# Jason Boyarski

Jason Ryan Boyarski (born 1974) is an American entertainment attorney specializing in the music industry. He is a partner in the New York-based law firm Boyarski Fritz LLP, which he co-founded with entertainment attorney David Fritz. Boyarski is known for representing the estate of Prince.

## Education and early career

Jason Ryan Boyarski was born in 1974 to New York city natives, Ellie and Joel Boyarski. He began attending Emory University in Atlanta in 1992. He was a student representative and worked as an intern at Sony Music Entertainment's Atlanta office. Boyarski graduated from Emory in 1996 with a Bachelor of Business Administration. Boyarski then began employment at NBC where he worked as a production assistant for Today Show. Shortly thereafter, Boyarski joined Sony Music's 550 Music label where he worked in the Promotions Department on projects including artists Celine Dion, Ben Folds Five, and Ginuwine.
Boyarski began attending Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York in 1997, graduating in 2000 with a focus on intellectual property law. Boyarski was the Administrative Editor of the Cardozo Law Review where he published a law review note "The Heist of Feist: Protection for Collections of Information and the Possible Federalization of 'Hot News'". During law school, Boyarski worked as a law clerk at Epstein, Levinsohn, Bodine, Hurwitz & Weinstein, LLP and also as a summer associate for Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

## Career

Boyarski was employed at Weil, Gotshal & Manges as an Associate in the Trade Practices & Regulatory Law Department. He left in 2002 and began working at BMG Music Publishing in New York as an associate director for legal and business affairs. Between 2002 and 2006, Boyarski was promoted to senior director for legal and business affairs by BMG Music Publishing before being promoted to vice president for legal and business affairs in 2006.
Following UMG's acquisition of BMG in late 2006, Boyarski remained as the vice president for legal and business affairs for Universal Music Publishing Group until 2008 when he was hired by Warner/Chappell Music as Senior Vice President and GM. In 2008, Boyarski also co-founded the marketing agency HeadOverHeels Collective. Boyarski left Warner/Chappell in 2011, soon co-founding the New York-based law firm Boyarski Fritz LLP with entertainment attorney David Fritz in November 2011. The firm specializes in deal-making and transactions.
Boyarski's client roster has included the estates of Earth Wind & Fire's Maurice White, Donny Hathaway and Brazilian artist Antonio Carlos Jobim who wrote "The Girl From Ipanema", and received a new publishing agreement spanning his entire catalog. Boyarski has represented multiple recording artists including Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joan Jett, Lil' Kim, Marc Anthony, JVKE, Meek Mill, LMFAO's Redfoo, Dean Lewis, Kevin Rudolf and EDM's Aluna and Paul Oakenfold.
Boyarski's clients also include songwriter Louis Bell and Tainy. He has represented BMG, Disney Music, AEG, Facebook, ASICS, Alice + Olivia and Hyatt Hotels, as well as Electric Feel Music, NEON16 & NTERTAIN, Audio Up, and Create Music Group.

### Representation of Prince's estate

After musician Prince died, Boyarski was hired by the bank and Special Administrator of Prince's estate, Bemer Trust, to help negotiate a deal with Universal Music Publishing Group for the rights to Prince's music publishing catalog. Boyarski finalized a deal with Universal Music Publishing Group in October 2016 which was valued at thirty million dollars. Prince had withdrawn from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2014, which left his catalog without any performance rights society. In January 2017, Boyarski reached an agreement with Irving Azoff's Global Music Rights for performance-rights. In the same month, a Minnesotan judge ruled that Comerica Bank would begin overseeing Prince's estate and under Comerica, Boyarski began to focus on Prince's other intellectual property rights and became the overall entertainment attorney for the estate. He brokered a deal in June 2018 with Sony Music that made 23 catalog albums available on streaming services. In 2020, Boyarski negotiated a deal with Sirius XM to create a limited-time channel devoted exclusively to Prince's music.

## Awards and honors

Boyarski was named one of America's Top 200 Lawyers by Forbes, one of Billboard's Top Music Lawyers for six consecutive years from 2018, a "Power Lawyer" and one of Music's Top 15 Dealmakers by The Hollywood Reporter a Top Entertainment Attorney by Variety magazine multiple times, and a top lawyer by Super Lawyers magazine. Boyarski's law firm has been named multiple times by Hits magazine as one of "Music's Hottest Law Firms" and Billboard magazine published a story highlighting Boyarski's career and commemorating the firm's 10th Anniversary in 2021.

## Personal life

Boyarski married Robin Alissa Katz at the Essex House in New York City in 2002. He lives in Brookville, New York and has two children.