Most individuals think about that leisure attorneys spend their days negotiating recording contracts or reviewing film offers. However for Dallas-based attorney Levi McCathern, the job is far more simple: He solves issues. Huge ones. The type that might price Jerry Jones all the Dallas Cowboys franchise or that stripped a Heisman Trophy from one in every of school soccer’s best working 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 intense 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 speaking. “The one three occupations I might consider that did that have been preaching, politics or being an lawyer,” McCathern says.
After a quick stint as a teenage preacher and ruling out politics attributable to his distaste for politicians, McCathern found 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 thing
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 follow and initially served as native counsel for some Cowboys instances. However every thing modified when Jones Sr. confronted a possible judgment starting from $225 million to $675 million—greater than the Cowboys have 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 change 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 lawyer ever since.
Excessive-stakes problem-solver
At present, McCathern describes his follow with one easy phrase: “high-profile problem-solving.” His consumer roster reads like a who’s who of leisure and sports activities, from singer Chris Brown to NFL star Reggie Bush. Every consumer comes with distinctive challenges that require artistic options past conventional authorized methods.
Take his work with Chris Brown, as an example. When the singer faced allegations about an altercation that adopted a live performance, McCathern’s method wasn’t to arrange for a prolonged courtroom battle—it was to discover a decision that protected his consumer’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 rapid drawback reasonably than prolonging the battle.
“A variety of attorneys suppose that the one options to issues are in a courtroom,” McCathern says. Whereas he acknowledges that generally the specter of litigation is important to encourage cheap conduct, it typically leads to a lose-lose for everybody concerned. His major aim is at all times to search out options earlier than stepping foot in a courtroom.
This method is especially efficient within the leisure business, the place time is usually as beneficial as cash to purchasers. “They want rapid 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 greater names and better stakes. McCathern notes that entertainers face extra authorized touchpoints than nearly some other occupation. For instance, each single time a singer or band seems, there are dozens of contracts to deal with between the venue, different performers and merchandise sellers, to call just a few.
“One of many issues that I believe makes me totally different [from] a variety of attorneys, and what I believe all entertainers search for, is form of some extent man,” McCathern explains. “I can direct them to all the totally different of us if they’ve an mental property concern about their music. Should you’re an athlete [and] you bought a private damage—sports-related or non-sports-related—what are we going to do about that? Should you’ve bought a litigation as a result of they’re excessive profile, there’s much more faux allegations made towards entertainers than towards anyone else. And a lawyer may also help you not solely put together to keep away from these form of conditions but additionally resolve them once they have them.”
The celeb 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 alternative,” he says. “The extra profitable you might be, you turn out to be extra of a goal, and folks have their eye on you.”
This heightened scrutiny manifests in varied methods. “Should you 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 purchasers, 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. “Should you’re on the movie show and someone falls down the steps subsequent to you, no person’s going responsible you,” McCathern says. “However, in my expertise, if you happen to’re at someone’s live performance and someone will get damage, they at all times appear to discover a technique to blame the performer. So there’s a lot extra publicity to them than the common individual.”
Profitable 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 outdoors the courtroom. The case exemplified his agency’s motto: “bettering individuals’s lives.”
“Each time I get precisely what my consumer wished—particularly if different attorneys have tried to get it and have 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 world 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 attempting to enhance.
This text initially appeared within the Could/June 2025 concern of SUCCESS® magazine. Picture by Kris Hundt.
