Darren Trattner ’94

Darren Trattner ’94: Power Walking in L.A.

What does a showbiz lawyer do when the movie and TV shoots stop? He keeps talking — and, in Darren Trattner’s case, walking.

With Los Angeles shut down for the pandemic, the merry-go-round of lunches, drinks, meetings, and events with clients stopped for Trattner, an entertainment lawyer who represents actors, directors, and writers. He now maintains his connections and locks down deals remotely, often while logging 10 or more miles on foot around his neighborhood.

COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the entertainment business, Trattner says, perhaps permanently. But it hasn’t changed his workload much, since he represents a sizable stable of writers who have been busy inking deals during the pandemic.

“A lot of my business is about relationships and personal connection, and now there are no inperson meetings, no meals, drinks, or screenings. I do miss all that, and it’s been very isolating,” he says. “But it also highlights the fact that writers can write from home, while directors and actors can’t do their jobs.”

Trattner, a named partner at Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein, started at Berkeley Law with a passion for constitutional law.

“Law school taught me how to challenge and question the status quo and traditional lines of thinking. Berkeley is an intense spot,” he says. “It was such a formative period in my life — personally, intellectually, and socially.”

Trattner left law school thinking he wanted to be an entertainment litigator. It turned out to be a bad fit, and he moved into film production work before settling on representing talent.

His advice for aspiring entertainment lawyers: Get a job somewhere in the industry, then put in the time and find your way to the area that suits you.

“I work 24/7, making deals all over the world, across time zones,” Trattner says. “There are some elements that are really fun — like seeing something on the big screen that you worked really hard on or watching someone you’ve represented succeed — but it’s like anything else, it’s a lot of work and you really have to be dedicated to it to succeed.”

As productions slowly begin to ramp back up, mostly outside the United States, Trattner thinks online meetings and business will persist, and that lawyers will have to change too. He’s watching closely how Berkeley Law adapts to the new Zoom-friendly world.

“The pandemic has clearly altered all of our lives, and I think we will come out stronger,” he says. “I certainly think Berkeley Law will come out stronger too.” —Gwyneth K. Shaw