Mitchell A. Kamin

LOS ANGELES - Mitchell A. Kamin arrived at Covington seven years ago with a primary focus on handling litigation for the entertainment and communications industries.

Currently, he is representing ViacomCBS and Paramount Plus in a class action by municipalities seeking to collect franchise fees from streaming services. Those are the fees traditional cable companies pay for using the public right of way to lay or string cabling, which are decreasing as people cut their cords and use cable-less, he said. This and similar class actions around the country are "one of the many consequences of streaming." City of E. St. Louis v Netflix, 3:21-cv-00561 (S.D. Ill., filed June 9, 2021).

He also is representing broadcast TV giant Nexstar Media Group in twin multimillion-dollar lawsuits demanding that Charter and Comcast pay for transmitting station WPIX in accordance with their retransmission consent agreements. Those would seem to be simple contract disputes, he said, but they're complicated by "a regulatory overlay." Fortunately, Kamin said, he is able to work with Covington's FCC experts in Washington. Nexstar Media Inc. v. Comcast Cable Communications LLC, 1:21-cv-06860 (S.D. N.Y., filed Aug. 13, 2021).

In addition to co-chairing the firm's communications and media industry practice group, Kamin also co-chairs its global commercial litigation practice group, so he also has handled litigation unrelated to entertainment.

For instance, he was part of the team that won a quick injunction in 2020 to stop the Donald J. Trump administration from banning TikTok in the United States. He currently is gearing up to go to trial on Nov. 7 in Oakland on behalf of a group of hospitals suing Kaiser Permanente alleging underpayment for emergency services.

He represents the state of Qatar against claims by disgraced Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy, who says the government hacked his laptop to disseminate embarrassing emails. Kamin said the case "found its way to me as someone who regularly litigates in federal court in Los Angeles," where it was filed. He was able to block the litigation using the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which he had worked with while CEO of Bet Tzedek. And he represents the U.S. Olympic Committee. He helped negotiate the $380 million settlement in December for gymnasts abused by Dr. Larry Nassar and is currently defending the organization in other litigation by athletes.