Lawyers, Stars to Join Manatt

They began talking while watching a tennis tournament. Eventually, they served up one of the bigger moves involving Hollywood’s entertainment law firms.

The discussions between entertainment attorneys Jay Cooper and Lee Phillips earlier this year culminated this week in a deal in which nine top lawyers from Cooper, Epstein & Hurewitz will be moving to the larger Westside firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips.

The result has shaken up Hollywood’s clubby entertainment law business. Among the top clients Manatt will be gaining are television star Jerry Seinfeld, the Merchant-Ivory production team and actor Robin Williams, who join a roster that already boasts such top stars as entertainer Barbra Streisand and actor Michael Douglas.

Cooper denies talk that internal friction within the Cooper, Epstein firm led to the move. He said the firm was too small to handle the growing demands of clients who are increasingly interested in opportunities in such areas as multimedia entertainment and foreign markets.

In addition to Cooper, other lawyers moving to the Manatt firm are Gerald Margolis, Alan Schwartz, Andrea Grefe, Michael Hughes, Steven Younger, Jonathan Haft, Barry Mallen and Phalen Hurewitz. Five other lawyers, including partner Ira Epstein, will be heading to the Beverly Hills firm Weissmann, Wolff, Bergman, Coleman & Silverman.

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips’ business is now about 30% entertainment, with about the same amount in banking and finance and a slightly smaller amount in health care.

Manatt has long enjoyed a reputation as a politically connected law firm. Partner Charles Manatt is a longtime Democratic power broker and former partner Mickey Kantor is the U.S. trade czar.