Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

In Memoriam: Joel Katz

By Thomas Spigolon and Stan Soocher
April 30, 2025

Entertainment trade magazines called lawyer Joel Katz, who died in Atlanta in April at the age of 80, “one of the most powerful attorneys in the music business” who “ruled the music industry from Atlanta for decades.”

Katz founded the entertainment and media law practice at Greenburg Traurig — which had only a peripheral entertainment law practice until then — following a 1998 merger with his namesake Atlanta firm Katz Smith & Cohen to open Greenberg’s Atlanta office. At the time, Katz said he had his eye on the growing Latin music market but, “I could never have had that as a profit center in Atlanta. I wanted a Miami office and [the Miami-based] Greenberg Traurig was involved to some degree in the Latin music business."

Read These Next
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later Image

The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.

The Bankruptcy Hotline Image

Recent cases of importance to your practice.

Use of Deferred Prosecution Agreements In White Collar Investigations Image

This article discusses the practical and policy reasons for the use of DPAs and NPAs in white-collar criminal investigations, and considers the NDAA's new reporting provision and its relationship with other efforts to enhance transparency in DOJ decision-making.

How AI Has Affected PR Image

When we consider how the use of AI affects legal PR and communications, we have to look at it as an industrywide global phenomenon. A recent online conference provided an overview of the latest AI trends in public relations, and specifically, the impact of AI on communications. Here are some of the key points and takeaways from several of the speakers, who provided current best practices, tips, concerns and case studies.

The DOJ's New Parameters for Evaluating Corporate Compliance Programs Image

The parameters set forth in the DOJ's memorandum have implications not only for the government's evaluation of compliance programs in the context of criminal charging decisions, but also for how defense counsel structure their conference-room advocacy seeking declinations or lesser sanctions in both criminal and civil investigations.