Deaths! Divorces! DUIs! Here’s Who the Stars Call When They Really Need a Lawyer

• Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos

  Criminal Law

  Faced with charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution — plus whatever laws he may have broken with those 1,000 bottles of baby oil — Sean “Diddy” Combs turned to two of L.A.’s top defense attorneys (after the 54-year-old rapper split with former attorney Shawn Holley, see page 78). Agnifilo’s previous clients have included Martin Shkreli (the so-called Pharma Bro) and NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere, as well as various Russian banks, a Turkish Iranian gold trader and a Syrian Lebanese gun runner. Geragos, who opened the firm with Agnifilo in March, also happens to be the daughter of veteran L.A. troubleshooter Mark Geragos.

  

  A courthouse sketch of Marc Agnifilo (left) defending Sean “Diddy” Combs against sex trafficking and assorted other charges at an Oct. 10 hearing in New York. Elizabeth Williams via AP Images

• Blair Berk

  Criminal Law

  One of this legal powerhouse’s more recent courtroom victories was keeping DaBaby out of the slammer. The rapper, 32, had been facing felony battery charges for allegedly punching a 65-year-old man in the face and knocking out several of his teeth after the man confronted DaBaby over the shooting of a music video at a house DaBaby was renting from him. DaBaby ended up sentenced to one-year probation and paid $10,000 in restitution. This year, she also represented Dodger Shohei Ohtani in his fraud and theft case against his interpreter. Other clients have included NFL star Darren Sharper (accused and convicted in 2014 of drugging and attempting to rape 16 women in four states) and rapper Cee Lo Green (accused of sexual battery in 2013; the case was dismissed).

• Edward Burke Jr.

  If you ever find yourself in hot water in the Hamptons — as Justin Timberlake did this past summer — Burke is the Long Island attorney to call. He’s previously repped Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd (when Kidd smashed his Cadillac SUV into a utility pole after partying too hard at a Southampton fundraiser), disgraced Today show host Matt Lauer (over a feud with his neighbors about some trees, among other legal matters) and publicist Lizzie Grubman, who infamously backed her SUV into a crowd outside a Hamptons nightclub in 2001 (Burke ended up whittling her sentence down to just 38 days). With Timberlake, Burke was able to have the singer plead to reduced charges so that he could get back on the road for his Everything I Thought I Was tour without missing a beat.

  

  Justin Timberlake, with Edward Burke (right), at a Hamptons hearing after the singer was charged with a DUI in Long Island last summer. Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu/Getty Images

• David Z. Chesnoff

  Criminal Law

  As attorney for real estate heir and convicted murderer Robert Durst, Chesnoff has popped up as a character on Max’s documentary sequel The Jinx Part Two. The Las Vegas-based lawyer is a colorful addition to the cast (he has a giant painting of Elvis Presley propped against a wall in his office), but he reps at least one other client who seems ripe for a cable TV drama of his own: Alexander Smirnov, the former FBI informant charged with lying to federal agents about Joe and Hunter Biden’s dealings with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

  

  David Chesnoff (right) with Robert Durst during a 2016 hearing in Los Angeles. Jae C. Hong-PoolGetty Images

• Tom Clare and Libby Locke

  Criminal Law

  This husband-and-wife team lately has been going back to school, representing both former Harvard president Claudine Gay and former MIT professor Neri Oxman over separate charges of plagiarism. The latter happens to be married to billionaire Bill Ackman, who led the charge to push Gay out of her job. Locke’s outraged 77-page letter to the owners of Business Insider — the outlet that accused Oxman of copying off somebody else’s paper — was so exhaustive, the Columbia Journalism Review published a whole story about what journalists could learn from it. Clare, meanwhile, is still taking a victory lap over his successful 2023 litigation against Fox News for defaming Dominion Voting Systems — the suit that forced the right-wing news channel to cough up $787.5 million in damages.

• Jeffrey Eisen

  Estate Law

  Death and taxes may be inevitable, but Eisen’s firm — which has represented the estates of everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Irving Berlin to Albert Einstein to Elvis — does its best to make both go as smoothly as possible. He’s currently negotiating the ongoing deals over the use of Muhammad Ali’s likeness, name and image, as well as the legal entanglements of a certain recently deceased can’t-be-named A-list musician whose estate got snared in an IRS audit.

• Drew Findling

  Criminal Law

  This Atlanta-based lawyer is a favorite of rap royalty — he defended Cardi B in her 2018 assault case and this year got felony gun charges against Lil Baby dropped in Las Vegas. But his biggest, most controversial recent client also was his most unlikely: He initially defended Donald Trump against Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ 13 felony counts for allegedly attempting to illegally overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. This self-described “left-wing liberal” who on social media has called Trump “racist” and “pathetic,” has a long record of successfully defending the seemingly indefensible (including once winning the acquittal of a woman who doused her husband with gasoline and set him on fire).

• Bryan Freedman

  Civil Law

  Freedman represented Kevin Spacey when the actor was accused of sexual assault. When Tucker Carlson, Chris Cuomo, Megyn Kelly and Don Lemon were all ousted from their respective networks, he’s the guy they called for legal advice. Dr. Dre’s ex-wife hired him to get spousal support, FKA Twigs hired him when she alleged Shia LaBeouf abused her, Gabrielle Union hired him in her toxic workplace claim against America’s Got Talent, and Diplo hired him when he was accused of distributing revenge porn. A self-described courthouse “pit bull,” Freeman has a simple legal philosophy, which he shared with THR in June: “If you fuck with my client, you get what you get.” 

• Harlee Gasmer

  Family Law

  Her reputation for discretion — she’s known as “The Vault” — is so well-deserved, we can’t tell you the names of any of her super-famous clients. All we can say, per her firm’s official bio, is that she specializes in “complex dissolution matters that involve high net worth individuals, above the line talent and industry executives” who are dealing with “complicated compensation structures, spousal support, child support and child custody issues.” 

• Mark Geragos

  Criminal Law

  He hasn’t had much luck with Scott Peterson, but he just may turn out to be the lawyer who gets Lyle and Erik Menendez sprung from prison. The publicity-loving L.A. mouthpiece claims he’ll be introducing new evidence that will exonerate the brothers — convicted of murdering their parents in 1993 — during a resentencing hearing scheduled for November. But the Menendezes aren’t his only clients: Geragos also just signed on as Hunter Biden’s latest attorney. The president’s son has plead guilty to tax charges and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

• Shawn Holley

  Civil and Criminal Law

  You know you’ve made it as a Hollywood attorney when a TV legal drama bases a character on you (Jax Stewart on Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt is loosely drawn from Holley’s life). She was briefly Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyer — until she fired him — and defended Danny Masterson (unsuccessfully) in his 2023 rape trial. Other clients have included Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, Michelle Rodriguez, Katt Williams, Snoop Dogg, Mike Tyson, Shemar Moore and several Kardashians, as well as the late Michael Jackson and Tupac Shakur. 

  

  Danny Masterson with Shawn Holley (center) and Masterson’s friend Françoise Koster. Meghann M. Cuniff

• David Hyman

  Civil Law

  If you’re planning on suing Netflix — as Fiona Harvey has over her depiction as Martha, Richard Gadd’s fictionalized stalker in the streamer’s hit Baby Reindeer — then chances are you’ll be facing off against this guy. Hyman has been lawyering for Netflix since it was a DVD-by-mail startup, but lately he’s been extra-busy. Along with defending his company against Harvey’s claims, he’s been dealing with suits over Love Is Blind (a contestant is claiming the reality show placed her in dangerous situations during filming) and Squid Game (an Indian filmmaker is suing over claims the show copied his 2009 Hindu-language film Luck).
  

• Ambika Kumar

  Media Law

  The Seattle-based First Amendment attorney is Silicon Valley’s go-to lawyer whenever tech and free speech collide. She represents Microsoft (opposing gag orders prohibiting telling its customers when their data has been peeked at by the government), TikTok (fighting a ban in Montana) and Meta (defending against lawsuits alleging social media has harmful effects). 

• Lisa Helfend Meyer

  Family Law

  A founding partner of her own female-owned and -operated boutique firm, she has handled marriage dissolutions for some of Hollywood’s most famous spouses, both male and female, including Janet McCormack (Eric McCormack’s ex), Jwan Yosef (Ricky Martin’s ex), Nicole Young (Dr. Dre’s ex), Brandon Blackstock (Kelly Clarkson’s ex) and Christina Ricci (James Heerdegen’s ex). 

• Paul D. Murphy

  Civil Law

  He represents Angelina Jolie in her ongoing legal battle with ex-husband Brad Pitt over the disputed sale of their French winery, Chateau Miraval. The latest wrinkle in the nearly decadelong divorce involved a tug-of-war over NDAs; a court recently decided that Jolie must produce eight years’ worth of them, a ruling both sides positioned as a victory. While Pitt’s attorney claimed it was a “significant blow” to Jolie’s case, Murphy insisted that Jolie was “more than happy to turn them over,” adding, “This case is not about NDAs in general, but about power and control.”

• Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro

  Criminal Law

  As co-counsel defending Alec Baldwin in the Rust manslaughter trial, Nikas and Spiro won the highest-profile case of the year, and in record time. The duo wrangled an acquittal for the actor in just three days. Spiro also is beleaguered NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ lawyer and represents Elon Musk in all sorts of matters, including his lawsuit against GARM, which accuses the nonprofit of violating antitrust laws by “colluding” with various brands to pull ad spending from X after Musk acquired the platform in 2022.

• Martin “Marty” Singer

  Civil Law

  Bill Cosby, Charlie Sheen, John Travolta, Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Ricky Martin, Kim Kardashian, Jonah Hill, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner — this guy’s client list boasts more bold-faced names than Page Six. One of his more recent cases involves 79-year-old Priscilla Presley, who is accusing an ex-business partner of ripping her off to the tune of $1 million in what’s being alleged as financial elder abuse. He’s also been defending Lizzo against a suit brought by three former stage dancers alleging a hostile work environment.

• Brian Steel

  Criminal Law

  Talk about commitment. The Atlanta-based lawyer almost went to jail himself — for contempt of court, when he refused to reveal to a judge the source of some of his information — while defending rapper Young Thug (aka Jeffery Williams) on gang-related charges in Georgia, including weapons and drug possession. Steel didn’t end up in the hoosegow — his wife posted bond — but he’s definitely helping his client slow the wheels of justice to a grind. Jury selection in the case alone took 10 months.

• Robert Strauss and Jonathan Forster

  Estate Law

  They advise numerous A-listers — none of whom they’ll reveal in print — on estate planning and asset protection. Forster is particularly skilled in creating privacy trusts to keep celebrities’ names off residences in the public record and in setting up irrevocable trusts for the children of high-profile clients. Strauss, the firm’s director, routinely saves his clients tens of millions in estate and capital gains taxes.

• Adam Streisand

  Estate Law

  As Rupert Murdoch’s lead counsel, Streisand is at the red-hot center of a real-life Succession drama: He’s the lawyer defending the News Corp mogul’s recent decision to radically alter his family trust, putting son Lachlan in control and divesting all his other children. Unsurprisingly, the left-out kids are suing over the change, with the case presumably going to trial sometime in 2025. But Streisand has already won a partial summary judgment on a few key issues. Stay tuned.

• Brett Ward, Kristina Royce and Marilyn Chinitz

  Family Law

  Among the three of them, they’ve cornered half the market on high-profile, high-net-worth Hollywood divorces. Royce is repping Channing Tatum in his split, and she’s seen Jeff Garlin, Forest Whitaker and Michael De Luca through the dissolution of their marriages. Chinitz has repped Tom Cruise, Wendy Williams, Michael Douglas and Anthony Scaramucci. And Ward has represented Emily Ratajkowski, Pamala Davis (ex-wife of 1-800-Lawyers founder Bruce T. Davis) and a slew of others.

• Laura Wasser

  Family Law

  This last time Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck, she did it without an attorney, at least initially (after all, she’d had some practice). But when things inevitably got complicated, she turned to Wasser, as have so many over the years. Among her other clients: Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, Olivia Wilde and Kevin Costner.

• Douglas H. Wigdor

  Criminal Law

  New York-based Wigdor was suing Sean Combs long before his arrest in September. Way back in November 2023, he filed a civil complaint against the rapper on behalf of singer Cassie Ventura — the woman who can be seen in that 2016 hotel surveillance video being kicked and beaten by Combs — in the suit that introduced the phrase “freak-offs” to the legal lexicon. Combs settled with Ventura for an undisclosed amount the very next day. More recently, Wigdor is representing a women accusing country singer Garth Brooks of rape (accusations Brooks has denied).

• Donald Woodard and Uwonda S. Carter

  Civil Law

  When deals go south — or just need a little tweaking — these two are great to have on speed dial, especially when it comes to NIL (name, image and likeness) contracts. Most recently, Woodard and Carter renegotiated college basketball star and rapper Flau’jae Johnson’s pact with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, reportedly landing her a multimillion-dollar bump. 

• Laura Zwicker

  Estate

  “All my clients are incredibly privacy conscious,” Zwicker says, declining to name names. All we know is that she handles delicate tax, estate and other issues for much of Hollywood’s top talent. That includes an A-list filmmaker who recently required some immigration assistance while moving outside the U.S. and an iconic actor who set up an offshore trust structure for his family, and she’s said to be an ace on cases involving valuation and IP. 

  This story appeared in the Oct. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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