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A complex commercial litigator with experience in state and federal courts and before mediators and arbitrators, Joel Tantalo has represented clients involved in significant business disputes in a wide variety of industries, including the media and entertainment, technology, automotive, financial services, healthcare, hospitality and even legal services industries. In the media and entertainment field, Joel has appeared on behalf of television and motion picture studios, distributors, managers and agents in profit participation and antitrust disputes as well as cases involving allegations of copyright infringement, idea theft, breach of contract, fraud, trademark infringement and unfair competition. Joel has also represented some of the world’s preeminent law firms in defense of legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud claims, and in connection with complex disqualification and withdrawal proceedings. Among his most significant victories, Joel was the lead associate in a legal malpractice case in which plaintiffs sought in excess of $100 million, helping to secure a complete dismissal on statute of limitations grounds (the decision is currently on appeal), and was a member of a trial team that secured a $122 million verdict in a film fraud case tried before a jury in federal court.
Joel is also an experienced entertainment transactional attorney with a particular appreciation for the unique issues of television production. Joel has worked on numerous television series and projects from development through production, broadcast and post-broadcast exploitation, and he has routinely provided advice in the areas of defamation, rights of publicity and privacy, copyright and trademark infringement and dilution and risk management.
Law & Politics and the publishers of Los Angeles Magazine have named Joel a Southern California “Rising Star” every year since 2005. He was also honored to participate in the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Trial Advocacy Project, through which he served as a pro bono prosecutor for the City of Inglewood, successfully trying a number of misdemeanor criminal trials to verdict.
Joel started his career at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he was a litigation associate in the firm’s Century City and Los Angeles offices from September 1999 through June 2005 (except for a brief stint at Nixon Peabody LLP in Rochester, NY from November 2000 to April 2001). From July 2005 until Tantalo & Adler LLP was formed in October 2006, Joel was in-house counsel in the Law Department of the NBC Universal Television Group.
Joel is married to Rebecca Tantalo, an attorney in the motion picture legal group at Paramount Pictures. Joel and Rebecca live in West Los Angeles.
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