Steve Marenberg is a partner in Irell & Manella LLP’s litigation workgroup and serves as a member of the firm's executive committee. His practice encompasses a wide range of commercial litigation matters, with particular concentrations in the areas of entertainment, high-technology and intellectual property litigation, and antitrust and business tort disputes. His clients include some of the nation's leading motion picture studios, television networks, music companies, interactive game companies and entertainers, as well as prominent high-tech firms.

Mr. Marenberg has been recognized as a leading media and entertainment litigator by Chambers & Partners in its 2008 Chambers USA Leading Lawyers for Business Guide, and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for 2007-2009 in the specialty area of commercial litigation.  He is also recognized as one of the leading lawyers in the U.S. in The Legal 500 US guide, selected for inclusion in Southern California "Super Lawyers" by Los Angeles Magazine, and listed among the "Top 100 Power Lawyers Outside Counsel" by The Hollywood Reporter.  The Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal named Mr. Marenberg one of California's "Top 10 Entertainment IP" lawyers in 2008.

Among other recent activities, Mr. Marenberg successfully represented Universal Music Group before the California Supreme Court in HLC Properties, Ltd. v. MCA Records, Inc., et al. 35 Cal. 4th 54 (2005), a landmark case involving the scope of the attorney-client privilege in California, and successfully defended Mark Burnett, Donald Trump and NBC Universal in Bethea v. Burnett, 2005 WL 1720631 (C.D. Cal. 2005), a copyright infringement case involving the NBC television series, "The Apprentice."  Mr. Marenberg is currently engaged by Peter Jackson in a well-publicized profit participation dispute with New Line Cinema relating to the blockbuster motion picture, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," and is lead counsel to Universal Music Group in a highly publicized series of copyright lawsuits relating to the posting of videos on social networking websites such as MySpace, Grouper.com and Bolt.com.

Mr. Marenberg has been a partner in the firm since 1986. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Marenberg served as a law clerk to Judge James B. Moran of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Representative Matters

• Representing Pixar and others in the successful defense of copyright and trademark claims relating to the animated motion pictures Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles;
• Serving as counsel for Universal Music Group in the defense of a class action alleging breach of contract, fraud and related claims brought by the Estate of Peggy Lee on behalf of hundreds of well-known recording artists;
• Representing Italy's largest motion picture distributor in dispute regarding film financing and distribution that resulted in favorable multi-million dollar judgment after trial;
• Serving as counsel for one of Hollywood's largest motion picture studios in the defense of an industry-wide class action alleging that the studios have conspired to impose unconscionable "net profits" restrictions in motion picture talent contracts and in the defense of individual actions raising similar claims;
• Representing one of America's best known recording artists in the successful defense of a copyright infringement action alleging that a Grammy-winning song was copied from another work;
• Providing counsel to the Recording Industry Association of America ("RIAA") in connection with legislative hearings relating to legislation governing record company royalty accounting practices and amendments to California's "7-year rule" relating to personal services contracts;
• Counseling a leading interactive game company in connection with the FTC's well-publicized investigation of the marketing of violent entertainment to children and in related litigation arising out of well-publicized high school shootings;
• Representing several interactive game companies in connection with copyright and trade secret lawsuits concerning some of the most successful titles in the industry; and
• Defending one of the largest international music companies in connection with several governmental investigations and private antitrust class actions alleging that the "major" distributors of recorded music unlawfully fixed the price of compact discs.  

Other noteworthy cases in which Mr. Marenberg has been involved include Southern California Gas Co. v. Texaco Exploration & Production, Inc., et al., where he served as lead counsel for three of the nation's largest oil and gas producers in a complex business tort dispute alleging that natural gas supplied by several producers caused widespread destruction to a utility's distribution system; Buena Vista International, Inc. v. CLT-UFA, S.A., a lawsuit in which he prosecuted claims involving broadcast rights in international television markets; Motown Record Company v. MCA Inc., et al., a complex multiparty litigation among Motown, MCA Inc., PolyGram Records, and various of their affiliates that culminated in the sale of Motown to PolyGram for a purchase price in excess of $300 million, where Mr. Marenberg was lead counsel for Motown; Schlessinger v. Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman, in which Mr. Marenberg successfully defended one of Los Angeles' prominent entertainment law firms in a dispute involving complex partnership law issues and resulted in a precedent-setting published opinion of the California Court of Appeal that the summary judgment procedure can be used in arbitration proceedings; United States v. Time Warner, Inc., in which Mr. Marenberg counseled an international music company in the successful defense of a government investigation concerning the licensing of music video rights in the United States and Europe; First Interstate Bancorp v. Computer Associates International, Inc., where Mr. Marenberg represented First Interstate in a dispute with a leading mainframe software vendor; MGM/UA Communications Corp. v. Qintex Australia Ltd., et al., in which Mr. Marenberg was lead counsel for Qintex in a suit involving Qintex's failure to consummate its proposed acquisition of MGM/UA; Colorado Interstate Gas Company v. Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, in which Mr. Marenberg and others represented NGPL before the Tenth Circuit in securing a reversal of all but a small fraction of a $700 million damage verdict; and United States v. Storage Technology Corporation, in which Mr. Marenberg succeeded in defending a $40 million tax claim asserted by the IRS and in obtaining a judgment for Storage Tek, awarding a $30 million tax credit on Storage Tek's counterclaim.

Professional Activities

• Mr. Marenberg has lectured at many professional seminars, including the ABA Litigation Section Annual Meeting, the ABA Forum on Sports and Entertainment Law Annual Meeting, the PLI Antitrust Law Institute, the University of Southern California Computer Law Institute, and the Multimedia Law Institute.
• He currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of The Alliance for Children's Rights, Los Angeles’ largest legal services organization focusing on providing legal services to Los Angeles County’s underprivileged children. He is a former member of the Board of Governors of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers. Mr. Marenberg is also a member of the American Bar Association's Litigation, Intellectual Property and Antitrust Sections

Bar & Court Admissions

• 1981, Illinois; California