Donald Passman

One of America's top entertainment attorneys, Don Passman practices law with the Los-Angeles-based firm of Gang, Tyre, Ramer, and Brown, Inc. Having specialized in the music business intensively for over twenty years, his clients include major entertainers, publishers, record companies, managers, producers, and other participants in the music industry. Responsible for the record-breaking "mega" deals for both Janet Jackson and R.E.M., he has also worked with a number of major artists. A graduate of the University of Texas and Harvard Law School, Passman is listed in The Best Lawyers of America. He is the author of the nonfiction bestseller All You Need to Know About the Music Business, which has sold more than 150,000 hardcover copies in print. Passman has lectured extensively on the subject of the music industry, including teaching a course at the University of Southern California Law School's Advanced Professional Program, and lecturing for the UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium, Harvard Law School, the American Bar Association, the Practicing Law Institute, the USC Entertainment Law Institute, and the Los Angeles Copyright Society. Passman's hobbies include real estate investment, guitar, five-string banjo, weight lifting, chess, ham radio, magic, dog training, and karate. He is a licensed real estate broker, a magician member of the Magic Castle, a dog obedience trainer with degrees in the United States and Mexico, and the highest possible amateur radio licensee (Amateur Extra). Passman has also been active in community and charitable activities, including acting as president of the Music Industry Division, and sitting on the national board of The City of Hope; as a Trustee of the Artists' Rights Foundation; as vice president for the Center for Early Education; and as a Federation Chief in the YMCA Indian Guides Program. Don Passman lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children.