Nary Kim

Nary Kim says she’s been lucky in her career. She wanted to practice entertainment law, but when she worked at a large firm, she often was pulled into other types of matters. Moving to litigation boutique Kendall Brill has allowed her to focus more on entertainment cases, she said.

“Coming here was … an amazing blessing,” she said. “I don’t think I could have planned my career any better.”

Kim added that she found “a really great group of lawyers” at the firm. “There are lots of entertainment powerhouses … who were very generous about spending time with a younger lawyer.”

She has been co-lead counsel in a wide variety of entertainment litigation ranging from state trial court cases to an international arbitration in London. Regular clients include Paramount Pictures and TikTok.

In addition, she also handles some other business litigation and defends legal malpractice matters.

Two of Kim’s recent cases dealt with underage nudity and with new laws relaxing statutes of limitations. She was part of the team that used an anti-SLAPP motion to knock out a $500 million lawsuit against Paramount brought by the stars of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 “Romeo and Juliet.” The actors claimed they were forced to film a nude scene when they were teenagers. Whiting and Hussey v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 22SMCV02968 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 30, 2022).

In the second case, she and her colleagues defended the band Nirvana against litigation by the 30-year-old man who was the baby swimming nude on the cover of the band’s famous “Nevermind” album. Elden v. Nirvana LLC, 2:21-cv-06836 (C.D. Cal., filed Aug. 24, 2021).

Kim got the suit dismissed because the plaintiff filed more than 10 years after he discovered the violation. In fact, he had recreated the photo several times over the years, she said.

In other matters, she is co-lead representing Lionsgate in a copyright suit against the film “The Blackening.” Kim defeated a request for a temporary restraining order to block its release just two days after the suit was filed in Los Angeles. Ariel LLC et al. v. Lionsgate Entertainment Corp., 2:23-cv-04694 (C.D. Cal., filed June 14, 2023).

In the London arbitration, she helped bring in a $15 million win for Paramount in a breach of contract case involving a project to build a theme park based on famous Paramount movies such as “Mission Impossible.”

Kim also is co-lead representing Paramount in a dispute over the right to produce and stream new episodes of “South Park.” WarnerMedia Direct LLC v. Paramount Global, 651001/2023 (N.Y. Supm. Ct., filed Feb. 24, 2023).

And she represents the company in several matters involving the three major entertainment industry guilds. “We’ve had to pause a lot of that because of the strikes,” she said. “I think the attorneys for the WGA and other unions are kind of preoccupied.”

— Don DeBenedictis