About the Firm

Bernard M. Resnick, Esq., P.C. is a full-service entertainment law firm headquartered in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. Our two attorneys, Bernard M. “Bernie” Resnick and Priscilla J. “Sally” Mattison, have combined experience of over 50 years in the practice of entertainment law. The firm’s clientele encompasses recording artists, songwriters, record producers, agents, managers, filmmakers, financiers, professional athletes, record labels, international entertainment businesses, publicly-traded companies, and others. Firm attorneys have earned over 100 gold, platinum, multi-platinum, Billboard #1, Eurovision and/or BDS Certified Spin awards for deals negotiated and drafted on behalf of the firm’s music industry clients, representing sales of over 170,000,000 records. The firm regularly places client music in television programs, movies, and video games.

Bernard M. Resnick, Esq.

Bernard M. Resnick, Esq. is an entertainment attorney practicing in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, USA. He has worked in the entertainment industry for over thirty-five years. His clients have included recording artists, songwriters, record producers, agents, managers, filmmakers, financiers, professional athletes, record labels, international entertainment businesses, publicly-traded companies, and others.

Mr. Resnick most recently contributed to the article “Advice for New Attorneys” in the Philadelphia Bar Association’s magazine’s Fall, 2022 issue of “The Philadelphia Lawyer”, and co-wrote the article “The Reality of Reality Television Competition Programs”, which was published in the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s magazine, “The Pennsylvania Lawyer”, in 2019. Previously, he authored or co-authored chapters in “The Musician’s Business and Legal Guide”, presented by the Beverly Hills Bar Association (4th and 5th Editions), as well as in books issued by the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (“IAEL”) in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016. He has written various articles and chapters in other journals, textbooks and magazines.

Mr. Resnick has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and at Southwestern University’s Biderman Entertainment and Media Law Institute, where he taught courses in entertainment law.

Mr. Resnick has participated in panel discussions, presented seminars, and conducted continuing legal education classes both nationally and internationally, including for the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, The Recording Academy, MusExpo, Liverpool Sound City, NARIP, the IAEL at MIDEM/MIDEMNet, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, the Montgomery County Community College Sound Recording Technology Department, the Texas State Bar Association Entertainment Law Institute, the Independent Music Conference, the Cutting Edge Music Conference, the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Widener University School of Law’s Sports and Entertainment Law Association Symposium, the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Albany County Bar Association, New Noise Santa Barbara, and Les Rencontres.

Mr. Resnick serves on the Advisory Board for the Sound Recording and Music Technology (“SRT”) program at Montgomery County Community College, as well as on the boards of the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards and The Athenaeum of Philadelphia (one of the oldest and last remaining private shareholder libraries in the USA). He previously served on The Recording Academy’s national GRAMMY Awards Hall of Fame Committee, Philadelphia City Council’s Music Industry Task Force, the board of The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia (the oldest philanthropic musical organization in the USA), and the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Chapter of The Recording Academy, in addition to serving as Co-Chair of the Chapter’s Classical Music Committee and Advocacy Committee.

Mr. Resnick appears as an expert witness in entertainment-related lawsuits. He has been awarded the Pennsylvania “Super Lawyers” designation every year since 2004. He has earned an AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated rating from Martindale-Hubbell®. He was selected as a Grand Prize winner of the British Airways/UK Trade & Investment’s “Face of Opportunity” contest. Mr. Resnick is also a musician, songwriter, record producer and music publisher, and the author of a published crime fiction short story. His music publishing company, A Max Entertainment Publishing, won an ASCAP “Rhythm & Soul” award for co-publishing the musical composition “Sorry Not Sorry”, co-written and co-produced by Jetmir “Milli Beatz” Salii and performed by Bryson Tiller. Most recently, firm clients “Time for Three” were honored with a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for the LP “Letters For The Future” with Xian Zhang, conductor and The Philadelphia Orchestra, released through Deutsche Grammophon records/Universal Music Group.

For information about Martindale-Hubbell peer review methodology, click here. For information about Super Lawyers selection methodology, click here. For information about Main Line Today’s Top Lawyers selection methodology, please see FAQs section here.

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Priscilla J. Mattison, Esq., LEED AP^® Homes

Priscilla J. (“Sally”) Mattison is Of Counsel to the Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania-based firm Bernard M. Resnick, Esq., P.C. She reviews, drafts and negotiates contracts, solicits deals, evaluates potential claims, and provides legal advice regarding contract law and intellectual property matters to U.S. and international entertainment industry clients. Her clients have included recording artists, songwriters, record producers, record labels, music publishers, managers, booking agencies, music services companies, promoters, recording studios, documentary filmmakers, screenwriters, and film and television production companies.

Ms. Mattison’s article, “How Can Lawyers Help the Music Industry Green Itself and Respond to the Climate Crisis?”, was published in the 2021 International Association of Entertainment Lawyers (“IAEL”) book, “Nationalism vs Globalism: Regional and Transnational Legal Issues Reshaping the Entertainment Industry”. A previous version of the article was published in June, 2020, as a digital “sneak preview” of the book. She previously co-authored the article “The Reality of Reality Television Competition Programs”, which was published in the July/August 2019 issue of The Pennsylvania Lawyer. Previous articles she wrote or co-wrote have appeared in books published by the IAEL in 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2016, and in the Journal of the International Alliance for Women in Music in 2015.

Ms. Mattison has co-taught courses on Entertainment Law at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, Business Law at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, and Music Business Management at Cabrini College/KAJEM Recording Arts Program. She has been an invited speaker or moderator at numerous Continuing Legal Education events hosted by the IAEL at the annual MIDEM convention in Cannes, France, and at Continuing Legal Education events hosted by the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the TASA Group, and Delaware Law School’s Sports and Entertainment Law Association. She has appeared as a speaker at the Cool Out 2023 conference in Grand Cayman; the NATPE Miami Market & Conference in Miami, Florida; the Winter Music Conference in Miami, Florida; the 32nd International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana; a symposium at Princeton University; a panel event hosted by Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts; numerous iterations of the annual Lebanon Valley College VALE Media (formerly Music) Industries Conference; the Hudson Valley Songfest 6; the Algonquin Film Festival; the Pennsylvania Performing Artists on Tour (“PennPAT”) Roster Artists Retreat; the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association’s Regional Music Industry Conference; the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Pre-College Academy; and an online panel event hosted by the Rotary Club of Ara Damansara in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She has guest lectured to students of Southwestern Law School’s Entertainment and Media Law LL.M. Online program, and at the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law, and Temple University’s College of Engineering and Boyer College of Music and Dance. She has been an invited mentor or judge at numerous entertainment industry events.

Ms. Mattison is a member of the bars of Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia as well as the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She belongs to the Philadelphia Bar Association, the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers, New York Women in Film & Television, and Philadelphia Women in Film & Television; is a Professional Member of The Recording Academy; and holds both writer and publisher memberships in BMI.

A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Mattison was also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to study Communications at the Technical University of Berlin and earned a Certificate in Producing from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Before attending law school, she worked in the film and television industries in New York and Los Angeles in numerous capacities ranging from director to co-producer to casting director and more. Ms. Mattison began her law studies at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she was selected for the California Law Review and received a Moot Court Advocacy Award. She then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, from which she received her JD. After graduating, Ms. Mattison practiced complex commercial litigation with a Philadelphia firm, and performed educational outreach and policy work for a regional environmental nonprofit organization. She joined Bernard M. Resnick, Esq., P.C. in 2000.

Ms. Mattison serves on the Burrison Gallery Committee at the University of Pennsylvania, and previously served on the Board of Directors of Pennsylvania Public Radio Associates, Inc./Echoes, and as an appointed member of the Philadelphia City Council-established Philadelphia Film Advisory Task Force. She was selected to the 2020 — 2024 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers lists by Super Lawyers/Thomson Reuters, and was named a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in 2005, 2006 and 2007. She was designated a Main Line Today Top Lawyer in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2024, and was chosen as one of twenty “2019 Women on the Move” by Main Line Today magazine.

Long active in environmental matters, Ms. Mattison is currently involved in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania sustainability efforts, and previously served as an appointed member of the Radnor Township, Pennsylvania Environmental Advisory Council. She is a LEED® Accredited Professional (LEED AP® Homes) and is REGREEN Trained™. She is also an exhibited photographer.

“LEED AP” and the related acronym, and the LEED AP logos are trademarks owned by the U.S. Green Building Council and awarded to individuals under license by the Green Building Certification Institute.

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Firm Services

Our firm concentrates on transactional work in various facets of the entertainment industry. Examples of the types of contracts that we have solicited, negotiated and/or drafted for our clients include:

Music:

Major label recording agreements, independent label recording agreements, international licensing agreements, production agreements, producer agreements, recording studio agreements, work for hire agreements, digital and physical distribution agreements, music publishing agreements, music publishing administration agreements, catalog sales, “shopping” agreements, artist management agreements, booking agency agreements, concert tour agreements, concert tour riders, live streaming agreements, merchandising agreements, celebrity endorsement agreements, side artist agreements, investment agreements, NFT agreements

Television:

Actor agreements, life story option agreements, syndication agreements, program distribution agreements (cable, broadcast and public television), writer agreements, reality show contestant agreements, game show contestant agreements, music synchronization and master use agreements, infomercial agreements, program host agreements

Film:

Actor talent agreements, option agreements, distribution agreements, music supervisor agreements, music synchronization and master use agreements, director agreements, writer agreements, composer agreements, finder agreements, location agreements

Social Media Influencers, Bloggers and Vloggers:

Representation agreements, sponsorship agreements

Sports:

Celebrity endorsement agreements, athlete-agent agreements, sports television distribution agreements

Book Publishing:

Author/publisher agreements, co-author and ghost writer agreements, author/agency agreements

Fine Arts:

Artist/gallery agreements, art reproduction license agreements, photographer/gallery agreements, photograph reproduction agreements, album cover art agreements

Corporate and Other:

Incorporations, fictitious name registrations, formation of limited liability companies, formation of partnerships, copyright registration, trademark and servicemark registration, partnership agreements, shareholders agreements, investor agreements, real estate leases, real estate transfers, equipment leases

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Clients

Representative current and former clients of the firm include the following:

CLASSICAL AND CLASSICAL CROSSOVER MUSIC:

Amernet String Quartet, Budapest String Quartet, DePue Brothers Band, Ex Umbris, Fortune’s Wheel, composer Jonathan Leshnoff, double bassist and music director Joseph Conyers, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, violinist and concert master Nikki Chooi, organist Peter Richard Conte, flautist Susan Milan, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Time For Three, pianist Vitalij Kuprij, and violinist and concertmaster Zachary DePue

MUSIC PRODUCERS, PRODUCER/WRITERS, AND ENGINEER/WRITERS:

Andy Anderson, Arkatech Beatz, Arpxx, Audio Jacc, Beasley Bangorz, Billey Pettaway, BiPolar Media, Calvin Miller, Carvin Haggins, Chris Godbey, Daniel Jones, David Ivory, Darius Coleman, Don Groove, Foreign Vu, Freek Van Workum, Global Hu$$le Entertainment, Jae Staxx, Jerome “Jroc Tha Ghost” Harmon, Jim Beanz, Joe Nicolo, Kaui Williams, King Solomon Logan, Lamont Fleming, Lars Hustoft, Lawrence Goodman, Leon “Pop Trax” Huff, II, Love Music Group, Maurice Morfaw, Milli Beatz, Nick Luscombe, Omar Grand, Quran Goodman, Raphael Hamilton, Rick Friedrich, Rico Brown, Ritz Reynolds, Roy “Royalty” Hamilton, Rugged Ness, Salme Dahlstrom, Sean “Di$” Stein, Stan Stammers, The Cratez, The Ring, Timbaland, and Tyler Nicolo

RECORDING ARTISTS AND ARTIST/WRITERS:

5Star, 9ine11, Anthrophobia, AYO215, Bahamadia, Beenie Man, Bok Nero, Boy Backs, Bun B, CJ Young, Charm LaDonna, Chestnut Grove, DJ Sev One, Da Youngstas, Damien Styles, Darius Coleman, Dave Mason, Deep Forest, Dionne Warwick, Dominic Tursi, Dr. Elvis Francois, Electron Love Theory, Freeway, Gild Walton, JHop, Karan Aujla, Kathy Sledge of “Sister Sledge”, Kay Flock, Kendra Erika, “L” Debois, L Myers, LGP_Qua, Lindsay Pagano, Lisa Heller, Lonnie Jordan, Major Figgas, Mishka, Modern Nomad, Money Man, Ms. Jade, Musiq Soulchild, Oschino & Sparks, PnB Chizz, PnB Rock, Paul Jones, Peedi Crakk, Pink, Pornosonic, Ram Squad, Ricky Ducent, S Todd, Sanjna, Schoolly D, Six Months Sober, SkyyZno, Steph Pockets, Sunny Malouf, former Miss America Suzette Charles, Tes-X, The Badlees, The Rembrandts, Three Times Dope, Tommy Hill, Trina, UGK, Us3, Wheeland Brothers, and Wifisfuneral

CELEBRITY ESTATES:

Estate of Billy Paul, Estate of Cab Calloway, Estate of Jerry Ross, Estate of Linda Creed, Estate of Marvin Hamlisch

OTHER SONGWRITERS, COMPOSERS AND PUBLISHERS:

British music publisher Complete Music, Ebony Burks, and Moran Hill Hurwitz

LABELS, MUSIC SERVICES COMPANIES, MANAGEMENT COMPANIES, AGENCIES AND PROMOTERS:

215 Records, Atom Factory, Big Bloc Entertainment, Black Promoters Collective, Blue Mountain Records, Bobby Morganstein Productions, Born Leaders Entertainment LLC, Chart Noise, Chocolate Fireguard Music, Chord Recordings, Cigale Entertainment, DRP Records, Dancesport Sounds USA, DBuyer Inc., Dene Jesmond Enterprises, Dirty Water Productions, Dropout Klub, Far-N-Low Management, Green Team Music LLC, Human Re Sources, IMG Artists, Krush Unit, Kwerk Records, Major Entertainment LLC, Megabeatz, Metropolitan Records, MYMIXTAPEZ.COM, Pop Art Records, Q&A Media, Revel Music Group, RuffNation/Warner Brothers Records, Shanachie Entertainment, Shout Out Media, Tazmania Records, and Ultimae Records

ATHLETES/SPORTS:

NFL players Brent Celek, Jacoby Jones, and Martellus Bennett; former NBA player Kendrick Perkins; motocross champion Stefy Bau; boxing champion Danny “Swift” Garcia; various Olympic athletes; and mixed martial arts promotion company “Bareknuckle Fighting Championships”

FILM, TELEVISION, RADIO AND DIGITAL MEDIA:

Production companies 9.14 Pictures, All That’s Good Productions, Creative Products International, Earthworks Entertainment, The Intelvid Group, LS Films, Magic Media International, MAKE Films, Mega Mace, Out Of the Blue Productions, SRP Digital, and Steve Rotfeld Productions; producer Joe Nicolo; 6abc Action News reporter Annie McCormick; television hosts Paul Carson, Eric Gocker, and Vin Marshall of “How Hard Could It Be?”; reality TV show participant BK Brasco from “Love & Hip Hop – Atlanta”; podcast “Million Dollaz Worth of Game”, featuring Gillie & Wallo; social media influencer Davine Jay; classic rock radio producer/programmer Denny Somach; and radio DJs Hy Lit, “Lady B”, and Terry Lee Barrett

FINE ARTS:

Painter Lisa Learner, photographers Scott Weiner and Stephanie Jennings

OTHER:

Chef Jose Garces, Laff House, Internet Video Archive, Villanova University, authors Jay Raymond and Erin Riley, and medical journal Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research