Neema Sahni

As the co-chair of her firm’s music industry group and vice chair of its sports industry group, Sahni always has one or two huge litigations working. What she most enjoys, however, is putting her litigation skills to use for her clients far short of going to court.

Typically, that means analyzing her clients’ new and existing contracts to spot potential litigation issues that should be addressed. While the possibility of litigation can be a tool in a business negotiation, “at the end of the day, the goal is to really help the client reach a business resolution,” she said.

The pandemic put that side of her practice into high demand, particularly for the sports teams and leagues she represents. Sahni got calls from those clients seeking advice about protecting players, staff and fans and about preserving contracts for payments, sponsorships and media rights for games that couldn’t be played.

Litigation was not an answer because the clients and their business partners wanted to work with each other to find solutions. “As a litigator that’s what makes this so fulfilling for me because it’s not always the next discovery fight,” she said. “It’s something a little more focused on how do we get to an end result that we can all live with.”

On the litigation side, Sahni co-leads a team representing all the major music labels and publishers in lawsuits accusing two internet service providers of allowing their subscribers to repeatedly pirate her clients’ music. The lawsuits allege contributory and vicarious infringement, she said.

The ISPs received notices of the infringements and did nothing to stop them, she said. “There were over 700,000 notices in one of the cases.” Warner Records Inc v. Charter Communications, Inc., 1:19-cv-00874, (D. Colo., filed March 22, 2019); UMG Recordings Inc. v. Bright House Networks LLC, 8:19-cv-00710, (M.D. Fla., filed March 22, 2019).

Sahni also maintains a pro bono practice. She helped two immigrants at heightened risk of coronavirus infection to win release from a detention facility. Montero v. Barr, 5:20-cv-00935, (C.D. Cal., filed April 30, 2020); Romero v. Barrm 5:20-cv-00866, (C.D. Cal., filed April 22, 2020).

“It was a really gratifying moment for all of us,” she said.

— Don DeBenedictis