Sick and tired of hearing the same boring – and legally inaccurate – mantra of “know your rights” when it comes to talent (musicians) employment agreements. I get it, they’re your rights. Right? Sure, but when you’re talking about these classic lawyer employment agreements, automatically, the same arguments and mantras don’t necessarily apply. Why? Because lawyers – while they may be artistic in their craft – are still business people. So, we have contracts. Those contracts are the only thing that can put you in a position of power – so why not wield them and play the game?
Musician employment agreements run smack dab into lawyer employment agreements, and vice versa. When we look at the contracts, there are a number of commonalities that we see throughout, including the following:
- Definition of duties.
- Compensation and bonus structure.
- Term.
- Renewal/Termination.
- Location.
- Binding Effect.
- Restrictions.
- Confidentiality.
- Jurisdiction and Governing Law.
- Waiver.
Let’s break this down and really get into it – contract law style – shall we?
Definition of Duties
Definition of duties really means: WHAT YOUR JOB IS. Andy up. If that person you’re employing as a lawyer at your firm doesn’t know how to draft an employment agreement. Maybe even better yet, a RAIDERUAL one, run, don’t walk to the nearest exit. So, what’s to really define? Each and every day duties should be clearly identified in accordance to the scope of talents that you value and believe are necessary in order for the business to run smoothly. Unfortunately, I hate to say it, but as a firm, you’ll never win when the talents aren’t utilized to their fullest potential. It’s not that you’re looking to move a lawyer along quickly because they don’t have a lot of experience and thus don’t bring a lot to the table. No, what you’re looking to do is give guidance and mentorship to that lawyer who will ultimately, go to the highest bidder for their services, aka, the “apple of everyone’s eye.”
Compensation and Bonus Structure
As we all know in the music industry, compensation and bonus structure are essential in order to clear the bottom line. But when it comes to a law firm, similarly, the same applies. What over time you see is that there is no real defined structure as look across the industry. And this goes across practice areas, type of law, get the job done mentality, etc. There are some that will always tiptoe in at 10 am and leave at 3 pm, while there are others that are there every single day of the week. What I’ve seen, though, is that if the job gets done, the client is happy and there are no problems, does it really matter at the end of the day what time they come in and what time they leave? Sure, a lot of the times they’re billing hour for hour, and so it shouldn’t make sense. But when it does – when you have someone on payroll that can leave the office for a three week vacation to Iceland, leaving you with a ton of work, and the clients happy at the office with who was left to pick up the slack – then hey, keep the person around. They’re pulling their worth in more ways than one.
Term
Term is a tricky subject, but it really comes down to: how long do you expect that employee to stay? Do they have a contract with you? This is probably one of the most common questions I get. Well, while it’s nice to have an employment agreement with your employees, realistically, it doesn’t always make sense. When you do an employment agreement, what you’re looking to do is to tie them down on their contract, so that when they leave the firm after two years, they can’t take clients with them. That’s the purpose. But a lot of employment agreements are not written that way. They have the right to take clients, they have the right to work whenever they feel necessary, they have the right to do this, and that. So again, it all boils down to – what are you trying to gain, and is it really worth it to put together a 17-page employment agreement to figure that out?
Renewal/Termination
When it comes to renewal and termination, you start to see some commonalities, especially in both the law firm world and the musician world (yes I said both, because they tend to overlap). You have the ability to renew, negotiate annual bonuses, raises, etc., but at the end of the day, if it continues to be a bad fit – sorry… bye.
Location
The location of your business factors most importantly into the location of your offices. Do you have 1? 2? 3? Are you strictly only a Manhattan based law firm? Honestly, not many music lawyers care about this – well, unless you have satellite offices in Tokyo and Singapore. Then they start care.
Binding Effect
This sounds like a (legalese) term, but ultimately, what it means is that they’re bound by it, and they can’t escape. But this goes both ways, folks, so don’t get all crazy about it… be nice to your employees, because they’ll be nice to you. Simple as that.
Restrictions
The biggest restriction is always the non-compete – trust me, I hate them just as much as the next guy, but they’re necessary. Once you leave a client or a deal you have to wait a specific period of time before you can take on the next, if you’re working for the competition, and so on and so forth.
Confidentiality
No disclosure of confidential information, including client matters, litigations, etc., while you’re at the law office – and once you leave, it’s ALL confidential.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
It’s always the State of New York – where would the best law be practiced if not?!
Waiver
Waiver, meaning, its basically that if you give up a right, it doesn’t mean you’re giving it up for good – you’ll rightfully reserve it for the subsequent times. So, take your breath.
In conclusion, it’s all about the same things to keep your law firm and talent (musicians) happy. They have to get things done, and they’re going to do whatever it takes in order to make sure that things are done. So while employment agreements can be useful, in some instances, they’re not really necessary. And you can be Bob Dylan and have out-there contract from the start which no one can decipher, or you can be someone who has the normal course of things in the beginning, and then elect to try to change them down the road. Either way, you’ll be able to look back and say, “I’ve done my job and made an impact on the world.”
