Most individuals think about that leisure attorneys spend their days negotiating recording contracts or reviewing film offers. However for Dallas-based lawyer Levi McCathern, the job is far more simple: He solves issues. Massive ones. The sort that might price Jerry Jones your entire Dallas Cowboys franchise or that stripped a Heisman Trophy from one in all faculty soccer’s best operating backs.
From small-town preacher to big-city lawyer
McCathern’s path to changing into one in all 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 talking. “The one three occupations I may 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 resulting from his distaste for politicians, McCathern discovered his calling in legislation. He accomplished each his undergraduate diploma and legislation diploma at Baylor College earlier than touchdown at Godwin and Carlton, one in all Dallas’s largest corporations, in 1993.
The case that modified every little thing
McCathern’s entry into leisure legislation got here by means of an surprising reference to Jerry Jones, Jr., son of the Dallas Cowboys proprietor. After changing into the youngest companion in his agency’s historical past, McCathern began his personal follow and initially served as native counsel for some Cowboys instances. However every little thing modified when Jones Sr. confronted a possible judgment starting from $225 million to $675 million—greater than the Cowboys have been price on the time.
“Jerry misplaced and was very offended on the huge nationwide agency,” McCathern remembers. “He known as me and requested me who he ought to change them with, and I stated, ‘Me.’” At simply 28 years previous, McCathern not solely reversed the judgment but in addition 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, for example. When the singer confronted allegations about an altercation that adopted a live performance, McCathern’s strategy wasn’t to organize for a prolonged court docket 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 instant downside quite than prolonging the battle.
“Loads of attorneys assume that the one options to issues are in a courtroom,” McCathern says. Whereas he acknowledges that typically the specter of litigation is critical to encourage cheap conduct, it usually ends in a lose-lose for everybody concerned. His major aim is all the time to search out options earlier than stepping foot in a courtroom.
This strategy is especially efficient within the leisure trade, the place time is commonly as beneficial as cash to shoppers. “They want instant solutions,” McCathern explains. “It must be handled proper then on an expedited foundation and never litigated over for 3 years.”
The leisure legislation distinction
Leisure legislation isn’t nearly greater names and better stakes. McCathern notes that entertainers face extra authorized touchpoints than nearly every other occupation. For instance, each single time a singer or band seems, there are dozens of contracts to take care of between the venue, different performers and merchandise sellers, to call a couple of.
“One of many issues that I feel makes me completely different [from] plenty of attorneys, and what I feel all entertainers search for, is sort of a degree man,” McCathern explains. “I can direct them to the entire completely different people if they’ve an mental property difficulty about their music. For those who’re an athlete [and] you bought a private damage—sports-related or non-sports-related—what are we going to do about that? For those who’ve acquired a litigation as a result of they’re excessive profile, there’s much more pretend allegations made in opposition to entertainers than in opposition to anyone else. And a lawyer will help you not solely put together to keep away from these sort of conditions but in addition resolve them once they have them.”
The superstar authorized paradox
McCathern says that one of many largest 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’re, you develop into extra of a goal, and other people have their eye on you.”
This heightened scrutiny manifests in numerous methods. “For those who 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 all my different shoppers, it’s going to be on each information community in Dallas that night time, and possibly some nationwide stuff.”
The publicity extends past media consideration too. “For those who’re on the movie show and any individual falls down the steps subsequent to you, no person’s going accountable you,” McCathern says. “However, in my expertise, in the event you’re at any individual’s live performance and any individual will get harm, they all the time appear to discover a strategy to blame the performer. So there’s a lot extra publicity to them than the common particular person.”
Successful the unwinnable
McCathern’s strategy 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: “enhancing individuals’s lives.”
“Each time I get precisely what my consumer needed—particularly if different attorneys have tried to get it and have been unsuccessful—it’s probably 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 famous person or a neighborhood household, his strategy 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 making an attempt to enhance.
This text initially appeared within the Might/June 2025 difficulty of SUCCESS® journal. Photograph by Kris Hundt.