Contact: Mark Fefer, Marketing Communications, 206.757.8583 or markfefer@dwt.com
MAY 3, 2017 – Kelli Sager and Alonzo Wickers, partners in the Los Angeles office of Davis Wright Tremaine, have once again been named to The Hollywood Reporter’s annual list of “the top 100 entertainment attorneys in America.” This is Sager’s tenth year, and Wickers’ seventh, on the magazine’s “Power Lawyers” list.
The lawyers on the list are “at the very top of their field” and “play a vital role in keeping Hollywood’s wheels turning,” the magazine said.
The publication cited Sager’s recent win on behalf of T3 Media (now Wazee Digital), a media management and licensing company that was sued by two former NCAA basketball players in a putative class action alleging that the company’s league-sanctioned licensing of NCAA photos violated the players’ publicity rights. A 9th Circuit panel unanimously upheld the district court’s finding that the claims were preempted by federal copyright law.
The magazine also noted Sager’s successful defense of a screenwriter of the acclaimed film “What Maisie Knew,” whose ex-girlfriend filed a “libel-in-fiction” defamation suit, claiming a character in the film was based on her. Sager won a SLAPP motion dismissing the case and more than $200,000 in attorneys’ fees for her client. The Court of Appeals granted a motion to dismiss plaintiff’s appeal of the merits ruling and affirmed the award.
Wickers was cited for his ongoing work handling “rights issues and day-to-day production advice for several networks, programs and production companies,” including Amazon Studios, Comedy Central, “Orange Is the New Black,” and HBO.
The magazine noted Wickers’ work as lead attorney in several high-profile pieces of litigation: representing Electronic Arts in trailblazing right-of-publicity cases; defending Universal Pictures in a lawsuit challenging the life rights agreement behind the biopic, “American Made,” starring Tom Cruise; and defending News Corp. against libel, privacy, and illegal recording claims filed by a financier and former paramour of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.
About Davis Wright Tremaine
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is a national law firm with nine offices and over 550 lawyers representing clients based throughout the United States and around the world. The firm was recently named a Media and Entertainment “Practice Groups of the Year” by Law360. For more information, visit www.dwt.com.