Firm News

Capes Sokol is proud to announce the formation of an Entertainment and Media practice group with the hiring of renowned Entertainment and Intellectual Property attorney, Pete Salsich III.

Salsich will join the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group and will chair the new Entertainment and Media Practice Group.

The establishment of the Entertainment and Media practice group at Capes Sokol follows a years-long strategy of calculated growth focused on practice areas that complement each other. Salsich will be teaming up with his long-time former partner Michael A. Kahn, with whom he tried numerous high-profile entertainment cases, including representing Mike Tyson’s former tattoo artist in a copyright infringement case involving the movie The Hangover: Part II.

“Capes Sokol is an ideal firm from which to offer an expanded entertainment and IP practice in the Midwest,” said Salsich. “I am excited to practice with Mike Kahn again, and to help lead a talented team of diverse attorneys in representing creators of all types. The deep bench of related practices in the firm will allow collaboration and offer expanded competencies to clients, but still allow us to be as creative in our representation and fee structures as our clients are in creating their content.”

Members of the Entertainment and Media practice include business and transactional attorneys, as well as experienced litigators and trial attorneys who regularly represent television production companies, radio stations, newspapers, music producers, independent film projects, digital entertainment companies, musicians, artists, talent, photographers, music labels, authors, and independent producers. The group will advise clients in connection with their business formation, deal structure, network and distribution contracts, talent agreements, production legal, social media influencer agreements, publishing contracts, rights acquisition and clearance, Fair Use, licensing, and copyright and trademark protection.

Pete Salsich III

For the past six years, Salsich has served as General Counsel for television and commercial production company Coolfire Studios, LLC. In this capacity, he was responsible for negotiating all contracts, including network agreements, talent agreements, location agreements, and rights acquisition and clearance for more than 20 television shows, as well as commercial productions, documentary films and digital entertainment projects. He will continue to provide those services with Capes Sokol.

Salsich also previously served as General Counsel for software company Coolfire Solutions, Inc., which he represented from formation through angel and seed investment to venture capital investment, and continues to serve as General Counsel for health-care software start-up MedAware Solutions, Inc. Salsich is also an experienced intellectual property, entertainment, and trade secret litigator and trial attorney. He has represented comic book authors and publishers, tattoo artists, toy companies, musicians, and artists in infringement, right of publicity, joint authorship, and breach of contract cases, and numerous companies in litigation to protect their trade secrets.