Patricia L. Glaser

Glaser has been with her 84-lawyer firm since helping found it in 1988. She’s now chair of the litigation department, overseeing a dozen practice groups focusing on sectors from construction to entertainment to IP to trusts and estates.

Her recent successes include representing veteran talent agent Rob Prinz and ICM Partners in a battle with singer Celine Dion over commissions on more than $300 million in ticket sales from a Las Vegas residency and a summer tour in a deal signed in 2019. Dion filed an appeal after losing before the California Labor Commission last year, but then settled the matter a few weeks ago, Glaser said. “We settled on terms very satisfactory to my client,” she added. International Creative Management Partners LLC v. Dion, TAC 53672 (Ca. Labor Comm., ruling filed Nov. 13, 2020).

And Glaser prevailed for her 99-year-old client, toy developer Reuben Klamer, before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Klamer’s effort to establish that he was the sole author of the popular 1960s family board game “The Game of Life.” The case turned on complex issues of copyright law. Markham Concepts Inc. v. Hasbro Inc., 19-1927 (1st Cir., op. filed June 14, 2021).

The panel’s opinion affirmed a ruling in Klamer’s favor by U.S. District Judge William E. Smith of Providence, Rhode Island.

“This lets him keep the [royalty] money that has been flowing to him, and the other side won’t be able to terminate his copyright,” Glaser said. “We got the ruling from the circuit two days before his ninety-ninth birthday.”

Glaser added that the case was notable because Smith, on a previously scheduled trip to Los Angeles, took time to hear from witnesses including Klamer who were too frail to travel easily to his courtroom back east. “He kindly held a hearing here in L.A. to take the testimony of witnesses of advanced age,” Glaser said. “The judge was extremely gracious to both sides.”

“It’s been the strangest year, keeping the ship steady,” Glaser said in early July. “We’re so blessed not to have gotten Covid, but now we’re going through a spike in cases again because of the new strain. I think courts will remain open, but masks will remain essential for now.”

--John Roemer