Donald Zakarin
Pryor Cashman
Partner
Partner Donald Zakarin is Chair Emeritus of Pryor Cashman’s Litigation Group, Co-Chair of the Music Group and the Media + Entertainment Litigation Practice, and a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property, Media + Entertainment, and Digital Media Groups. He has tried dozens of cases to both juries and judges around the country, including copyright ownership and copyright infringement cases, representing all of the major music companies. He has also defended corporate executives in securities cases and in Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Attorney General investigations during the more than 45 years he has been at the firm.
During the past 25 years, Don’s practice has increasingly focused on representing the owners and creators of musical compositions and sound recordings. In both 2017 and again in 2022, Don and a team of Pryor Cashman lawyers successfully represented the National Music Publishers Association and the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International, on behalf of the United States music publishing industry and songwriters, in Copyright Royalty Board proceedings to fix the mechanical royalty rate for interactive streaming. Don is again a member of the Pryor Cashman team undertaking the Phonorecords V proceeding now underway before the Copyright Royalty Board.