Most of the people believe that leisure attorneys spend their days negotiating recording contracts or reviewing film offers. However for Dallas-based attorney Levi McCathern, the process is a lot more easy: He solves issues. Large ones. The type that might value Jerry Jones all the Dallas Cowboys franchise or that stripped a Heisman Trophy from considered one of faculty soccer’s biggest working backs.
From small-town preacher to big-city attorney
McCathern’s trail to turning into considered one of leisure’s maximum relied on criminal minds began some distance from the intense lighting of Hollywood or the NFL. After rising up in Snyder, Texas, with a preacher father and a instructor mom, he knew his long run would contain public talking. “The one 3 occupations I may recall to mind that did that had been preaching, politics or being an legal professional,” McCathern says.
After a temporary stint as a teenage preacher and ruling out politics because of his distaste for politicians, McCathern discovered his calling in legislation. He finished each his undergraduate stage and legislation stage at Baylor College sooner than touchdown at Godwin and Carlton, considered one of Dallas’s biggest companies, in 1993.
The case that modified the whole lot
McCathern’s access into leisure legislation got here thru an sudden reference to Jerry Jones, Jr., son of the Dallas Cowboys proprietor. After turning into the youngest spouse in his company’s historical past, McCathern began his personal apply and first of all served as native suggest for some Cowboys instances. However the whole lot modified when Jones Sr. confronted a possible judgment starting from $225 million to $675 million—greater than the Cowboys had been value on the time.
“Jerry misplaced and was once very offended on the large nationwide company,” McCathern remembers. “He referred to as me and requested me who he must change them with, and I mentioned, ‘Me.’” At simply 28 years previous, McCathern now not best reversed the judgment but in addition secured a $1.6 million go back for Jones. He’s been the Cowboys’ go-to legal professional ever since.
Top-stakes problem-solver
Lately, McCathern describes his apply with one easy word: “high-profile problem-solving.” His shopper roster reads like a who’s who of leisure and sports activities, from singer Chris Brown to NFL big name Reggie Bush. Each and every shopper comes with distinctive demanding situations that require inventive answers past conventional criminal methods.
Take his paintings with Chris Brown, as an example. When the singer faced allegations about an altercation that adopted a live performance, McCathern’s way wasn’t to arrange for a long courtroom combat—it was once to discover a solution that safe his shopper’s pursuits whilst heading off the highlight of a public trial. In a similar fashion, when band contributors from Adventure wanted criminal intervention, McCathern’s focal point remained on fixing the rapid subject somewhat than prolonging the battle.
“Numerous attorneys suppose that the one answers to issues are in a court,” McCathern says. Whilst he recognizes that occasionally the specter of litigation is important to inspire affordable conduct, it steadily ends up in a lose-lose for everybody concerned. His number one purpose is all the time to seek out answers sooner than stepping foot in a court.
This way is especially efficient within the leisure trade, the place time is steadily as precious as cash to shoppers. “They want rapid solutions,” McCathern explains. “It must be handled proper then on an expedited foundation and now not litigated over for 3 years.”
The leisure legislation distinction
Leisure legislation isn’t as regards to larger names and better stakes. McCathern notes that entertainers face extra criminal touchpoints than virtually every other career. For instance, each unmarried time a singer or band seems, there are dozens of contracts to take care of between the venue, different performers and products dealers, to call a couple of.
“Some of the issues that I believe makes me other [from] a large number of lawyers, and what I believe all entertainers search for, is more or less some degree guy,” McCathern explains. “I will direct them to the entire other other people if they’ve an highbrow belongings factor about their song. When you’re an athlete [and] you were given a non-public damage—sports-related or non-sports-related—what are we going to do about that? When you’ve were given 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 any one else. And a attorney permit you to now not best get ready to keep away from the ones roughly scenarios but in addition unravel them when they’ve them.”
The fame criminal paradox
McCathern says that some of the greatest misconceptions celebrities face is they get preferential remedy within the criminal device. “In my enjoy, it’s actually in fact the other,” he says. “The extra a hit you might be, you turn into extra of a goal, and folks have their eye on you.”
This heightened scrutiny manifests in more than a few techniques. “When you or I are in a automotive destroy, it’s by no means going to be within the information,” McCathern explains. “But when Jerry Jones is in a automotive destroy or Dak Prescott, considered one of 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. “When you’re on the film theater and someone falls down the steps subsequent to you, no one’s going accountable you,” McCathern says. “However, in my enjoy, in case you’re at someone’s live performance and someone will get harm, they all the time appear to have the ability accountable the performer. So there’s so a lot more publicity to them than the common particular person.”
Profitable the unwinnable
McCathern’s way shone in his a hit marketing campaign to restore Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy. The place different lawyers had failed, McCathern succeeded via that specialize in answers outdoor the court. The case exemplified his company’s motto: “making improvements to folks’s lives.”
“Each and every time I am getting precisely what my shopper sought after—particularly if different lawyers have attempted to get it and had been unsuccessful—it’s probably the most pleasing factor,” McCathern says. “There’s simply not anything extra rewarding than that.”
For McCathern, all of it comes again to fixing issues. Whether or not he’s representing an international celebrity or a neighborhood circle of relatives, his way stays the similar: To find answers early, keep away from useless litigation and not disregard that at the back of each case is an individual whose existence you’re looking to reinforce.
This newsletter at the beginning seemed within the Would possibly/June 2025 factor of SUCCESS® mag. Picture via Kris Hundt.
