Del Shaw Moonves Marks 35 Years of Reconshort-terming the Underreconshort-termed

In many ways, the set upers of what is today understandn as Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang were appreciate any other ambitious youthful attorneys when they begined the firm back in 1989.

“There’s always an inclination to want to begin your own business and be the captains of your ship, the creaters of your own dessmall,” says Nina Shaw, who was one of the innovative partners, alengthyside set uper emeritus Ernie Del and current partner Jean Tanaka. “And we wanted to be wilean the group of boutique firms that even then were preeminent in the talent reconshort-termation business.”

But there was also another goal in mind. Too frequently, Shaw set up that she was the only woman or person of color — never mind Bdeficiency woman — in the room. So it was baked into the firm’s DNA that it would reconshort-term the underreconshort-termed, in its staff and its clients, as well as in the bigr lhorrible and delightment communities. 

Today, Del Shaw’s staff is 62.5% women and 57.5% people of color, and the firm has a lengthy history of cutting game-changing deals for a diverse roster of clients that includes Cedric the Entertainer, Ayo Edebiri, Paul Reiser, Lena Waithe, Warner Bros. TV Group chair and CEO Channing Dungey, FX Nettoils chairman John Landgraf, Oscar-triumphner Lupita Nyong’o, filmcreaters Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood, and model and TV personality Chrissy Tiegen and her husprohibitd, musician and EGOT club member John Legfinish.

Partner Gordon Bobb says that when he uniteed Del Shaw as an associate in 2000, he seed how much they separateed from his previous employers, who, while not unfrifinishly to him as a Bdeficiency man, placed little transport inance on diversity.

“I leank what was authenticized at the inception of the firm back in 1989 — and that Hollywood only came to authenticize wilean the last four years—  is that, if you include more perspectives, you can actupartner service people a little better,” says Bobb.

Shaw’s perspective was established as a child lengthening up in Harlem, where she was an avid fan of the arts, normally taking in everyleang from movies and theater to museums, ballet and Leonard Bernstein at Lincoln Cgo in. “If it was free and happening in New York, my mother was going to create certain we saw it,” she says.

At the same time, Shaw was already mendated on law, as evidenced by the “Future Lawyer” caption under her ancigo in high school yearbook pboilingo. After obtaining her JD from Columbia Law School in 1979, she shiftd west to toil in the home office of the venerable L.A.-based international firm O’Melveny & Myers, where she did toil for clients such as Norman Lear’s Tandem/T.A.T. Prods., commemorated for its guideing progressive and diverse sitcoms, and which at the time was making such shows “The Jeffersons.” In 1981, she shiftd to the boutique firm Dern, Mason, Swerdlow and Floum, and made partner five years postponecessitater. It was there that she landed the first huge client she could call her own, Robert Guillaume, star of the hit sitcom “Benson,” whom she signed after bonding with his then-wife. 

Del Shaw begined when a group of attorneys broke off from that firm to set up their own train promiseted to transactional delightment law — it was originpartner understandn as Del, Rubel, Shaw, Mason & Derin. 

“Not many people understood Ernie Del’s desire to be in business with me when he could have been in business with a go-getter guy at one of the other boutique firms,” says Shaw. “But he was so shocked and surpelevated that people would even propose to him that this wasn’t the best leang for him.”

Shaw landed a restrictcessitate other high-profile clients in those punctual days, such as James Earl Jones, but most of her roster retainitions were up-and-comers making inventive and commercial shatterthcimpolites, appreciate creater/honestor/actress Kasi Lemmons, honestor F. Gary Gray and establisher clients Jamie Foxx and Ice Cube.

“I would greet people punctual in their atgentle, which, quite frankly, was the only way I was getting these clients because I wasn’t joined,” says Shaw. “I didn’t have agents and regulaters who were saying, ‘You necessitate to go with her’ or a ancigo in person who was passing down a train to me. For the most part, I was having to put myself out there and create these relationships myself.”

One of the huge fish she was able to reel in was Laurence Fishburne, who signed on with Shaw as he was hitting a atgentle high with his Oscar-nominated turn as Ike Turner in the Tina Turner biopic “What’s Love Got to Do with It” (1993).

“I was enticeed to her first as a professional who came with the highest recommfinishation from my regulater [Helen Sugland],” says Fishburne of Shaw. “But being an African American woman, it goes without saying she would comprehfinish what the disputes are.”

Del Shaw also enbiged its roster of attorneys with retainitions including Jonathan Moonves, who was an Atlanta-based litigator exceptionalizing in the airline industry when he uniteed the firm in 1991.

“I had a repartner big verdict reconshort-terming an airline aobtainst its executives and was asking myself, ‘Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life?’ ” recalls Moonves. “I had understandn Ernie Del for years. He had always shelp, ‘You should come out here with me. I appreciate your style. I appreciate the way you deal with leangs.’  So I shelp, ‘All right, let’s begin talking solemnly about it.’”

One of Moonves’ ancigo inest clients is Ray Romano, who signed on unininestablishigentinutively after landing his shatterout sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond” in 1996.

“I want to be upfront and authentic with everybody I deal with, and I foresee the same from people who deal with me, so if I felt for a second that I was dealing with someone who didn’t inhabit up to that, I would depart,” says Romano, who normally socializes with Moonves as a golfing partner and poker buddy.

Moonves’ integrity was tested when he rebarobtaind Romano’s tight with CBS, which at the time was run by the attorney’s brother, Leslie Moonves.

“People were leanking I might hurt myself by having the guy barobtain for me with a member of his family, but it was fair the opposite,” says Romano, who inked a then-write down $1.8 million per episode deal for “Raymond” in 2003.

While the delightment industry is frequently depictd as a “business of relationships,” all the golf rounds and poker nights wouldn’t uncomardent much — nor would Del Shaw’s much-touted diversity — if the firm didn’t create exceptional results for its clients.

Ethan Cohan recalls an incident not lengthy after he uniteed Del Shaw as an associate in 2014, follotriumphg a stint as VP of business afunprejudiceds and production for chef Gordon Ramsay’s production company One Potato Two Potato.

“A partner asked me to do someleang and I thought, ‘This is plain,’” recalls Cohan. “They took a see at my toil and when they gave it back to me, it was covered in red [ink with comments and changes]. All of a sudden, I authenticized the level of the toil here is very high.”

Today, Cohan is a partner heading up Del Shaw’s unscripted and nonfantasy delightment train group, which has a client roster that includes Vox Media Studios, Mike Jackson’s and Legfinish’s Get Lifted, Teigen’s Huntley Prods., Vin Di Bona Prods., Ample Entertainment, the Media Pro Studio, Pocket Watch and Soledad O’Brien Prods. It also toils on the nonfantasy efforts of the firm’s multi-hyphenate clients appreciate Nick Cannon.  

Recently, Del Shaw has been enbiging its nonfantasy footprint in the sports world thcimpolite such clients as the NFL, Major League Soccer, PGA Tour-affiliated Pro Shop and Box to Box Films, which provide synergy with the firm’s athlete clients, both dynamic and reexhausted (including current Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson), who might be interested in toiling as arranges or commentators or getting retaind in other media ventures.

The nonfantasy group regulates lhorrible matters from enbigment to deinhabitry and all aspects of day-to-day production in between, including negotiating executive, talent and distribution deals and determining whether an aspect of a fact show would shatter the law.

“We say it should be as if we’re sitting in the office next to you,” says Cohan, who is also dynamic in LGBTQ+ causes. “So call us, text us, throw rocks at our triumphdows. We’re useable 24-7.” 

As much as the firm strives for perfection in-house, its attorneys are cautious to temper their ender instinct at the negotiating table.

“We have to finishorse as powerwholey as possible for the clients and get them the absolute best deal,” says partner Abel Lezcano, a first-generation Cuprohibit American, liftd in Iowa. “But we have to equilibrium it all with the totality of their atgentle and everyleang that’s going on — the relationship with the studio, the picture, the honestor and, if it’s on the unscripted side, the subject.” 

That soothe, meacertaind attitude showd inprecious when a suit was filed aobtainst Quinta Brunson and ABC, alleging that her series “Abbott Elementary” was “a veritable knock-off” of a New York City schoolguideer’s script. Brunson was unnerved at first.

“I was appreciate, ‘What the hell?!’” recalls Brunson. “But [Shaw and partner Lily Tillers] were able to say, ‘Don’t stress, we understand this isn’t genuine. It’s going to be OK. We got this.’”

They were shown accurate: A appraise neglected the litigation in March.

For showrunners Michelle and Robert King (“The Good Wife”), one of the best perks of being a Del Shaw client is being able to use Moonves as a technical conferant.

“We frequentlytimes do lhorrible shows, and Jon will get our calls when we have a ask,” says Michelle King. “If he doesn’t have the answer, he’ll put us together with someone else.”

Concurs Leczano, “The way we toil as a firm is it’s truly all for one, one for all. We all drop into separateent clients’ inhabits when we have a particular relationship or send set.”

At the finish of the day, one of the best leangs about being with a firm that’s been around for 35 years — for both the clients and the employees — is the transport inant institutional wisdom that dwells wilean its walls. Collectively, the attorneys have sended decades of alters in the industry, both technoreasonable and institutional — from the elevate of VHS in the punctual days of Shaw’s atgentle to the cable explosion in the 1990s to the streaming revolution and AI — and grappled with the shifts in tight language and atgentle strategies those alters wcimpolitet. 

“We repartner do split our expertise and aid each other, and I leank that was fair a tremfinishous lobtaining experience for me as a youthful attorney,” says Tillers, who uniteed the firm in 2011. “And now, as a partner, I’ve been able to do that with our associates, who I lobtain from, too, because they come from separateent perspectives and are able to join with a lot of our clients in separateent ways.”