Earlier this month, Leon Gladstone was preparing to do what legions of other entertainment lawyers do every January: make the pilgrimage to the Sundance Film Festival.
Robert Redford’s annual Utah snowfest is the place to showcase a new independent film and a magnet for entertainment lawyers who pitch clients’ projects to attendees with the purse strings to distribute them. This time, Gladstone was packing information about an exciting new client: himself. A partner with Berger, Kahn, Shafton, Moss, Figler, Simon & Gladstone in Marina del Rey, who for decades has represented book authors, screenwriters and actors, Gladstone found himself on the other side of the camera (and the negotiating table) last year. He and his wife, screenwriter Meg Thayer, have produced an independent feature film, “True Rights,” which parodies the business of turning real-life stories into TV movies and feature films.
