Kirkland & Ellis Files 'Nash Bridges' Suit for Don Johnson
To be honest, the Litigation Daily thought Don Johnson's career pretty much started and ended with Miami Vice. Silly us. How could we have forgotten about Nash Bridges, the highly successful television detective series set in San Francisco in which Johnson costarred with Cheech Marin?
We were reminded of the show, which ran from 1996 to 2000, when we learned that Johnson had hired Kirkland & Ellis white collar specialist Mark Holsher and IP partner Robert Krupka to file a breach of contract case over the show. The suit, filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, by Don Johnson Productions, Inc., seeks to recover "tens of millions of dollars" owed to him from 2929 Entertainment (owned by billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban), Rysher Entertainment, and Qualia Capital. According to the complaint, at the time that the show aired, it was unheard of for actors to receive a copyright interest in their shows. Nonetheless, Johnson negotiated a "groundbreaking contract" that gave him half the copyright for the series and 50 percent of the syndication profits.
Johnson's complaint alleges that his production company has not received any of the more than $150 million in profits from syndication. In case you're wondering about the statute of limitations, the complaint notes that in 2002 defendant Rysher agreed to toll indefinitely the time limit on filing a suit.
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