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Lawry's The Prime Rib
100 North La Cienega Blvd. (near Wilshire)
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

From left, Jeffrey Light, David Ring, Don Passman, Bradford Cobb, D.A. Wallach and Tim Cohan.

Photos by Liz Redwing, courtesy of Lawry's The Prime Rib, Beverly Hills. 

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Bradford Cobb, along with Martin Kirkup and Steven Jensen, are partners at Direct Management Group, an internationally successful music management company, which offers artistic and business services to a very select roster of artists (which currently includes Katy Perry, k.d. lang, Adam Lambert, Gin Wigmore and The Go-Go's). The company was founded in April of 1985 by Jensen and Kirkup, combining Steven's experience with top-line artists at the ICM Agency with Martin's acumen in strategic career planning at A&M Records. Direct Management Group enjoyed early success in handling British "new wave" artists Echo & The Bunnymen, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (gaining their first worldwide hit single with "If You Leave" and a platinum album in 1986), as well as guiding Bryan Ferry on his first International Tour in 1988 The success of The B-52's quadruple-platinum album "Cosmic Thing" (with its hit singles "Love Shack" and "Roam") in 1989, established the company as a secure home for unique artists intent on forging their own path to success. Bradford Cobb joined Direct in June of 1998, and broadened the range of the company by signing The Go-Go's, and then Katy Perry in 2004. Katy Perry has since become a global superstar, with a string of 8 Number One hit singles, while selling over 10 million albums and 100 million downloads worldwide in the past four years. Katy's "California Dreams Tour" (2011) was a year-long 124-show international sell-out, which was documented on film as a key element in the "Katy Perry: Part Of Me" film. “Katy Perry: Part Of Me” was produced by Kirkup, Cobb and Jensen, along with Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment, for Paramount Pictures. The film was released internationally on July 5, 2012.

Tim Cohan is the Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs for the US Peermusic companies, negotiating and drafting a range of publishing, acquisition, licensing, joint-venture, and other agreements. In addition to handling all in-house transactional work and litigation supervision, Tim has been an active representative of Peermusic in various industry working groups, discussions, and negotiating committees. He focuses closely on international licensing issues arising among the various US and worldwide Peermusic companies, particular in the realm of newly emerging digital models. Tim has been in the music business for fifteen years, both at Peermusic and as an independent music professional. He received his B.A. in comparative literature from Williams College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Stone Scholar, Executive Notes Editor of the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts, and a recipient of the Harold D. Fried Memorial Prize for his 2010 Note, “Notice of Intention to Use and the Compulsory License in the Digital Era.”

Jeffrey Light, thirty year music industry veteran, has been a partner of Myman Greenspan Fineman Fox Rosenberg & Light since 1992 and is an adjunct professor of law at Southwestern Law School. Jeffrey and his Firm do work for many recording artists (The Rolling Stones, Justin Bieber, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Christina Aguilera), major studios (20th Century Fox), video game companies (Electronic Arts, Harmonix [inventor of Guitar Hero and Rock Band]), film composers (Howard Shore, Rachel Portman,), and many executives in the entertainment industries. Jeffrey has been involved as lead counsel in some of the most innovative entertainment industry deals of the last three decades, from the early days of home video distribution to the negotiation of experimental Internet licenses against ASCAP and BMI to The Beatles: Rock Band video game. Jeffrey received his Bachelor's Degree from Columbia University in 1979 and his Juris Doctor in 1983. While at Columbia Law School, he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar (1981-1982), a James Kent scholar (1982-1983), Editor-in-Chief of Art & the Law and was the first recipient of the Carroll G. Harper prize in intellectual property studies. Despite more than half a lifetime in Hollywood, Jeffrey has never been tempted to write a screenplay.

D.A. Wallach is best known as one-half of Chester French, a critically-acclaimed duo discovered by Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. An ‘07 graduate of Harvard College, D.A. has been featured in GQ, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and numerous other publications. He has toured with Lady Gaga, Blink 182, and Weezer, and has appeared on many TV Shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. In addition to Chester French, D.A. is one-half of D.A. & The Supa Dups, and as a solo vocalist, he has written and performed on recordings with Diddy, Common, Rick Ross, Janelle Monae, Asher Roth, Akon, and others. When not himself recording, D.A. collaborates as a songwriter with a diverse array of producers and artists. Beyond music, he is a recognized social media pioneer, having been the first artist ever to use Facebook and among the most followed artists on Twitter (@dachesterfrench). D.A. advises or invests in several start-up technology companies, and is the official Artist In Residence at Spotify. In 2012, Forbes selected D.A. as one of its 30 Under 30 in Music.

Donald S. Passman is the author of “All You Need To Know About The Music Business”, and a graduate of the University of Texas and Harvard Law School. He practices law with the Los Angeles firm of Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, and has specialized in the music business for over thirty years. He has lectured extensively on the music industry, including Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, USC Law School, UCLA Law School, the Los Angeles Copyright Society, and the Beverly Hills Bar Association. Don is also the author of two novels, “The Visionary” and “Mirage”, published by Warner Books. Don has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America for over twenty years, as well as the Top 100 Lawyers in California, the Top 500 Attorneys in America, Hollywood Reporter’s Top 100 Entertainment Attorneys, and Southern California's Super Lawyers.