John Berlinski, currently a partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, has an extensive history as a provider of legal services over the past several years. In fact, before his current position, he worked as an attorney for a couple of different practices, all of which prepared him for his present role. His education began with a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, after which he attended the University of Michigan Law School.
After graduating, John began his professional career as a lawyer by working as a litigation attorney for the law offices of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, a global law firm with offices throughout the world. This allowed him to establish a network of contacts within the judiciary system, in addition to ample experience, tackling all sorts of cases as part of a legal team.
Years after building up a reputation in his initial position, John Berlinski was offered the opportunity to take on the role of Senior Vice President & Head of West Coast Television Litigation for NBCUniversal. In his capacity as SVP, he was assigned the responsibility of handling all litigation and pre-litigation disputes involving NBCUniversal’s West Coast division.
During his time with NBCUniversal, he was able to further develop skills that would enable him to become an expert in his field. Being SVP placed him in a position where he actively tackled various issues under the umbrella of entertainment law. This included cases involving intellectual property rights, such as those related to copyright law, trademarks, and idea theft, claims involving media portrayals, such as those related to reporters’ shield law, media access, defamation, rights to privacy, and rights to publicity, and other internal situations, such as those involving talent relations, entertainment contracts, employment, and general commercial disputes.
However, serving as SVP was not his only role. In his position as Head of West Coast Television Litigation, John was tasked with leading NBCUniversal’s profit participation group. This meant that it was his responsibility to manage a team of lawyers working to devise strategies for negotiation profit participation contracts. They also oversaw audits and audit claims, as well as accounting statements.
Finally, his professional career led him to become a partner at the law offices of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP. As a partner, his role is to serve as the head of the office and as the chair of entertainment law, allowing him to apply all that he has learned regarding that judicial branch. Handling high profile cases involving powerful clients with equally powerful opposition can be an intimidating venture, but John’s unique background has ensured that he is more than prepared for the task. His previous experience has since been applied to representing all sorts of television and theater clients and handling cases involving intellectual property in music, resolving disputes involving theme park owners, working with agencies, and most of all, resolving claims related to licensing disputes and profit participation. This has not gone without notice. John’s skill in litigation has been recognized by all sorts of influential sources. Variety included him as a leading attorney of entertainment law in their “Legal Impact Report,” The National Law Journal gave him the title of Entertainment Trailblazer, and The Hollywood Reporter listed him on their “Powerful Lawyers 2020: Hollywood’s Top 100 Attorneys” list. Since working with Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, John has truly made a name for himself as a litigator to watch.
