Overview

• Joel Katz, a prominent music attorney who represented icons like James Brown, Michael Jackson's estate, and Willie Nelson, has died at age 80.
• He was instrumental in negotiating landmark deals, including the Grammys' $600 million agreement with CBS and the Michael Jackson estate's $750 million sale of its stake in Sony/ATV Publishing.
• Katz served as the founding chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s entertainment practice from 1998 to 2020 before joining Barnes & Thornburg in 2021.
• In addition to his legal work, he supported music education and philanthropy, endowing a law library at the University of Tennessee and launching a commercial music program at Kennesaw State University.
• Katz faced controversy in 2020 when former Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan accused him of sexual harassment, a claim he denied, though it marked a rare public dispute in his career.