Mr Todd Larson > Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
767 5TH AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10153
NEW YORK
United States
Todd Larson photo

Position

Partner

Career

Todd Larson is a partner in Weil’s IP/Media practice. He represents a wide variety of traditional and new media clients in copyright infringement litigation and product development counseling matters, as well as in rate-setting litigation and trials before the ASCAP and BMI rate courts and the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) over royalty rates for licenses for music publishing and sound recording performances. On behalf of Sirius XM and Pandora, he has served as a lead member of trial teams in several multi-week proceedings before the CRB to set sound recording performance royalty rates, as well as in appeals before the D.C. Circuit. In addition to his role in cutting-edge music licensing litigation, he also regularly counsels clients in a variety of intellectual property matters including the interplay between new product design, legal liability, safe-harbor protection, and music licensing requirements. Some of his notable clients in this space include the world’s largest social media platforms (Meta, Twitter, Pinterest), digital music services (Spotify, Pandora), broadcast and cable television networks (Paramount, NBC), background music services, and satellite and broadcast radio companies.

Education

Alleghany College (BA, 1991); University of Pennsylvania (M.S., 1998); Harvard Law School (JD, 2004).

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Media, technology and telecoms > Media and entertainment: litigation

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP  fields a strong team in the music litigation space, with rate-setting proceedings standing out as an area of particular strength. The unit is additionally proficient in handling complex commercial litigation for publishers and televisual content creators and distributors.  First amendment and music licensing specialist Benjamin Marks leads the practice; in August 2022, his representation of Pandora Media in the long-running Phonorecords IV proceedings, which were argued in front of the Copyright Royalty Board, resulted in an industry-shaping settlement. Fellow music licensing expert Todd Larson  frequently appears alongside Marks, he co-led on the aforementioned proceedings and is also representing Kano Computing Limited in a copyright infringement case that lies on the intersection of music copyright litigation and new technology. Yehudah Buchweitz  specializes in antitrust matters and recently represented Paramount Global in a compensation dispute. Randi Singer , whose representation of Meta has included a broad array of IP-related matters, is another name to note. All advocates mentioned are based in New York with the exception of Singer, who divides her time between the practice’s New York and Silicon Valley offices.

United States > Intellectual property > Copyright

Backed by a global network, the copyright team at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP represents and advises social media platforms, digital music streamers, book publishers, and e-commerce companies on a diverse spectrum of copyright issues, including infringement and licensing disputes, secondary liability, and DMCA compliance. Benjamin Marks leads the team, bringing expertise to music copyright royalty cases, having recently helped music streamer Pandora secure a major settlement in August 2022 with US music publishers before the Copyright Royalty Board. Randi Singer represents clients in publishing, social media and e-commerce, including Meta and eBay, involved on complex infringement matters. Todd Larson specializes in the high-value negotiation of music publishing and sound recording performance licenses. In Washington DC, experienced litigator Mark Perry joined from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in May 2022. Unless noted, all lawyers mentioned work in New York.