Most individuals think about that leisure attorneys spend their days negotiating recording contracts or reviewing film offers. However for Dallas-based legal professional Levi McCathern, the job is way more easy: He solves issues. Large ones. The sort that would value Jerry Jones your complete Dallas Cowboys franchise or that stripped a Heisman Trophy from one in all school soccer’s best operating backs.
From small-town preacher to big-city lawyer
McCathern’s path to turning into one in all leisure’s most trusted authorized minds began removed from the brilliant lights of Hollywood or the NFL. After rising up in Snyder, Texas, with a preacher father and a instructor mom, he knew his future would contain public talking. “The one three occupations I might consider that did that have been preaching, politics or being an legal professional,” McCathern says.
After a short stint as a teenage preacher and ruling out politics because of his distaste for politicians, McCathern discovered his calling in regulation. He accomplished each his undergraduate diploma and regulation diploma at Baylor College earlier than touchdown at Godwin and Carlton, one in all Dallas’s largest companies, in 1993.
The case that modified all the pieces
McCathern’s entry into leisure regulation got here by means of an sudden reference to Jerry Jones, Jr., son of the Dallas Cowboys proprietor. After turning into the youngest accomplice in his agency’s historical past, McCathern began his personal observe and initially served as native counsel for some Cowboys circumstances. However all the pieces modified when Jones Sr. confronted a possible judgment starting from $225 million to $675 million—greater than the Cowboys have been value on the time.
“Jerry misplaced and was very indignant on the huge nationwide agency,” McCathern remembers. “He referred to as me and requested me who he ought to substitute them with, and I stated, ‘Me.’” At simply 28 years previous, McCathern not solely reversed the judgment but additionally secured a $1.6 million return for Jones. He’s been the Cowboys’ go-to legal professional ever since.
Excessive-stakes problem-solver
At present, McCathern describes his observe with one easy phrase: “high-profile problem-solving.” His consumer roster reads like a who’s who of leisure and sports activities, from singer Chris Brown to NFL star Reggie Bush. Every consumer comes with distinctive challenges that require inventive options past conventional authorized methods.
Take his work with Chris Brown, as an example. When the singer confronted allegations about an altercation that adopted a live performance, McCathern’s method wasn’t to arrange for a prolonged court docket battle—it was to discover a decision that protected his consumer’s pursuits whereas avoiding the highlight of a public trial. Equally, when band members from Journey wanted authorized intervention, McCathern’s focus remained on fixing the rapid drawback somewhat than prolonging the battle.
“Lots of attorneys assume that the one options to issues are in a courtroom,” McCathern says. Whereas he acknowledges that generally the specter of litigation is important to encourage affordable habits, it typically leads to a lose-lose for everybody concerned. His main purpose is at all times to search out options earlier than stepping foot in a courtroom.
This method is especially efficient within the leisure business, the place time is commonly as precious as cash to purchasers. “They want rapid solutions,” McCathern explains. “It must be handled proper then on an expedited foundation and never litigated over for 3 years.”
The leisure regulation distinction
Leisure regulation isn’t nearly larger names and better stakes. McCathern notes that entertainers face extra authorized touchpoints than nearly another occupation. For instance, each single time a singer or band seems, there are dozens of contracts to cope with between the venue, different performers and merchandise sellers, to call a couple of.
“One of many issues that I believe makes me totally different [from] a whole lot of attorneys, and what I believe all entertainers search for, is type of some extent man,” McCathern explains. “I can direct them to the entire totally different of us if they’ve an mental property situation about their music. In case you’re an athlete [and] you bought a private harm—sports-related or non-sports-related—what are we going to do about that? In case you’ve acquired a litigation as a result of they’re excessive profile, there’s much more faux allegations made towards entertainers than towards anyone else. And a lawyer may help you not solely put together to keep away from these type of conditions but additionally resolve them after they have them.”
The superstar authorized paradox
McCathern says that one of many largest misconceptions celebrities face is that they get preferential remedy within the authorized system. “In my expertise, it’s actually really the other,” he says. “The extra profitable you’re, you change into extra of a goal, and other people have their eye on you.”
This heightened scrutiny manifests in numerous methods. “In case you or I are in a automotive wreck, it’s by no means going to be within the information,” McCathern explains. “But when Jerry Jones is in a automotive wreck or Dak Prescott, one in all my different purchasers, it’s going to be on each information community in Dallas that night time, and perhaps some nationwide stuff.”
The publicity extends past media consideration too. “In case you’re on the movie show and any person falls down the steps subsequent to you, no one’s going guilty you,” McCathern says. “However, in my expertise, if you happen to’re at any person’s live performance and any person will get damage, they at all times appear to discover a strategy to blame the performer. So there’s a lot extra publicity to them than the typical particular person.”
Successful the unwinnable
McCathern’s method shone in his profitable marketing campaign to restore Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy. The place different attorneys had failed, McCathern succeeded by specializing in options exterior the courtroom. The case exemplified his agency’s motto: “enhancing folks’s lives.”
“Each time I get precisely what my consumer wished—particularly if different attorneys have tried to get it and have been unsuccessful—it’s essentially the most satisfying factor,” McCathern says. “There’s simply nothing extra rewarding than that.”
For McCathern, all of it comes again to fixing issues. Whether or not he’s representing a world famous person or a neighborhood household, his method stays the identical: Discover options early, keep away from pointless litigation and always remember that behind each case is an individual whose life you’re attempting to enhance.
This text initially appeared within the Might/June 2025 situation of SUCCESS® journal. Photograph by Kris Hundt.
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