Owen J. Sloane

Representative Experience

With over 45 years of experience, Owen is one of the most respected attorneys in the entertainment industry, representing major artists and leading corporations in entertainment, internet and music publishing. He regularly handles complex and sophisticated transactions for music industry and other entertainment clients and handles all forms of contract, agreement, and licensing negotiation for clients in the music, film, television and digital media industries.

Over the course of his career, Owen has represented prominent artists such as Elton John, Barry Manilow, Suzanne Vega, Rickie Lee Jones, Steve Winwood, Chris Daughtry, Rob Thomas, Matchbox Twenty, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Kenny Rogers, ABBA, Lindsay Buckingham, Radio Free Virgin, Jane’s Addiction, Joe Cocker and Academy Award winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler. He has also represented major companies in entertainment such as Playboy, Lorimar, HBO, Coca Cola and MTM (Mary Tyler Moore).

Owen has been quoted in The New York Times, Billboard, Forbes, The LA Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other prominent media outlets as an expert, and has appeared on CNN and ET on television.

Selected representative matters include:

• Negotiated some of the earliest agreements pertaining to the Internet, ring tones, video satellite delivery, mobile entertainment, broadband and wireless.
• Negotiated some of the music industry’s largest and most innovative recording contracts, including the first artist owned label in rock.
• Serves as an expert witness and litigation consultant on issues such as contracts, intellectual property rights, calculation of royalties, contracts for minors and music industry custom and practices in cases involving the Bing Crosby estate, Nine Inch Nails, the Baltimore Orioles, Harrah’s hotels, the Michael Jackson estate and others.
• He has spoken before the bar associations in Sydney, Australia and London, England and as a guest speaker at Harvard University, Stanford University and UCLA.
• Co-founder of Killer Tracks, a prominent music library and is considered an expert in the music library business.
• Represented Frank Zappa throughout most of his life, including setting up indie distribution and publishing deals. Currently representing the Zappa estate in contracts, copyright, trademark and licensing matters.
• Negotiated first ever deal involving concert recordings on USB wristbands.

Areas Of Expertise

• Entertainment, Media & the Arts

Education

• Yale Law School, J.D., Cum Laude
  • Order of the Coif
  • Notes & Comments Editor, Yale Law Review
• Cornell University, B.A., Honors and Distinction
  • Phi Beta Kappa

Admitted to Practice

• California
• Tennessee
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

Honors and Awards

• Named to Billboard’s Top Music Lawyers report, 2020-2024
• Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America ©, Entertainment Law - Music, 2015-2016, 2019-2022
• Selected for inclusion in Southern California Super Lawyers, 2002-2023
• Named one of the Top 100 Entertainment Lawyers in the State of California, The American Society of Legal Advocates, 2015
• AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale Hubbell for 35 years
• Named to The National Law Journal’s inaugural list of Sports & Entertainment Trailblazers, 2019

Professional Affiliations and Civic Involvement

• Law Firm Advisory Board, Association of Media & Entertainment Counsel