Helping Stakeholders In The Media Industry Navigate The Law And Avoid Costly Litigation Wherever Possible
The The Calhoun Law Firm, PLC, provides media industry clients with legal counsel and representation in transactional and dispute resolution matters.
Media transactional legal matters are focused on forming arrangements amongst interested parties; formalizing those arrangements in contracts or agreements; and later executing per the terms established. Arrangements may focus on commercial transactions, hiring and managing employees, managing intellectual property, conducting E-commerce, business structuring, and enterprise operations.
Media dispute resolution matters are focused on resolving conflicts between two or more parties. Conflicts occur when a party violates the terms of a contract, or once a party’s wrongful acts result in injury to someone’s property or reputation. Legal representation is provided during negotiations, mediation, arbitration, and litigation conducted to resolve the dispute.
Our media clients count on us for legal counsel and representation in matters involving:
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Our Arizona Media attorneys advise reporters, editors, photographers, graphic designers, and broadcast technicians in Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Scottsdale, Peoria, and Tempe on contractual, intellectual property, litigation, e-commerce, employment, regulatory compliance, business structuring, and crisis management matters.
Media Enterprise Formation and Structuring Law
Launching or reorganizing a media enterprise by yourself or with partners is an enormous undertaking. The Calhoun Law Firm, PLC, helps clients identify, evaluate, and choose the right formation and structuring solution for their media enterprise. Our media enterprise formation and structuring services include:
- Determining and forming an appropriate business structure for your media enterprise ensuring day-to-day management and control is structured for your needs and limited liability is preserved.
- Developing and executing media business purchase / sale strategies establishing the purchase price, assets exchanged, level of seller post sale consulting support to be provided, non-compete guidelines, non-solicitation guidelines, non-disclosure guidelines, transferability of existing leases and transferability of existing employment contracts.
- Developing and executing succession strategies accounting for management transition, liabilities, ownership interests, voting rights for owners and stakeholders, and addressing asset protection opportunities and challenges.
- Developing and executing dissolution strategies accounting for notifying creditors of the pending dissolution, finalizing asset distributions, and settling with parties with outstanding claims.
Media Contract Law
Media contracts set out the rights and responsibilities of each party to the agreement. The Calhoun Law Firm, PLC, provides counsel to reporters, correspondents, broadcast news analysts, editors, photographers, graphic designers, and broadcast technicians during negotiations, drafting, and review of media contracts regarding:
- Media business formation activities involving asset purchase-sale agreements, assignments of interest, bills of sale, buy-sell agreements, corporate bylaws, shareholders agreements, distribution agreements, equipment leases, letters of intent, membership interest purchase agreements, LLC operating agreements, real estate leases, and real estate purchase agreements.
- Media commercial transaction activities involving consulting agreements, letters of intent, non-disclosure agreements (NDA), sales contracts, and supplier agreements.
- Media employment activities involving employment contracts, independent contractor agreements, non-compete agreements, non-solicitation agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and sub-contractor agreements.
- Media intellectual property activities involving design agreements, intellectual property agreements, and intellectual property licensing agreements.
- Media e-commerce activities involving application service provider agreements, cloud computing agreements, database subscription agreements, IT consulting and services agreements, outsourcing agreements, privacy policies, technical support agreements, terms of service, website development and hosting agreements, and web site terms of use agreements.
- Media litigation activities involving release and settlement agreements.
Media Commercial Transaction Law
Media commercial transactions involve negotiating publishing agreements, setting time frames for material delivery, negotiating provisions on creative controls, addressing royalties and participation compensation, and establishing content guidelines. We provide reporters, correspondents, broadcast news analysts, editors, photographers, graphic designers, and broadcast technicians with the following transaction phase specific legal counsel:
- During negotiations we participate in due diligence reviews, identify potential legal issues, and formulate solutions supplying actionable risk mitigation strategies. We facilitate client understanding of all contractual terms, and assist in preparing for post-contract issues.
- During formalization we assist clients create a contract specifying the activities entered into by both organizations and the terms through which they will each fulfill their parts of the agreement. We ensure the contract formalizes who is buying what from whom, at what price, at whose risk, and on what timetable.
- During the execution phase, we assist in facilitating the processes and procedures of your firm that govern the execution, alteration, and termination of contracts with a number of parties, including clients, customers, suppliers, wholesalers, and contractors.
Media Regulatory Compliance Law
The Calhoun Law Firm, PLC, assists media firms identify and comply with federal, state and local regulations. We advise clients on a full array of media laws and regulations including:
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation of interstate communications, including media transmissions by television, radio, wire, internet, satellite, and cable.
- Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are protected by the First Amendment. They protect the media’s right to express negative opinions and disseminate derogatory information. It does not protect the media from the legal consequences of reporting false information about an individual, company, or organization. Printed defamatory statements and defamation statements recorded and broadcast in the news can lead to costly proceedings.
- Privacy regulations preventing news organizations from providing victim names and entering private property to take unauthorized pictures of
Media Intellectual Property Law
Securing and enforcing intellectual property rights protects your ideas. We provide intellectual property legal counsel to reporters, correspondents, broadcast news analysts, editors, photographers, graphic designers, and broadcast technicians covering a wide range of media intangible assets including:
- Trademarks identifying and distinguishing the company’s goods or services from those of a competitor. Trademarks are usually words, phrases, symbols, designs, or a combination of these that identify the media business’s goods, and services.
- Copyrights protecting the enterprise’s original drawings, design details, specifications of materials, plans, and reports prepared on behalf of the enterprise.
- Non-disclosure and non-compete agreements protecting the enterprise’s trade secret information detaining customer lists, media processes, marketing strategies, statistical analyses, price lists, product design information, and strategic business plans..
Media Employment Law
Compliance with employment statutes and regulations is an essential part of operating a successful media enterprise. We provide employment legal counsel covering a wide range of federal, state, and local employee / independent contractor legal issues including:
- Establishing guidelines for determining workforce employee / independent contractor classifications and creating Employment Contracts / Independent Contractor Agreements defining employment duration, benefits, compensation, and grounds for termination, and specific issues including who owns work products produced while on the clock.
- Drafting Employee-Handbooks defining a company’s culture, setting on-job expectations for employees, and notifying employees of their rights under the law. The handbook defines the company’s processes and procedures for hiring and separation, wages and overtime, promotions and performance reviews, medical and parental leave, required on-job behaviors and discipline, discrimination and harassment, trade secrets and confidentiality, and fringe benefits.
- Developing and conducting training programs for both supervisory and non-supervisory employees focused on wage and work hour compliance, performance management, harassment prevention and remediation, substance abuse in the workplace, interviewing and hiring, and equal opportunity.
Media E-commerce Law
If you have a business website, a business email account, or business social media accounts, you’re participating actively in E-commerce. There are dangers involved in operating online, including cyber piracy, data protection, and copyright / trademark infringements. We provide legal counsel to media enterprises covering a wide range of internet considerations including compliance with state and federal online advertising regulations; compliance with state and federal online consumer privacy regulations; domain name selection-registration and maintenance; and website development arrangements.
Media Dispute Resolution and Litigation Law
The Calhoun Law Firm, PLC, has a long tradition of successfully representing media clients involved in disputes. We represent reporters, correspondents, broadcast news analysts, editors, photographers, graphic designers, and broadcast technicians in negotiation, mediation, arbitration, litigation, and appeal proceedings about:
- Media business formation disputes about business break-ups, bylaws, landlord-tenant arrangements, LLC operating agreements, partnerships, and succession,
- Media commercial transaction disputes about bad faith, breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, and fraudulent conveyance.
- Media employment disputes about non-compete agreement, restrictive covenants, workers’ compensation claims, and worker’s compensation exposure claims.
- Media intellectual property disputes, we resolve disputes about copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and trade secret misappropriation.
- Media E-commerce disputes, we resolve disputes about data breaches, and privacy
Contacting The Calhoun Law Firm, PLC
If our capabilities match your needs, we invite you to contact us today by one of these means:
- Call us at 877-455-6344 to evaluate our capabilities to address your situation.
- Submit an inquiry via our Contact Us Form to brief your situation and needs.
- Schedule a 45-minute legal Consultation via our client portal to review your situation and approaches by which your objectives can be met.
Our Arizona Media Attorneys are experts in handling the legal matters that Phoenix and Tucson area reporters, editors, photographers, graphic designers, and broadcast technicians address during the course of their daily business activities. Moreover, our Arizona Media Lawyers assist media small businesses in the Phoenix and Tucson areas with contractual, intellectual property, litigation, e-commerce, employment, regulatory compliance, business structuring, and crisis management matters. Clients from Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, Scottsdale, Peoria, and Tempe are regularly advised and represented by our firm.