Friends We Made Along The Way

As our sessions began to develop, we started to "plan our plans" to market the band. We determined that there were some legal things to consider as well so we began to look for an attorney that would be able to assist us.

As our good fortune would have it, I met an attorney that was looking to develop his practice into the music industry. I met Howard Hertz while he was working with the public defender's office in Detroit. It is a long story about how we met, I'll leave it to your imagination. During this meeting, we had some moments that allowed me to ask him some questions about music business issues and he gave me his card.

Later, as we finished our next recording, I contacted Howard to help register our copyrights. We set up a meeting with the band a short time later. Howard told us that we were one of his first music act for his burgeoning legal practice. If memory serves me correctly, I think his first artist was a gentleman named Ted Strunck.

Today, Howard Hertz is a powerhouse in the music industry. His firm, Hertz, Schram, and Saretsky have represented many notables in the business. Here is his bio from the firm's website:

Howard Hertz formed the law firm of Hertz, Schram & Saretsky with Bradley Schram in 1979. He specializes in entertainment law and is the lead attorney of Hertz, Schram & Saretsky’s Entertainment & Sports Practice Group. Since 1976 he has represented numerous artists and entities in the entertainment field, including authors, screenwriters, recording artists, radio personalities, producers, production companies, record labels, agents, artist managers, music publishers, songwriters and athletes. Among others, his most well-known clients have been George Clinton, Sippie Wallace, The Romantics, The Bass Brothers, Eminem, Marilyn Manson, O-Town, The Go, Elmore Leonard, Warner Tamerlane, CDNow and Atlantic Records. Services provided to entertainment clients range from contract negotiation and litigation to entity formation and estate/tax planning. Mr. Hertz travels to MIDEM, the International Music Festival in Cannes, France, and to South by Southwest, in Austin, Texas, annually, on behalf of his clients.

Among the many organizations and honors to Mr. Hertz’s credit, he is a Michigan State Bar Foundation Fellow, a member of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers, a member of the Board of Directors and President of the Motor City Music Foundation, a member and former chairperson of the Arts, Communications, Entertainment and Sports Section of the State Bar of Michigan, counsel to and a member of the Board of Directors of ArtServe Michigan, speaker and member of the National Association of Recording Arts & Sciences and is on the Advisory Board for Common Ground Sanctuary. He is the subject of biographical record in "Who’s Who in Entertainment" and "Who’s Who in American Law".

Howard Hertz has participated on panels and lectured on various entertainment related topics for organizations and schools such as: the Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education, National Association of Recording Arts & Sciences, Motor City Music Foundation, Wayne State University Law School, Cooley Law School, Detroit College of Law, the University of Michigan, Motortown Gospel Music Network and the Detroit Historical Museum.

Mr. Hertz graduated from Wayne State University in 1972 with distinction and received his law degree from Wayne State University in 1976, where he graduated cum laude.

Howard and his partners are featured panel members at the upcoming Motor City Music Conference 2005 on April 20-24th. If I am not mistaken, this is the second occurrence of this now annual event. Take a moment to check out the line up of talent that will be appearing during this event in addition to all the industry reps on the various discussion panels.

Oh, if you happen to attend the panel discussion with Howard, tell him Dave Stone says "hi".
Dave who?
Exactly.