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Obtaining Royalty Settlement-Talk Documents In Litigation Over Loss of Legal Client

By Stan Soocher
August 25, 2003

In an industry of ever-changing loyalties, it's not unusual for attorneys to be concerned about keeping their entertainment clients. In some instances, lawyers may lose clients to competitors. If one lawyer sues another lawyer over such a loss, a key issue will likely be what correspondence the original lawyer can obtain in the lawsuit against the new lawyer.

Assume that the client's original lawyer procured a promise from an entertainment company to settle a royalty dispute. But the original lawyer has sued the client's new lawyer alleging a conspiracy to replace the original lawyer and to split the original lawyer's contingency fee between client and new lawyer. As part of discovery, can the original lawyer obtain documents handled by the new lawyer in negotiating the royalty settlement on behalf of the client?

Attorney Cheryl Turner represented producer/songwriter Marvin Harper in a royalty dispute with Death Row Records and other entities over Harper's work on a Tupac Shakur album. Turner received advice from entertainment attorney Angela Robinson but later sued Robinson and Harper claiming that Harper improperly replaced Turner with Robinson in the settlement negotiations.

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