adjunct Professor of Entertainment Law, Hofstra University School of Law
- Featured Guest Lecturer, Pace University School of Law
- Featured Guest Lecturer, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Representative Transactions
- Represented Robert "Kool" Bell, the co-founding and sole surviving member of the iconic funk, pop, and R&B band, Kool & The Gang, in the negotiation of an asset purchase and marketing collaboration agreement between Mr. Bell and a leading independent music publishing, talent management, and branding company, together with negotiating various agreements concerning a theatrical musical built around Mr. Bell's life-story rights.
- Representing acclaimed ABC News producer, best-selling author, documentary filmmaker, and political analyst and commentator, Chris Whipple, with respect to the negotiation of a podcast distribution agreement and a writer's agreement with a global media company.
- Representing independent hardcore punk and heavy metal record label, management company, and merchandising company, Good Fight Entertainment, with respect to negotiating the settlement of a dispute between Good Fight and a band under management over failure to pay management commissions.
- Represented Chris Whipple and renowned documentary filmmakers, Jules and Gedeon Naudet, in the negotiation of their producer and director services agreements with a global media and entertainment company for the documentary film The Gatekeepers and with a premium television network and streaming company for the documentary film The Spymasters: CIA Caught in the Crosshairs.
- Represented Marky Ramone, the world-renowned drummer of the iconic punk rock band, The Ramones, in the sale of Mr. Bell's master recording, merchandising, and publishing rights to one of the premier independent music publishing, talent management, and branding companies, and settled Mr. Bell's long running dispute with the estates of The Ramones' two deceased main founding members.
- Represented acclaimed pop, R&B, and hip-hop recording artist, CeeLo Green, in the negotiation of a coaching agreement for a popular reality television singing contest with a high-profile reality TV production company and a broadcast television network, as well as CeeLo's agreements with an American professional football league regarding creation of a theme song for weekly games streamed on Thursday nights and his Super Bowl half time show performance.
- Advised comedian, writer, and film director, Mike Young, on a national comedy tour and negotiated the production and sponsorship agreements between Mr. Young and a leading online mortgage company in connection with the tour.
- Acted as Outside General Counsel for digital payments/fintech pioneer, SKUxchange, Inc., with respect to negotiating and drafting SaaS, platform-usage, IT-services, software-development, third-party licensing, online advertising, and marketing agreements.
- Represented ABFF founder and CEO, Jeff Friday, and his production company and other affiliates on "first-look" production and distribution deals with major streaming platforms and broadcast and premium cable networks, as well as agreements for ABFF's first annual film and comedy festival showcasing BIPOC talent.
- Represented Porchlight Entertainment in the negotiation of a music publishing administration agreement with a leading independent music publisher and entertainment company.
- Represented acclaimed television and film producer, director, and executive, Peter Bergmann, in connection with his acquisition of worldwide rights and distribution for the popular television series, Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.