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Lawyers Abound at Probate Hearing on Michael Jackson's Estate
The National Law Journal
July 08, 2009
An army of lawyers appeared during the first major probate hearing involving Michael Jackson's estate on Monday, as everyone with a potential stake in Jackson's assets is now being represented by an attorney.
During the hearing, Los Angeles County, Calif., Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ruled that Jackson's longtime attorney, John Branca, a name partner at Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman, Cook, Johnson, Lande & Wolf in Los Angeles, and record executive John McClain, had been designated as temporary administrators of the estate, which is estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, who has temporary custody of her son's children, had wanted to oversee the estate before the will was discovered.
In court, Howard Weitzman, a partner at Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert in Santa Monica, Calif., appeared as an attorney for Branca and McClain. Weitzman, a litigator, has represented numerous celebrities, including Marlon Brando, Magic Johnson, O.J. Simpson and John DeLorean.
Weitzman, who attended Jackson's memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday, said that he is working with Joel Katz and Vincent Chieffo, both at Greenberg Traurig, as well as three partners at Hoffman, Sabban & Watenmaker, a boutique law firm in Los Angeles specializing in trusts and estates. Katz, chairman of the global media and entertainment practice at Greenberg Traurig and a shareholder in the Atlanta office, is one of the top music attorneys in the country. Chieffo, a shareholder in the firm's Los Angeles office, is co-chairman of the firm's national media and entertainment litigation group. All three Hoffman partners -- Paul Gordon Hoffman, Jeryll S. Cohen and Alan S. Watenmaker -- attended the Monday hearing.
"They're guiding us in the world of probate and administering the estate," Weitzman said of the Hoffman firm. He and Katz "are really involved in bridging that gap between the entertainment world and understanding the various contracts and potential litigation dealing with probate and estate issues."
The Hoffman partners did not return calls for comment.
Last year, Cohen represented James Spears, the father of Britney Spears. He was granted temporary control of his daughter's estate after she was admitted several times to a psychiatric hospital.
The firm, according to its Web site, was founded in 1981 and has 12 lawyers and three paralegals. Its clients span various industries, although the firm specializes in handling the estates of individuals in the entertainment and real estate industries.
The probate attorney for Katherine Jackson, Burt Levitch, a partner at Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman in Beverly Hills, Calif., also attended the Monday hearing. Levitch did not return a call for comment.
Another lawyer for Katherine Jackson, John E. Schreiber, a litigation partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf in Los Angeles, did not return a call for comment. Dean Hansell, another Dewey & LeBoeuf partner handling the Jackson matter, said that the firm got involved because a third partner, L. Londell McMillan, head of the entertainment, media and sports group in New York, has represented Jackson and his family in the past. McMillan has represented celebrities including Stevie Wonder, Prince and Usher and the estate of Sammy Davis Jr.
Hansell, a litigator, who also attended the memorial service, said that his role is to represent Katherine Jackson in order to "protect her interests and therefore, indirectly, the kids' interests, too, to make sure the estate is being managed in a prudent way and in a way that's going to be appropriate to the beneficiary."
Another attorney at the Monday hearing was David Chesnoff, a criminal defense attorney at Chesnoff & Schonfeld in Las Vegas. He said that he was there as an observer and representative of Jackson's brothers and sisters.
Finally, Joseph Zimring, a deputy in the California attorney general's office, said that he attended because his office is required to give notice whenever unnamed charitable institutions could receive assets from an individual's estate. Jackson's will indicates that he intended to give some of his assets to charity.
