Joseph A. Kohanski

Joe Kohanski joined the Firm in 1989 after clerkship with the Hon.  Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court, during which he was designated to address capital punishment appeals. He has been a partner since 1994, assumed primary responsibility for the Firm’s representation of Guilds in insolvency and workout matters in 1996, and long served as a managing partner of the Firm. Prior to completing college and law school he was a professional trombonist and arranger in a wide range of commercial settings, including extensive touring and recording with Teddy Pendergrass and other R&B artists; a tour with Blondie; and jazz, salsa, Brazilian, recording, and society gigs in Philadelphia and New York, as a member of AFM Local 77.

While conversant with traditional labor law practice, he specializes in synthesizing bankruptcy, commercial law, copyright and entertainment finance principles, representing the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, the WGA and associated Pension and Health Plans as creditors in bankruptcies, workouts, and intercreditor negotiations.   He pursues programmatic approaches toward increased residuals and P&H collections for Union-represented employees that have yielded returns exceeding nine figures, as the Guilds and the Firm have evolved to meet the shifting challenges of the Film Industry landscape.

In the early 1990’s, he assisted in developing the playbook for representing Guild interests as unsecured creditors in a wide range of film industry bankruptcies, including marquee companies with substantial hits and awards recognition (e.g. Orion; Hemdale) that could not remain solvent.

Based on that experience, the Firm initiated a security interest program facilitating Guild liens to secure performance of residuals payments and other collective bargaining obligations. From 1993 through 1997 the Firm represented the DGA and SAG in continuing struggles and shut-downs with Producers, Distributors, Lenders, and Completion Guarantors over the terms of liens and intercreditor agreements securing payment of residuals, leading to generally accepted form agreements that continue to be utilized across the film industry – and the Firm remains active in refining this work.

Counsel to the DGA and SAG-AFTRA in negotiation of legislation (28 USC 4001) enhancing residuals collection when producers or distributors disregard certain residuals obligations.

As the Guilds attained critical mass of secured interests in motion picture libraries, the Firm updated its playbook to capitalize on secured creditor leverage in insolvencies and workouts, increasingly functioning like lenders.

This work extends across the US and beyond, including insolvency representation of the Guilds in Denmark, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and France.   The Firm has also represented foreign performer unions [ACTRA; Equity (UK); MEAA (Australia)] in US-based proceedings.

Since 2007, the Firm has counseled and administered a Tri-Guild program, in conjunction with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, conducting residuals compliance audits of the major studios and select independent producers.

He has also represented unions in the agricultural, construction, health care, and airline sectors, as well as wage and hour class plaintiffs confronting bankruptcy hazards presented by employers, and also initiated a series of amicus curiae briefs concerning performer rights of privacy and publicity. He is a member of the Union Lawyers Alliance, the Financial Lawyers Conference, the American Bankruptcy Institute,  various Labor Law, Bankruptcy, Entertainment Law, or Intellectual Property Sections of the American, California and Los Angeles County Bar Associations, and has presented to many of these groups. Since 2017, he has continuously been recognized by Thompson Reuters as a Southern California “Superlawyer” in the area of business bankruptcy.

And in the last few years he has resumed practice and performance on trombone and bass guitar.