How a New L.A. Law Firm Is Linking Hollywood and Social Action

In a Hollywood that has grown increasingly transient — where org charts have biannual overhauls and where agents become managers become producers become etc. — the entertainment law firms stand as industry anchors, litigating and negotiating the rest of the tumult. This is why it is particularly notable when a new firm joins the scrum.

Coming out of an industry-upturning pandemic, during which time there also were political, racial and workplace reckonings, the founders of JSSK — Matt Johnson, P.J. Shapiro, Gregory Slewett and Tara Kole — set out to create a firm that fit the contemporary needs of talent, most notably an increasingly inextricable link between Hollywood and social activism. It was in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd that Johnson — sitting at home due to the COVID-19 shutdown, renegotiating contracts as the industry attempted to course-correct during a free fall — began to think about “how I wanted to continue to engage in my career for this next chapter.” All four future JSSK partners were on the same page.

Related Stories

General News

Power Lawyers 2023: New York's Top 25 Entertainment Attorneys

General News

ChaudhryLaw Taps Top Music Lawyer as Head of Litigation

By the first half of 2021, Johnson, Shapiro, and Slewett, who all worked together at iconic talent boutique Ziffren Brittenham, began discussing the rough outline of a new firm. By that summer, Kole (previously of similarly storied Gang Tyre) had joined the triumvirate.

“It’s 2022,” notes Kole now. “We have just gone through a pandemic, which gave everybody in the world a lot of time to step back and look at what we want to do.” The result is the newest entry in the perennially entrenched boutique entertainment law space.

JSSK — which reps such clients across the upper echelon of Hollywood as Emma Stone, Adam McKay, Jamie Foxx, and Michael B. Jordan — officially launched Jan. 1 and opened the doors of its new Pacific Design Center office at the end of February. When it came to filling that office, the founders sought to “create a firm that better reflected the demographics of our client base, our community and our personal vision for the future,” says Shapiro. Adds Johnson: “This business — and most of the law firms — still tends to be straight, white male-dominated, and there really is no justification for that.” Including the four names on the door, there are 14 lawyers at JSSK — more than half are women and six are people of color.

As for the clients, partners scaled back their rosters to emphasize individual attention, with every client having at least two (and in some cases three) lawyers. Historically amid firms, there had been an overarching “sense of ‘this is mine, that’s yours,’ ” says Kole. “We see it as every client is a client of the firm.” Going forward, the focus will not be on volume but impact. In a time where multihyphenate is baseline and a strong brand can lead to an equity investment — for both rising talent and established clients, including those who are walking studio systems in and of themselves (see: Tyler Perry) — the goal will be fortifying the business foundation to support the weight of everything from beauty lines to massive overall deals.

While dealmaking is inherent in talent law firms, where JSSK proves to be singular is in its concerted civic engagement efforts. Says Slewett, “The time was right for a new firm with a different energy that is consistent with a generation of filmmakers, actors, producers and writers who value more than just dealmaking in their representation.”

All four founders have long been involved in nonprofit and charitable work as well as politics. Kole is an abiding board member of Women in Film, while Johnson served on the LAPD’s civilian oversight board and was tapped by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti to lead the city’s early COVID-19 philanthropic and community efforts.

But while equity partners have the bandwidth to serve on boards and contribute time to passion projects, younger lawyers are often “caught up in the grind,” as Shapiro puts it. Adds Johnson, “Rather than have that be something people did on the side that was maybe tolerated at other places, we really wanted to build it into the DNA of our firm.”

To help that effort, JSSK tapped Hannah Linkenhoker as its chief engagement officer. She joins from ICM Partners, where she steered the agency on issue-based advocacy. Under Linkenhoker’s guidance, the firm will internally promote advocacy work among its ranks and externally help clients navigate social and political action efforts. Charitable partnerships already include Heart of Los Angeles and Boys & Girls Club, and the founders hosted a fundraiser for Rep. Karen Bass’ L.A. mayoral campaign.

“A lot of times, I think lawyers are reflective of their clients and clients of their lawyers,” says Kole, whose roster includes gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and Chelsea and Hillary Clinton.

“It’s not that I don’t want to make a bunch of money and represent the best and brightest in our business,” says Shapiro. With the firm handling in-demand stars like Donald Glover, Florence Pugh and Regé-Jean Page, that’s a given. “But we can do that and at the same time make an impact in our community.”

This story first appeared in the March 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.