 | David Zitzerman | Partner |
| dzitzerman@goodmans.ca | vCard |
|
Bay Adelaide Centre - West Tower 333 Bay Street, Suite 3400 Toronto, ON M5H 2S7 |
Tel: 416.597.4172 Fax: 416.979.1234 |
David Zitzerman is a partner and heads the Entertainment Law Group at Goodmans. He has exclusively practised entertainment law for over 25 years.
David’s practice focuses on the film, television and on-line industries in Canada and the United States. He represents independent producers, Canadian networks, Hollywood studios, U.S. networks, cable services and OTT services, private equity investors, European broadcasters, film and TV distributors, publishers, game companies, talent guilds and agencies, writers and performers.
REPRESENTATIVE WORK
David’s representative work includes acting for:
Over-The-Top (OTT) Services
- Disney+, CBS All-Access, NBC Hayu and Quibi in connection with the launch of their respective OTT services in Canada
Hollywood Studios and US Cable, Network and OTT Services
- Amazon Studios, Netflix, Apple Studios, AMC, Discovery, EPIX, DreamWorks, YouTube, Disney, Crown Media, IDW, Viacom, Starz, NBCU and CBS in connection with their productions in Canada
Canadian Clients
- Shaftesbury, Insight, Kew Media, Bell Media, Brain Power, 9 Story Media, Boat Rocker Media, Breakthrough, Music Canada, Nelson Education, the Writers Guild of Canada
Investment Canada Act (ICA) Advice
- Elevation Pictures, Shaftesbury, Red Arrow, Kew Media, 9 Story Media, Argonon, Boat Rocker Media and Apple Canada
International Co-Productions and Joint Ventures
- Sumitomo, Bento Box, Discovery Communications, Shaftesbury, NBCU, Fred Rogers Company, WGBH and Moody Studios
RECOGNITION
David is rated AV Preeminent (2016-2019) by Martindale-Hubbell. He is recognized as one of the two leading media and entertainment lawyers in Canada in Expert Guides: Best of the Best (2019).
David is recommended as a leading entertainment lawyer by Who’s Who Legal Canada, the Lexpert/American Lawyer Media Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada (2019), and The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (2018).
David is included as a noted media lawyer in Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Technology, Media & Telecommunications Lawyers (2019).
David is recommended for both defamation and media law and entertainment law in the 2020 edition of Best Lawyers in Canada and was named the “2020 Toronto Entertainment Lawyer of the Year”. He was also recognized as one of the 30 leading media lawyers in the world (2009-2019) by Euromoney’s The Best of the Best.
PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT
David is a member of the Canadian panel of arbitrators for the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA). He is an Adjunct Professor teaching entertainment law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, a guest lecturer at Osgoode Hall Law School and is a frequent commentator on entertainment industry issues for CBC, Bloomberg BNN and other media outlets.
David has published a number of articles in entertainment law journals and is a co-author of Entertainment Law in Canada published by LexisNexis.
| Education | University of Toronto (J.D., 1981) University of Manitoba (B.A., Gold Medal - Highest Standing in Arts, 1978) |
| Professional Affiliations | Law Society of Ontario |
