Bryan M. Sullivan

Bryan M. Sullivan advises and represents his clients as a legal strategist in all their business affairs assisting them in achieving their business goals while ensuring that they receive the utmost level of protection along the way.  Bryan’s goal is to obtain for his clients a net gain by balancing specific, imminent business and legal needs with overarching client goals.

Bryan implements effective, creative strategies by drawing upon his wide range of business experience and legal expertise, which gives him a unique appreciation of the importance of harmonizing the many varying, and sometimes competing, demands that exist in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing business world.  Bryan has experience on the litigation and appeals side of the practice, as well as with entertainment and intellectual property contracts, investment and financing agreements, and corporate structure documents on the dealmaking side.  He is also well-versed in the exercise of a corporate officer’s or director’s fiduciary duties and has advised many individuals on their respective obligations as an officer and/or director of a company.  From complex litigation to negotiation strategy to everyday business decisions, Bryan knows how to prioritize the client’s needs and to ensure a net gain and positive result for the client.

Bryan was named to Variety‘s 2023 and 2022 “Legal Impact Report,” has been named in the The Best Lawyers in America© each year since 2017 for Commercial Transactions / UCC Law and each year since 2018 for Entertainment Law, was recognized by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal in 2015 as one of the “Top 20 Attorneys Under 40 in California,” and was recognized by national legal publication Law360 in 2013 as one of the top 100 attorneys under 40 in the United States.  Further, from 2008-2014, Bryan was named a “Southern California Super Lawyers Rising Star” by Thomson Reuters and Los Angeles Magazine and, from 2015-2022, a “Super Lawyer” by the same publications.

Also, Bryan is well-known in the community for his non-profit activism and work on political campaigns.  He is involved as an officer or director of several non-profit groups, including Basta, Inc., a tenants’ rights group; I Vote, Inc., a youth voter engagement group; and the Lion Fund For Children, a group that helps victims of sex abuse.  In 2012, the Liberty Hill Foundation honored Bryan with its 2012 NextGen Leadership Award at its annual ChangeLA Event at the W Hotel Hollywood recognizing Bryan’s dedication to non-profit work and political activism.

In addition, in April of 2014, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed Bryan to the City of Los Angeles’ Affordable Housing Commission where Bryan served until March 2015 when he resigned to join Mayor Garcetti’s reelection campaign.

Bryan received his law degree in 2000 from Boston College Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1997 in Political Science, History and International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University, where he graduated summa cum laude with honors and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

LITIGATION

• Represents Chaz Dean in several class actions, mass actions, and individual actions arising from false allegations that his iconic hair product, WEN Cleansing Conditioner, causes hair loss, which included settling a $26 million class action and coordinating responses to a FDA regulatory investigation.
• Represents Brooklyn 99 actor, Terry Crews, in matters including his sexual assault case against William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC and its head of motion picture division, Adam Venit.
• Recovered several million dollars for a high profile individual whose investment advisor coerced him into investing in a purported real estate Ponzi scheme without his knowledge.
• Represented a high profile celebrity in a dispute over the ownership of certain rights in intellectual property owned by a large studio, and obtained complete ownership of those IP rights for his client.
• Represented international security company, Inter-Con Security Systems, Inc., and its CEO, Rick Hernandez (who is also a director of several Fortune 500 companies), in a dispute with a former employee involving allegations of theft of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty, interference with contractual relations, wrongful termination in violation of public policy, and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as well as the Federal False Claims Act.
• Represented the holding company of Russian billionaire, Ara Abramyan—a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin—in an internal corporate dispute over the control of the company in which Mr. Abramyan made his first U.S. investment.
• Represented a group of investors seeking to recover damages from two corporate executives for breaches of fiduciary duty arising from their management of the entertainment company, Manana Media, which owned a library of over 1,000 films that the officers allegedly neglected resulting in serious issues with the film library’s chain of title.
• Represented Latino streaming service, Pongalo, in a dispute with its corporate officers, directors, and largest shareholder to determine control of the corporation and legitimacy of actions by the Board of Directors under Delaware law.
• Represented Lions Gate Entertainment, Inc., in a dispute arising from the filming of Catching Fire, the sequel to The Hunger Games, over the use of certain animals in that film.
• Represented Organized Noize, Inc., a very successful hip-hop songwriting group, in an action against Bug Music, Inc., alleging the underpayment of royalties owed to Organized Noize, Inc.
• Obtained a dismissal for German media tycoon, Dr. Bodo Scriba, in a dispute initiated by Twentieth Century Fox International Corporation over monies purportedly owed under various film distribution agreements for the distribution of Fox films to Russia.
• Represents numerous artists, actors, writers, and producers in audits of their entitlement to backend profits of films, television shows and music to ensure that they were properly paid by the studios, networks or record companies.

TRANSACTIONS

• Represents film producer, Haroon Saleem, in negotiations for several film and television projects involving independent production companies as well as major motion picture studios and networks.
• Represents Enderby Entertainment, LLC in various negotiations regarding several film and televisions projects, including, among others, a television project based on the cult film The Big Easy.
• Represented Kenneth Brook in an initial coin offering for MetaXchain, Inc.
• Represented a wealthy South American in a transaction over the sale of a rare Ferrari.
• Represents Frankie Quintero, of the Yucaipa Companies, in several of his separate business transactions.
• Represents a writer and producer in obtaining and exploiting the rights for a Peter Max biopic.
• Represents a Samsung heir in various investments in the United States.
• Represented Miles Beckett, the creator of the first viral internet series LonelyGirl15, in a co-development deal for a reboot of the series.
• Represented baseball player, Robinson Cano, in various endorsement deals. 

APPEALS

• Represented the Appellant in Moorefield Construction, Inc. v. Intervest Mortgage Investment Company, et al., 230 Cal. App. 4th 146 (4th Dist. 2014), in which Sullivan obtained a reversal of a trial court’s decision awarding a general contractor $2.2 million on its mechanic’s lien.
• Represented billionaire Ronald Burkle in a marital dissolution action entitled In re Marriage of Burkle, 139 Cal.App.4th 712 (2006), a landmark case on the issue of post-nuptial agreements, and in the related appeal Burkle v. Burkle, 144 Cal.App.4th 387 (2006), holding that the recasting of family law issues as separate civil actions is improper and sanctionable.