Gabe Fleet

gabe.fleet@lw.com

+1.212.906.1280

Profile

Gabe Fleet is a trusted counselor, dealmaker, and strategic advisor who advises clients on their highest-stakes matters within the music, entertainment, digital media, and technology industries.

Gabe leverages more than two decades of music, technology, and entertainment industry experience, including as a senior executive for a leading entertainment and media company, to help the most innovative companies in the world solve their hardest content and entertainment-related problems.

Some representative clients include:

Black Forest Labs
Character.AI
ElevenLabs
eMastered
HeyGen
iHeartMedia
Internet Archive
Live Nation
Mirelo AI
Mozart AI
National Association of Broadcasters
OpenAI
Periodic Labs
Perplexity
Rockbot
Snap
SoundCloud
Splice
Suno
Thinking Machines Lab
TouchTunes
Udio
Many more of the world’s largest and most well-known technology companies

Gabe represents technology companies, media companies, brand owners, buyers and sellers of music and entertainment-related assets, and other sophisticated enterprises in connection with:

Strategic counseling to digital media, entertainment, and technology companies (with an emphasis on companies offering generative AI tools), including on legal risk analysis and mitigation measures, business model and deal structuring, rights clearance and content acquisition strategy, and industry relations
Licensing and data acquisition transactions with content owners
Negotiating settlements to high-stakes copyright disputes
Corporate and financing transactions involving music, entertainment, and/or copyright assets
Strategic partnerships and other complex commercial transactions in the music, entertainment, digital media, and technology industries
Branded entertainment and original content development, production, and distribution
Personal service contracts and brand ambassador, sponsorship, and endorsement agreements

Before joining Latham, Gabe was EVP of Business Affairs and Chief Music Licensing Counsel at iHeartMedia, where he managed the company’s business affairs team, led music licensing strategy, and helped spearhead many of the company’s innovation initiatives.

Prior to that role, Gabe was a partner in the entertainment and media group at another major international law firm. Gabe also worked as an artist manager and professional drummer prior to law school.

In addition to his legal practice, Gabe is an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law, where he teaches an Entertainment Content Licensing seminar.

A recognized leader at the firm, Gabe is a member of the firm’s Recruiting Committee.

Gabe is consistently recognized by industry publications such as Billboard and Variety as one of the top lawyers in the music industry.

Experience

Gabe’s experience includes the following:

Content Licensing

Negotiating complex agreements for dozens of companies (from Fortune 500 public companies to cutting-edge, early-stage startups) adverse to record labels, music publishers, performing rights organizations, motion picture studios, television content owners, video/image libraries, book/audiobook publishers, podcast creators, news/print/online publishers, and other copyright owners regarding the use of music, spoken word audio, video, images, text, and other content in a wide array of products and services

Generative AI

Representing industry-leading generative AI companies in connection with legal and strategic counseling matters and commercial transactional matters. Some specific representations include:
- Suno in:
  - A landmark, multi-faceted, cross-border transaction with Warner Music Group to collaborate on next-generation licensed AI music, acquire various assets, and settle previous litigation between the parties
  - The negotiation of a commercial partnership with music producer/artist Timbaland, leading to the execution of a first-of-its-kind AI-powered remix campaign
- OpenAI in transactional and strategic counseling matters related to the launch of voice capabilities for its ChatGPT AI product
- Perplexity in the negotiation of commercial partnership agreements with various content publishers throughout the world
- Numerous generative AI tool providers at all stages of their growth in negotiating data access and acquisition transactions across a wide range of modalities

Dispute Resolution

Representing a broad array of companies (both inside and outside the entertainment and tech industries) in negotiating settlements to various copyright-related disputes, both before and after the filing of litigation. Some specific representations include:
- Internet Archive in settling a copyright infringement litigation brought by various major record labels over the Internet Archive’s “Great 78” project
- A leading generative AI company in settling a lawsuit brought by various copyright owners and individual creators alleging federal and state law claims pertaining to the training and operation of the company’s AI tools
- The entire commercial radio industry (through the National Association of Broadcasters) in settling the Web VI Copyright Royalty Board music royalty rate-setting proceeding, which set the sound recording royalty rates to be paid by radio webcasters for 2026-2030
- Various brand owners in negotiating confidential, pre-litigation settlements of infringement claims from music copyright owners pertaining to the use of music in social media videos

Corporate Transactions

Representing buyers, sellers, investors, and financing sources in acquisitions and financing transactions for music catalogs and other entertainment and copyright assets, including navigating the complex and esoteric legal and business issues unique to the music and entertainment industries. Some specific representations include:
- Suno in its acquisition of the Songkick live music, concert-discovery platform from Warner Music Group
- H.I.G. Capital in its acquisition of RBMedia, one of the leading audiobook publishers in the world
- A strategic acquiror in the purchase of its JV partner’s music publishing revenue streams

Music/Entertainment/Media Commercial Transactions

Representing media platforms and content studios in commercial transactions for the development, production, and distribution of podcasts, feature films, TV series, concert specials, and documentaries. This includes extensive experience in matters specific to the music aspects of television and film content, including for the original content studios of some of the world’s largest streaming providers
Negotiating sponsorship and endorsement agreements, co-marketing agreements, and other commercial transactions between and among brand owners, copyright owners, and celebrities
Representing brand owners and media companies in connection with the creation and exploitation of branded content and the entertainment-related aspects of advertising, marketing, and promotional campaigns. Specific matters include numerous projects that have won ADDY, CLIO, Cannes Lions, GRAMMY, and EMMY awards, multiple Super Bowl ads, and dozens of campaigns for some of the world’s most significant brands