Jake Jacobson Career Biography
Jake Jacobson has practiced law in the entertainment industry since 1974. His first job after U.C.L.A. School of Law was as an in-house attorney for the Bank of America, where he was the primary attorney for the entertainment and media division, documenting large-scale lines of credit to studios and production companies, as well as financing for individual feature motion pictures. The first films on which he worked were Apocalypse Now and Rocky.
In 1979, Jake was hired by Paramount Pictures Corporation. He worked in the division that negotiated and documented deals to distribute feature motion pictures for network television exhibition, to basic and pay cable television networks and into the home video market. Before there was a home video market, Jake did the preliminary research to determine whether Paramount had the rights necessary to distribute their motion pictures into that then non-existent market. The division also produced original programming for distribution in first-run television syndication; Jake did the legal production work for the game show series Make Me Laugh and the business affairs deals for the pilot episode of Entertainment Tonight.
In 1981, Jake left Paramount Pictures for a time to be an in-house transactional attorney for network television production at Filmways, Inc., documenting development deals and production deals, including those for the pilot episode for Cagney & Lacey (CBS).
Jake thereafter worked at a small law firm briefly; and he returned to Paramount Pictures in 1983 as a transactional attorney for network television production. He drafted deals for series and pilots, including Live and in Person (NBC), Webster (ABC), and MacGyver (ABC); min-series such as James Michner’s Space (CBS); as well as strategizing for and implementing the wrap-up of various television series such as Mr. Smith (NBC) and term deals for the in-house roster of writers and producers.
In 1986, Paramount named Jake a Vice President in the network television business affairs department. In that position, he negotiated deals for various television series and pilots, including Cheers (NBC), Family Ties (NBC), Webster (ABC), Duet (Fox), Mr. President (Fox), Viper (NBC and first-run syndication) and MacGyver (ABC). Paramount promoted Jake in 1994 to be a senior vice president and the head of the business affairs department; Paramount named him an executive vice president in 1997. As the head of business affairs for Paramount’s network television division from 1994 until mid-2002, Jake was in charge of all of the division’s business matters for the development, production and initial distribution of all television series and movies. The matters that he either handled directly or supervised included all network license fee negotiations, overall term deals with the roster of writers and producers, negotiating high-level player agreements and overseeing all negotiations for all other contracts. He was responsible for the contract administration department, the legal department and the business affairs department, with a staff of approximately thirty-five full time employees. During that period, Jake oversaw the administration and legal and business affairs for approximately seventy-five two-hour movies-for-television, primarily for Showtime, and more than one hundred television pilots and dozens of television series resulting from those pilots. Those series notably included Wings (NBC), Duckman (USA [animated]), Frasier (NBC), JAG (NBC and CBS), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (first-run syndication), Legend (UPN), Sentinel (UPN), Star Trek: Voyager (UPN), Star Trek: Enterprise (UPN), Becker (CBS), Seven Days (UPN), The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (ABC and first-run syndication), Sister, Sister (ABC and The WB), Soul Food (Showtime), and the initial work for Deadwood (HBO). Jake also participated in strategizing for the start-up of the now-defunct United Paramount Network (UPN).
In late 2002, Jake was made Chief Operating Officer of Pariah, a boutique entertainment production company in Beverly Hills, whose principal is Gavin Palone. At Pariah. Jake was in charge of the day-to-day operations of the company, as well as being the chief negotiator for all deals for the development, production and initial distribution of feature motion pictures (Seeing Other People) and both scripted and non-scripted television projects for established broadcast networks (The Ortegas [Fox]) and for basic cable networks (P.I. [FX]).
From 2004 through the summer of 2013, Jake worked as a transactional attorney and as a business affairs negotiator in association with The Point Media (a group of former network and studio executives). During that time, Jake represented numerous production companies, such as AMC, Endemol USA, GK-TV, Reunion Pictures and Madison Road Entertainment. In addition, he served as outside counsel for Lionsgate Television for six and a half years.
Since fall 2013, Jake has been working as a sole practitioner, providing business and legal affairs services to entertainment industry production companies and artists. His clients that are production companies include and have included FOX Broadcasting Company, Ish Entertainment LLC, Red 23 Entertainment, Tom Lynch Productions, Iconic Television, Hasbro Studios, Loveable Scoundrels Inc., Borderline Amazing Productions, Chelsea Handler Productions, the Kaplan-Stahler Agency, iMark Productions and AMM, Inc. For those clients, he has and does provide services whereby he negotiates and documents transactions during the development of a project, and/or he also provides services as production counsel for those projects that are ordered to production. In addition, Jake represents some of those clients for deals with distributors/exhibitors such as the broadcast networks, basic and premium cable networks and streaming platforms.
In 2015, Jake served as the production attorney for four feature-length documentaries for Netflix, featuring Chelsea Handler (Chelsea Does…), and he is currently the production attorney for a feature-length documentary motion picture (From Hell to Hollywood) and a scripted feature motion picture (All Minds Matter).
Jake has provided legal production services for numerous reality/alternative television projects, such as Bridge & Tunnel (MTV), The R Kelly Project (VH-1), Soul Evidence (SyFy), Scrappers (Spike), ReMade (A&E), Flipping Vegas (A&E), All About Aubrey (Oxygen), Fix My Family (WE), Shootout (CMT), the Josh Wolf Show (CMT), Hello Ross! (E!), Kosher Soul (Lifetime) and Star Maker (Lifetime), as well as traditional scripted programs, such as Low Winter Sun (AMC), FOX Short-com (FOX) and Smart Alec (Nickelodeon) and a series of webisodes for Hasbro Studios for the Internet.
Jake also provides services whereby he negotiates deals for individual actors, such as Judd Hirsch (Independence Day [Twentieth Century-Fox] and Superior Donuts [CBS]), Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black [Lionsgate Television]) and Natalia Reagan (Star Talk [NatGeo]) and individual producers such as Mark Ganshirt & Todd Stevens (Match Me If You Can [MGM]) for feature motion pictures and television projects. Jake also represents producers and artists for live stage plays and live stage musical productions.
In the ordinary course of Jake’s daily business, clients and colleagues ask for and he gives advice with respect to production strategies, potential copyright issues and the fair market value of various services for motion picture and television production, as well as the fair market value of various program assets. Over the past almost two decades, with both The Point Media and as a sole practitioner, Jake’s practice has involved negotiating and documenting deals on a daily basis for the development, production and distribution of scripted television projects and non-scripted reality/alternative television projects for all types lf platforms, such as the Internet, broadcast and cable networks and streaming platforms, as well as for feature motion pictures and live stage productions.
Jake is also sometimes engaged specifically to draft form documents, and he advises clients about development and production procedures, as well as profit definitions.
Jake has been a guest speaker at numerous classes and seminars regarding the business of the television industry and legal issues pertaining to television development, production and distribution.
In addition, from time to time Jake is engaged to provide his expert opinions and testimony in connection with various litigation matters pertaining to the entertainment industry. Notably, he has testified at federal and state jury trials and at arbitration hearings on behalf of parties regarding damages sustained as a result of not being awarded certain screen credits, the fair market monetary value of certain services related to the production of television series, the license fees and fair market value of television series so as to measure the monetary value of a profit participation and certain customs and practices in the television industry related to accounting for certain revenue and good faith negotiations that are a typical component of profit definitions. Jake’s opinions were related to various television series, including Las Vegas, The Sopranos, Will & Grace, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 2½ Men, The Dukes of Hazzard, Hannah Montana and MacGyver.