Carlton Fields Diversifies IP Practice with Addition of Top Entertainment Attorney Steve Sidman

Atlanta, Ga – Carlton Fields announced today that entertainment attorney Steve Sidman has joined the firm’s Atlanta office and will practice as a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property group.

Sidman brings 20 years of experience representing creative talent and entrepreneurial ventures, from Michelin®-starred chefs and restaurateurs to multi-Platinum® selling recording artists, songwriters, producers, and mixers. He joins Carlton Fields from his own Atlanta-area boutique, The Sidman Law Firm.

“Steve’s talent is first-rate, and his client portfolio provides our Atlanta office, and our firm, with new depth,” said Dave Leonard, Carlton Fields’ Atlanta office managing shareholder. “Atlanta is an entertainment industry hub, and Georgia is increasingly so. We will be well positioned to service this flourishing market.”

“Steve’s arrival adds to our presence in the entertainment industry, and his industry relationships will have an impact on our practice here in Southern California,” said Mark Neubauer, Carlton Fields’ Los Angeles office managing shareholder. “The synergy is terrific.”

In addition to his unique focus representing renowned restaurateurs and celebrity chefs (such as the world-renowned, multiple Michelin®-starred restaurateurs, Chef Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas; Atlanta-based James Beard Foundation® Award-winners, Chef Linton Hopkins and Chef Steven Satterfield; “Top Chef All-Stars” winner, TV host and noted restaurateur, Chef Richard Blais; “Top Chef Masters” competitor, Chef Hector Santiago; Chicago-based, Michelin®-starred husband and wife team, Chefs John and Karen Urie Shields; “Iron Chef America” contestant, Chef Todd Richards; “Chopped” winner and beloved Atlanta icon, Chef Suzanne Vizethann; and award-winning cookbook author and culinarian, Chef Asha Gomez), Sidman’s expertise spans the recorded music, music publishing, film, television, and book publishing industries. He represents entrepreneurial ventures at every stage of development — from negotiating for a groundbreaking deal between a young performing duo and an iconic American consumer goods brand, to overseeing the sale of one of the world’s most significant catalogues of avant garde music, to representing on-screen talent in both scripted and non-scripted network television series. He brings expertise in the digital space, as well, guiding clients through the complexities of online streaming and internet sales.

For chefs and restaurateurs, Sidman negotiates cookbook deals, product endorsements, and personal appearance agreements. He oversees their commercial real estate transactions, employment and investor issues, and even their immigration issues — along with breakthrough branding opportunities, including partnerships with hotels, airlines, airports, and arenas.

“Although Atlanta offers multiple and diverse opportunities to entertainment industry lawyers, I am fortunate that my work is not bound by geography,” said Sidman. “Carlton Fields’ national presence will give me the opportunity to expand my own reach as well as the firm’s.

“Carlton Fields has always been a firm that engendered enormous respect from my colleagues and me across a broad range of disciplines related to my practice, from intellectual property to litigation to commercial real estate,” added Sidman. “This is, for both my clients and me, a strategic and exciting opportunity.”

Prior to establishing his own entertainment boutique, Sidman practiced for more than 12 years at Greenberg Traurig LLP as shareholder and associate in that firm’s Global Entertainment practice group. He is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the American Bar Association, and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

In 2015 and 2016, Sidman was named one of the Top 100 “Super Lawyers” across all disciplines in the state of Georgia. He has been elected a Georgia Super Lawyer in Entertainment Law by Super Lawyers magazine for each of the last seven years and identified by Georgia Trend magazine as one of the state’s "Legal Elite" in 2012, 2015, and 2016. He is ranked AV Preeminent in Martindale-Hubbell.

Sidman earned his J.D. from Emory University School of Law and his B.A. from Colgate University.