John Branca

  This was a great event! Veteran entertainment attorney John Branca has been advancing the careers of recording artists and music companies for more than four decades. Marty Bandier, CEO/Chairman of Sony/ATV Music Publishing called him “the #1 publishing lawyer in the country” while late global pop star Michael Jackson hailed him as “the greatest lawyer of our time.” As partner at the prominent entertainment law firm Ziffren Brittenham LLP, Branca’s clients have included over 30 members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also serves as chairman of the Michael Jackson Company. Branca will share his unique professional journey and insights into his professional collaboration with some of the music industry’s biggest talents. Presented by The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, the L.A. Sounds Now virtual event series offers a unique snapshot of the global music industry through engaging conversations with diverse industry leaders led by School of Music Inaugural Dean, Eileen L. Str...

  The Michael Jackson Estate is donating $300,000 to coronavirus response efforts to help three communities that have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 virus. The money is being split three ways, with a $100,000 donation going to each of Broadway Cares, Three Square Food Bank (Southern Nevada’s largest hunger-relief organization) and MusiCares. Speaking last week to announce the $300,000 contribution,  John Branca and John McClain, co-executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson Estate, said:  “This virus strikes at the heart of the communities we are close to. We learned today that  the legendary Manu Dibango, (“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin”)  passed away from the virus. “Other performers and support staff in music and on Broadway are sick or have been left without work and are facing an uncertain future. And in Las Vegas, which has been so welcoming to Michael Jackson, the entire city has been shut down leaving thousands of workers and their families devastat...

  John Branca  giving insight into the importance of thinking about the media for a celebrity. Mr. Branca gives his takes on multiple instances of media representation. John Branca: I mean, there’s always going to be somebody that disagrees with what you do or has an opinion about what you do. And you can’t always control that. But thinking about the media is very important for a celebrity. Brian Price: So, you’d mentioned  b eing a business advisor for clients too. So, the effect of media today with social media, how different is it than with earlier in your career? And how have you learned how to work with the media, utilize the media for whatever your aims might be? John Branca: Well, I’m older and I would venture to say that virtually everybody in this room is probably going to be more adept at dealing with social media than I am. I’m smart enough to hire people who… who know what they’re doing. And it’s important. It’s especially important, you know, where the artist...

  This article originally appeared here https://variety.com/2019/music/news/documentary-panel-ucla-usc-michael-jackson-1203234436/  The controversy over HBO’s “ Leaving Neverland ” is part of a bigger debate that goes back a good century. Film scholars have been arguing about the reality, truth and objectivity of the documentary film since at least Robert Flaherty’s pioneering 1922 epic “Nanook of the North,” and probably all the way back to Thomas Edison’s “Sneeze” kinescope, according to International Documentary Association director Carrie Lozano. Lozano was one of the panelists for “Truth Be Told? Documentary Films Today,” a discussion that brought together two rival schools as sponsors; the UCLA School of Law Ziffren Center and USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism combined forces to co-host the event Tuesday night on the UCLA campus. Moderated by UCLA School of Law’s First Amendment expert Dale Cohen (pictured above, left), the panel also included p...

  John Branca Tales of John Branca’s business acumen are plentiful. How he turned  Michael Jackson ’s over-budget “Thriller” music video production into a lucrative behind-the-scenes documentary. How he secured for Jackson the coveted  Beatles  publishing catalog. How he helped Jackson purchase Neverland ranch for $40 million less than the asking price. How 10 years after Jackson’s death, he and the estate’s other executor John McClain — a childhood friend of the Jacksons who went on to manage sister  Janet  ‘s career and was a founding executive at Interscope Records — built the artist’s music catalog into a $570 million asset. Now ,  after HBO’s March airing of filmmaker Dan Reed’s  Leaving Neverland  — with its disturbing and graphic first-person accounts of Jackson’s pedophilia — John Branca, 68, faces a new and arguably much more daunting challenge: protecting Jackson’s legacy and the successful businesses that it fuels from fallout over...