Most individuals think about that leisure attorneys spend their days negotiating recording contracts or reviewing film offers. However for Dallas-based legal professional Levi McCathern, the job is far more easy: He solves issues. Large ones. The sort that might value Jerry Jones all the Dallas Cowboys franchise or that stripped a Heisman Trophy from one in every of school soccer’s best operating backs.
From small-town preacher to big-city lawyer
McCathern’s path to changing into one in every of leisure’s most trusted authorized minds began removed from the brilliant lights of Hollywood or the NFL. After rising up in Snyder, Texas, with a preacher father and a instructor mom, he knew his future would contain public talking. “The one three occupations I might consider that did that had been preaching, politics or being an legal professional,” McCathern says.
After a quick stint as a teenage preacher and ruling out politics attributable to his distaste for politicians, McCathern discovered his calling in regulation. He accomplished each his undergraduate diploma and regulation diploma at Baylor College earlier than touchdown at Godwin and Carlton, one in every of Dallas’s largest companies, in 1993.
The case that modified every part
McCathern’s entry into leisure regulation got here by way of an surprising reference to Jerry Jones, Jr., son of the Dallas Cowboys proprietor. After changing into the youngest accomplice in his agency’s historical past, McCathern began his personal observe and initially served as native counsel for some Cowboys instances. However every part modified when Jones Sr. confronted a possible judgment starting from $225 million to $675 million—greater than the Cowboys had been value on the time.
“Jerry misplaced and was very offended on the huge nationwide agency,” McCathern remembers. “He referred to as me and requested me who he ought to substitute them with, and I mentioned, ‘Me.’” At simply 28 years previous, McCathern not solely reversed the judgment but additionally secured a $1.6 million return for Jones. He’s been the Cowboys’ go-to legal professional ever since.
Excessive-stakes problem-solver
At the moment, McCathern describes his observe with one easy phrase: “high-profile problem-solving.” His shopper roster reads like a who’s who of leisure and sports activities, from singer Chris Brown to NFL star Reggie Bush. Every shopper comes with distinctive challenges that require artistic options past conventional authorized methods.
Take his work with Chris Brown, for example. When the singer confronted allegations about an altercation that adopted a live performance, McCathern’s method wasn’t to organize for a prolonged courtroom battle—it was to discover a decision that protected his shopper’s pursuits whereas avoiding the highlight of a public trial. Equally, when band members from Journey wanted authorized intervention, McCathern’s focus remained on fixing the quick downside quite than prolonging the battle.
“Quite a lot of attorneys assume that the one options to issues are in a courtroom,” McCathern says. Whereas he acknowledges that typically the specter of litigation is critical to encourage cheap habits, it usually ends in a lose-lose for everybody concerned. His main objective is all the time to search out options earlier than stepping foot in a courtroom.
This method is especially efficient within the leisure trade, the place time is usually as useful as cash to shoppers. “They want quick solutions,” McCathern explains. “It must be handled proper then on an expedited foundation and never litigated over for 3 years.”
The leisure regulation distinction
Leisure regulation isn’t nearly larger names and better stakes. McCathern notes that entertainers face extra authorized touchpoints than virtually every other career. For instance, each single time a singer or band seems, there are dozens of contracts to cope with between the venue, different performers and merchandise sellers, to call just a few.
“One of many issues that I feel makes me completely different [from] quite a lot of attorneys, and what I feel all entertainers search for, is type of some extent man,” McCathern explains. “I can direct them to the entire completely different people if they’ve an mental property challenge about their music. If you happen to’re an athlete [and] you bought a private damage—sports-related or non-sports-related—what are we going to do about that? If you happen to’ve obtained a litigation as a result of they’re excessive profile, there’s much more pretend allegations made towards entertainers than towards anyone else. And a lawyer might help you not solely put together to keep away from these type of conditions but additionally resolve them once they have them.”
The superstar authorized paradox
McCathern says that one of many greatest misconceptions celebrities face is that they get preferential remedy within the authorized system. “In my expertise, it’s actually truly the other,” he says. “The extra profitable you might be, you develop into extra of a goal, and folks have their eye on you.”
This heightened scrutiny manifests in numerous methods. “If you happen to or I are in a automotive wreck, it’s by no means going to be within the information,” McCathern explains. “But when Jerry Jones is in a automotive wreck or Dak Prescott, one in every of my different shoppers, it’s going to be on each information community in Dallas that night time, and perhaps some nationwide stuff.”
The publicity extends past media consideration too. “If you happen to’re on the movie show and any person falls down the steps subsequent to you, no one’s going responsible you,” McCathern says. “However, in my expertise, for those who’re at any person’s live performance and any person will get harm, they all the time appear to discover a approach to blame the performer. So there’s a lot extra publicity to them than the typical individual.”
Successful the unwinnable
McCathern’s method shone in his profitable marketing campaign to restore Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy. The place different attorneys had failed, McCathern succeeded by specializing in options exterior the courtroom. The case exemplified his agency’s motto: “bettering individuals’s lives.”
“Each time I get precisely what my shopper needed—particularly if different attorneys have tried to get it and had been unsuccessful—it’s essentially the most satisfying factor,” McCathern says. “There’s simply nothing extra rewarding than that.”
For McCathern, all of it comes again to fixing issues. Whether or not he’s representing a worldwide celebrity or an area household, his method stays the identical: Discover options early, keep away from pointless litigation and always remember that behind each case is an individual whose life you’re making an attempt to enhance.
This text initially appeared within the Might/June 2025 challenge of SUCCESS® journal. Photograph by Kris Hundt.
