LGNAG.COM - Key Persons
Chris concentrates his practice on the film, television, digital media and new media industries. Chris has significant experience handling sponsorship and branding agreements, financing agreements, rights acquisition agreements, writer agreements, producer agreements, director agreements, actor agreements and distribution agreements. Previously, Chris was an associate at Eisner LLP where he specialized in both corporate law and entertainment law.
Chris holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School with a Certificate in Management from the Wharton School. Prior to law school, Chris received his B.S. majoring in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
Cindy Farrelly Gesner represents actors, writers, directors and producers in the entertainment industry, with an emphasis on comedy. She has worked for Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman & Clark, Inc. since 1996, acting as ‘of counsel' for many of those years while she balanced her part-time entertainment law practice with raising her three sons. She returned to a full-time practice in 2011 and lives in Malibu with her surfer husband, Zen, and three surfer sons, Finn, Rory and Tuck.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner
- Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School
Jamie Feldman is the managing partner of the firm. He joined the firm in 1999 and has been a partner since 2001. He represents actors, directors, writers and producers in the film, television and digital industries, and also acts as a sales agent for selected independent films. His clients include Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy winners, and he has been included since 2014 on The Hollywood Reporter's top 100 list of "Power Lawyers." Jamie is also perennially included in the "Dealmakers Impact" and "Legal Impact" reports published by Variety, and he was recently named by Best Lawyers in America as its "Lawyer of the Year" (2020-2021) for Entertainment Law - Motion Pictures and Television.
Jamie was born and raised in Montreal. He graduated from Yale College, where he sang with the Whiffenpoofs, and from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal and also wrote and directed the annual spring musical. Before starting work in the entertainment industry, Jamie clerked for Judge Sidney Stein at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and for Justice John Major at the Supreme Court of Canada.
Jamie is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School, where he teaches a course in motion picture law. He also sits on the board of the Friends of Hollywood Central Park, a nonprofit organization seeking to build a 38-acre public park over the top of the 101 freeway. He lives in Windsor Square with his wife, Laura Putney, and their three children.
Jeff Springer is a partner at the firm and has a wide range of experience in film, television, and digital media transactions. He specializes in representing writers, producers, and directors in both live action and animation deals, and is proud that his clients have been nominated for major industry awards including Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmys, and Annie Awards, with multiple wins. A significant part of Jeff's practice includes advising and representing documentary filmmakers and life story subjects, as well as authors and other rightsholders.
Jeff grew up in Houston, Texas, and graduated from Stanford University and Southwestern Law School. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two daughters. Jeff has played guitar in countless rock bands since the age of 13 and still records and performs regularly around LA.
Jonathan Shikora represents writers, actors, directors, producers and production companies along a broad spectrum of matters in the motion picture, television and new media industries. He has negotiated complex and detailed transactions on behalf of his clients in all phases of motion picture, television and digital financing, development, production, licensing/acquisition, promotion and distribution.
After starting his legal career in the Century City office of O'Melveny and Meyers, Jonathan worked as in-house counsel at CBS Productions before joining Lichter Grossman in 2000. He became a partner of the firm in 2005.
Jonathan grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is a proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. After pursuing a career as a professional actor in New York and Los Angeles, Jonathan returned to the UW for law school, graduating with honors in 1997. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Meredith and their two children.
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- LGNAFC Founding Member
Linda Lichter, LGNAFC founding member and partner, began practicing law in 1976. She was one of the first female lawyers to be a named partner in an entertainment law firm, and one of the first lawyers to work in the independent film world. She has become a force in that arena since its emergence, having negotiated some of independent film's most lucrative and innovative deals, including representing films for sale. She also represents talent in all aspects of the expanding entertainment business, including in new media, theater, publishing and branding, and has been involved with many of the most influential films of the past few decades.
Linda perennially appears on Hollywood Reporter's "100 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood" and "Power Lawyers" lists in the Reporter and the LA Times, and has been one of Variety's top 500 most powerful people in the media business. She has appeared on Elle's "100 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood" list, and in top legal ranking guide Chambers USA. She has lectured or served on panels for Sundance, Film Independent, Women in Film, Stanford Business School, and the USC Law School. She is a phi beta kappa graduate of the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in "Film and Ideology" and she served on the Executive Board of the College of Arts and Sciences at Berkeley from 1993-2001.
Linda is also an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Boalt Hall (now UC Berkeley Law School), where she received her J.D., and she has been teaching a class on negotiating contracts for talent in the entertainment business at the Law School since 2016.
She has been on the board of LA Theatre Works for 35 years, and she is is currently the Chair of the Board of Governors of the Telluride Film Festival, where she's served on the Board since 2010.
Linda is married to Nick Marck, a film and television director, and lives in the woods in LA. She has 3 grown children, and 2 dachshunds.
Melissa Rogal is a partner who represents a diverse group of writers, actors, directors and producers in television, film and new media.
Melissa began her career at Troop, Steuber, Pasich, Reddick and Tobey representing major studios and television and film companies. Melissa was also a theatrical business affairs executive at DreamWorks SKG and a business affairs and business development executive at TiVo. She joined the firm in 2002.
Melissa graduated Magna Cum Laude with a dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania, receiving Bachelor's Degrees from both The Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences. She received her J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Melissa is a Los Angeles native. She lives in Studio City with her husband and their two sons.
Michael Adler (1949-2022) was a partner at the firm from 1997 to 2018 and of counsel to the firm thereafter. His clients included numerous Academy Award, Emmy Award and Golden Globe winning directors, actors and writers. He was involved in many innovative transactions such as the financing and distribution of "Magic Mike."
Michael received his B.A. from UCLA and graduated summa cum laude. He received his J.D. from UCLA law school. He was the first extern while in law school to clerk for California Supreme Court Justice Mathew O. Tobriner. Following receipt of his law degree, he clerked for U.S. District Court Judge William Enright in the Southern District of California.
Peter Grossman is a founding member of the firm. He specializes in film and television transactions, and represents directors, screenplay writers, book authors, producers and financiers.
Peter received his B.A. (cum laude) from Harvard College and his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a member of the Law Review and Order of the Coif.
Peter is married to television writer Alison Cross. They have one son.
Job Titles:
- Founding Member and Partner of Lichter
Peter Nichols is a founding member and partner of Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman & Clark, Inc. He is an innovative dealmaker and has extensive experience in film and television transactions and specializes in both live action and animation genres. Peter represents a wide range of top-tier and emerging creators of intellectual properties and motion picture franchises, actors, screenplay writers, book authors, financiers, producers, writers, and directors, including Golden Globe winners and Academy Award nominees.
Peter attended Northwestern University, and the London School of Economics, earning a BSc. and MA, before obtaining his JD from Stanford Law School. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chrysalis and the National Advisory Committee of the Northwestern University School of Communication.
Stephen Clark is a partner who represents a diverse group of writers, directors, actors, producers and companies in film and television. His extensive experience includes negotiating a wide variety of individual rights and employment transactions as well as structuring independent film-finance and distribution deals.
He began his career as an entertainment litigator and then transitioned to a position as a theatrical business-affairs executive at MGM/UA before joining the firm in 2000. He is a cum laude graduate of Wake Forest University and of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, where he served as Senior Articles Editor of the Hastings Law Journal. Stephen resides in Pacific Palisades with his wife and three children.