John Branca, The Dealmaker ~ L'Uomo Vogue, February 2013

by **Admin** Sat Apr 06, 2013 12:43 am

John Branca, The Dealmaker

L'Uomo Vogue, February 2013

He is probably the most famous lawyer in the United States. Some might say the most infamous, but most of them are subscribers to improbable conspiracy theories who can’t get over the death of Michael Jackson. Bearing his sixty-two years like a rich Angeleno, John Branca is actually the curator of the estate of the King of Pop, the man who is bringing it back to solvency: rumors are that 310 million dollars have come back in over the past 15 months, much from Bad 25—the reissue (sponsored by Pepsi) celebrating the 25th anniversary of Jackson’s famous 1987 album complemented by a documentary directed by Spike Lee.

Branca says that he worked with Michael Jackson in 1984, laying the groundwork for his relationship with Pepsi, and then again in 1988 for the Bad Tour. He was very happy to bring them back together for the Bad 25 project; the souvenir Pepsi cans are much coveted by fans and collectors. Branca has a particular sensitivity for the commemorative: his collection of baseball cards is one of the world’s largest. He started collecting them as a boy. His family shared his passion for baseball (Uncle Ralph played for the Dodgers in the ‘50s) and he was able to collect a number of rare cards. After the devastating blow of their theft from his mother’s house, Branca stopped collecting. But one day he went to a Sotheby’s auction to buy his uncle’s pitcher uniform and ended up coming home with a large private card collection that got him “back in the game”. He says that a love for baseball is something that is deeply and inescapably American: Babe Ruth is on a par with Abraham Lincoln or Elvis Presley. He has always had the soul of a collector. The things that are dearest to him, apart from his baseball cards, are his collection of rock memorabilia, leather jackets, and Venetian antiques.

Branca lives in Beverly Hills in an Italian-style villa furnished with Fortuny fabrics and a slew of 18th-century furniture bought all over the world but especially in Venice itself. He has another house near Los Angeles which looks out over—need I say—the canals of Venice. His mania for these things has made him one of the most sought-after professionals in the entertainment business. His client portfolio in music ranges from the Doors to Justin Timberlake, with Carlos Santana, Fleetwood Mac, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, Shakira and Alanis Morissette somewhere in the middle. He has made headlines for his work to reclaim and manage the legacy and royalties of Kurt Cobain and Elvis Presley, and for helping Michael Jackson acquire the Beatles’ catalogue. He is a firm believer in the value of copyrights and the protection of artists (even from themselves: he is one of the founders of MusiCares, a charity that helps musicians who find themselves in difficulty of one sort or another), and this is where he has channeled his professional energy.

He has played the guitar since he was a kid and his band got its first contract when he was 16. He started college studying music but luckily realized right away that he was made for something else. One day he was reading an article in Time about Elton John and his lawyer when a light came on in his head, he suddenly knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. They say that if someone manages to unite his passions with his profession, what he does will never be work. And Branca has had the fortune of representing all his idols. But he’s not a lawyer of technicalities and fine print: he always works creatively with his clients, some of whom have become close friends, like Michael Jackson (who, along with his chimpanzee Bubbles, both dressed impeccably in tuxedos, was Best Man at Branca’s wedding). He came up with the idea of financing the Thriller video by selling the Making of Thriller video to a cable television channel for 1.2 million dollars, knowing that producing the video would cost 1 million (at the time, the average price of a music video was 50,000 dollars).

Branca says that you have to be creative even when establishing a partnership between a celebrity and a brand. He should know. He joined Michael Jackson and Pepsi, Aerosmith and General Motors, and lined up the sponsors for the Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels tour. And he points out that in addition to the financial aspects, a good lawyer has to keep in mind the impact that a given alliance will have on the artist as a brand: the two parties have to have a natural compatibility, and the artist has to have control over the creative process to make sure he or she is presented the right way.

I ask him what he thinks of the famous episode with George Clooney and Nespresso: a few years ago a journalist at a press conference in Venice asked George how a political, humanitarian and environmental activist like himself could hire himself out to a controversial multinational like Nestlé. Clooney surprised everyone by flying off the handle and saying that he didn’t have to justify himself to anyone. Branca replied like a true lawyer, saying he was not familiar with the incident and could not comment on it.

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