11 | 02:00 PM – 02:45 PM

Moderator: David Tenzer, Generate / Law Office of David Tenzer

David Tenzer is an entertainment lawyer, talent manager and business consultant, with extensive experience in many sectors of the media industry.

His clients are talented artists and companies in all areas of entertainment, including actors, writers, directors, producers, on-camera personalities, lifestyle experts, film and television distributors, radio and television networks and digital content providers.

For 24 years (1982-2006), Mr. Tenzer worked at Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles, one of the world’s leading talent agencies. He started at CAA as an executive in Motion Picture Business Affairs, then transferred to the Television Division, where he soon was named the head of Television Business Affairs. After several years, he became a Television Agent, working first in television movies, then covering CAA’s projects at CBS.

Mr. Tenzer co-founded and operated the agency’s International Television Department, Alternative Programming Department, and later its Lifestyles Department. During his tenure at CAA, he also worked with the agency’s New Media, Film Financing and Marketing Departments, handling clients such as eBay, Delta Airlines and Procter & Gamble.

As a Television Agent, Mr. Tenzer was responsible for selling over 40 produced series, movies and specials, with budgets in excess of $800 million. These included scripted prime-time series for broadcast and cable networks, reality shows, documentaries, children’s programming and international co-productions.

As a Business Affairs executive, he negotiated virtually every type of television contract, including license agreements on behalf of content providers, distribution and co-financing arrangements, overall deals with studios, contingent compensation definitions and agreements with above-the-line talent. He was also responsible for all commission and packaging issues within CAA’s Television Division.

Mr. Tenzer has served on the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association, the Banff World Television Festival, NATPE (National Association of Television Program Executives) and the Hollywood Radio and Television Society. He traveled to Beijing and Shanghai with Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan as an entertainment delegate on the city’s Trade Mission to Asia. He was named one of “Twelve to Watch” by Electronic Media in one of its annual cover stories.

Prior to joining CAA, Mr. Tenzer was a contracts attorney with IBM Europe in Paris and Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles. He also worked in private practice with the law firm Rosen, Wachtell & Gilbert, where he specialized in commercial transactions and business litigation.

Mr. Tenzer has an undergraduate degree in Politics from U.C. Santa Cruz, a law degree from U.C. Davis and an M.A. in Urban Studies from Occidental College. He was a Coro Foundation Public Affairs Fellow, and earned a Certificate in Advanced International Legal Studies from McGeorge School of Law.

Mr. Tenzer is a member of the State Bar of California and a licensed real estate broker. He is an experienced public speaker, and has appeared on numerous panels regarding media, entertainment, advertising, branding and technology.  He is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and three children. He firmly believes that his beloved Dodgers will win the World Series again at some point in the 21^st Century.

Panelist: Neil Strum, Executive Vice President, Metan Development Group

Neil Strum, Executive Vice President, Metan Development Group. Industry veteran Neil Strum recently joined Metan Development Group as Executive Vice President, charged with overseeing operations for the company. Prior to this, Strum served as a Senior Vice President at William Morris Agency, developing new revenue and business models for the agency, working with such clients as Barry Sonnenfeld, John Chu and Hasbro. Before leaving William Morris, he was part of the core team representing Hasbro in the joint venture with Discovery Networks to launch The HUB.

Previously, Strum served as Executive Vice President for Universal Television, running business and legal affairs while developing new templates for multi-platform exploitation of television series. He was a co-founder of The Tube Music Network and a partner in Pyramid Records that featured top artists Joe Walsh, Earth Wind and Fire, Robert Palmer and The Doobie Brothers. He also ran business affairs for The Family Channel and MTM, as well as worked at Touchstone Television, Sony Television and ABC Network. He sits on the board of the National Veterans Foundation and is a member of the State Bar of California.

Joe Michaels, Senior Director, Business Development, Microsoft

Joe Michaels oversees media partnerships for Microsoft’s MSN and Bing divisions covering the categories of film, television, music, video and sports.  Since 2001, he has negotiated and managed digital content partnerships with major and emerging media companies including NBC Universal, Fox, Disney, Mark Burnett Productions, Generate, Reveille, BermanBraun and National Geographic.

Michaels was instrumental in forming Microsoft’s global online video network, MSN Video, as well as the MSN Originals initiative to commission and license made-for-broadband content.  In 2009 Michaels developed a partnership with BermanBraun to create Wonderwall.com which quickly became one of the most visited celebrity websites.  Michaels helped create the Live Earth webcast in 2007, the most watched online entertainment event in history.

Prior to Microsoft, Michaels co-founded e-commerce provider Nexchange Corporation and worked as a television producer in Washington DC.  He holds a graduate business degree from The Wharton School and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University.

Michael Tenzer, Head of Comedy Central Business Affairs, West Coast





Michael Tenzer joined Comedy Central in 2009 from International Creative Management (ICM), a major talent and literary agency.  In his new capacity at Comedy Central, he co-heads the department, supervising the business and legal affairs relating to all of the network’s programming, including The Daily Show with John Stewart, The Colbert Report, South Park and Tosh.0, as well as its digital content on various platforms, such as Atom.Com.

At ICM, Tenzer was the Senior Vice President and Head of Television Businesses Affairs, responsible for all aspects of the agency’s television business including the negotiation of license agreements and distribution/co-financing arrangements on behalf of content providers, including overall deals with studios, and a variety of other agreements for above-the-line talent.  Prior to joining ICM in 1999, Tenzer held several positions at NBC, including Senior Vice President, Business Affairs and Administration, as well as a stint in creative affairs as Director, Movies & Mini-series, and he also was Vice President of Business Affairs for Brillstein-Grey Entertainment.  

Just before he made the jump into the entertainment arena working for Dick Clark Productions, Tenzer practiced general business law and civil litigation in Beverly Hills, and produced Equity-Waiver Theater in downtown Los Angeles.  He holds a JD from California Western School of Law, a BA from San Diego State University and has completed post-graduate studies in International Business Transactions at the University of Salzburg, Austria, in a program conducted by McGeorge School of Law.

Leslie Greif, CEO, Boutique TV

Leslie Greif is one the most prolific writer/director/producers in the business, and has worked on motion pictures and television projects in virtually every genre over the past 25 years. Greif is co-creator and executive producer of Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels, now entering its sixth season on the A&E network. Greif’s latest projects currently in production, for which he serves as executive producer are: TEACH with Tony Danza, a one-hour weekly series for the A&E network which follows Danza’s incredible journey as he leaves Hollywood behind and enters a real high school classroom to help inspire and educate; Chasing Mummies: The Adventures of Dr. Zahi Hawass is a weekly one-hour series that will bring viewers to far off Egypt to climb through pyramids and hunt for mummies with the world’s foremost authority on ancient Egypt, Dr. Zahi Hawass.

Most recently on the air: Eddie Griffin: Going for Broke, a weekly series, the first in HD on VH-1, featuring the comedian and his large family in their wild escapades when mom moves in to help bail Eddie out; King of Clubs, a weekly series for Playboy Television that will bring viewers inside the sexy and mad cap world of Las Vegas’s only full bar, full nude, family run strip club; and Operation Wild, a 30-minute weekly series on Planet Green allowing viewers to ride along with The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission as they combat crime and criminals to defend Florida’s natural resources.

Some of Leslie’s most recent productions that have aired in the last year include: Snoop Dogg’s weekly nightlife variety show for MTV, Dogg After Dark, in which Snoop invades a Hollywood night club with his famous friends and celebrities stopping by for musical performances and interviews; Discovery Channel’s Planet Green Series, Battleground Earth: Ludacris Vs. Tommy Lee, in which the stars take on eco challenges in cities across America; Female Forces, a one-hour weekly series on the Bio Channel, providing viewers with a high energy shotgun ride with female police officers from the Chicago suburbs fighting a full gamut of big city crime; Rookies, a half-hour weekly series on A&E, featuring the first day of duty for Tampa’s rookie cops.

Greif executive produced and directed the highly acclaimed, documentary Brando which was featured as an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. Airing on TCM, the documentary garnered Greif an Emmy nomination for his work as executive producer.

In addition to A&E and TCM, Greif has established himself as a creator of numerous TV movies, series, mini-series and specials for all major networks including HBO, ABC, CBS, Fox, TNT and USA. For TBS, Greif was executive producer (along with Paul Reiser) and director of the micro-series Lovebites, the first ever TV bit-com series created for J. Walter Thompson. Lifetime’s Baby for Sale, starring Dana Delany and TNT’s Word of Honor starring Don Johnson, which he also co-wrote, and Monday Night Mayhem which starred John Turturro as Howard Cosell, are among a few of his executive producer TV movie credits.

For Lifetime, Greif has also produced over 65 episodes of their popular Intimate Portraits documentary series including profiles of Jennifer Lopez, Maria Carey and Diane Lane (to name a few). Chris Rock and Cameron Diaz are among the many interviews Greif has produced for MSNBC Headliners and Legends. And at A&E, Greif produced the Steven Segal and Tony Danza portraits for the network’s Biography series. For Fox Television, he exec produced Opening the Tombs of the Golden Mummies, a live event in Cairo with Hugh Downes. Greif was also the co-creator and executive producer with Paul Haggis and Al Ruddy of CBS’s Walker, Texas Ranger, which ran for 204 episodes and is still seen around the world in syndication.

In the area of feature films, Greif has also produced and directed a number of projects including Funny Money starring Chevy Chase, Penelope Ann Miller and Armand Asante. Gramercy Pictures’ indie film Keys To Tulsa, an offbeat noir mystery with an illustrious cast that included Eric Stoltz, James Spader, James Coburn, Cameron Diaz, and Mary Tyler Moore, marked Greif’s critically acclaimed directing debut. Greif’s additional film work includes the feature documentary Steve McQueen: The Essence of Cool; New Line Pictures' Bayou cop drama Heaven's Prisoners, starring Alec Baldwin and Teri Hatcher; and the Rodney Dangerfield farce Meet Wally Sparks which also starred Burt Reynolds.

A graduate of the University of Southern California, Greif also received an MA/PhD in Business & Marketing from Pacific Western University. He began his career as an actor and was one of the original ‘Sweathogs’ on the popular ‘70s series, Welcome Back Kotter.

Michael Donadlson, Donaldson & Callif, LLP

Michael C. Donaldson is an entertainment attorney who has been fighting for independent filmmakers for over 30 years. In addition to working on films by such industry icons as Oliver Stone, Davis Guggenheim and Lawrence Bender, Michael serves as General Counsel to Film Independent (home of the Independent Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival) and the Writers Guild Foundation. He is the industry’s go-to attorney for fair use (a doctrine in United States copyright law permitting limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the rights holders) and other clearance- and rights-related issues.

Some of Michael’s notable accomplishments include:

•    Being honored as one of Hollywood Reporter’s 2010 Power Lawyers.

•   Co-author with his partner of the American Bar Association’s Legal Guide to Filmmaking.

•    Being honored with the Amicus Award by The International Documentary Association – an honor bestowed on only two others in the 25-year history of the awards: Steven Spielberg and John Hendricks (founder of the Discovery Channel).

•    Serving as one of the authors of the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use and being the only attorney in private practice to serve on the drafting committee for the recently released Statement of Best Practices for Online Video.

•    Serving on the Advisory Committee of the Stanford Fair Use Project.

•    Successfully negotiating with Media Professional Insurance Company and Chubb Insurance Company to offer fair use riders on the E&O insurance policies, allowing many films to be made under the fair use doctrine.

•    Assisting in the drafting and lobbying for Orphan Works legislation.

•    Being the sole American attorney to assist in the drafting of the Rome Resolution of 2007 to harmonize Fair Use across the European Union.

•    Holding the position of President of the International Documentary Association.

•    Organizing and leading the Documentary Credits Coalition in negotiations with the cable networks to prevent the wholesale migration of credits from the screen to the Internet.

•    Contributing to The Film Foundation’s book entitled City Secrets: Movies.

Michael graduated from UC Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall in 1967. His book Clearance and Copyright, the third edition of which was just released in September 2008, is used in over 50 film schools and has become the standard industry reference book. Michael also wrote Negotiating for Dummies (now in its second edition and translated into eleven languages), Fearless Negotiating (published in hardback in 2007 by McGraw Hill) and The E-Z Legal Guide to Trademarks & Copyrights.

Michael has worked on such projects as “This Film is Not Yet Rated” (where all 134 clips were utilized under fair use), “Wanderlust” (saving its filmmaker over $400,000) and “Expelled” (which featured the song “Imagine,” prompting an unsuccessful law suit by Yoko Ono). Michael has also worked with the Geffen Playhouse and the REDCAT, as well as representing Center Theatre Group (Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum and Kirk Douglas Theatre) for over twenty years.

Aside from lecturing frequently at law and film schools across the United States and in Europe, Michael is an avid skier, world-wide hiker and kayaker, and award-winning photographer. He also won a gold medal at the 1998 Senior Olympics for Parallel Bars and a silver medal on the rings. But what remains most important to Michael (in addition to his partner Tim Kittleson and his Three daughters and Three grandchildren) is his pro bono and philanthropic work.

Photos from the spring panel.