Practice Areas
Sandra (Sandy) Crawshaw-Sparks is a senior partner in Proskauer's Litigation Department, and Chair of the firm’s Entertainment, Copyright and Media Practice Group. Sandy maintains a bi-coastal practice, specializing in a wide variety of litigation and transactional matters in the entertainment industry with a special focus on music.
A well-known and respected entertainment industry litigator with over 37-years of success, Sandy represents the most iconic names in music in connection with recording, publishing, licensing and management contracts, copyright and trademark infringement claims, unfair competition claims, and the rights of privacy and publicity.
While she fiercely fights high-profile battles for her entertainment clients and wins some of the most visible cases in the media today, Sandy also negotiates pre-litigation and pre-trial resolutions of highly sensitive and confidential personal and entertainment-related disputes, protecting her clients and their reputations from unwarranted media scrutiny and creative distraction. She is also recognized as an expert in the law respecting court approval of personal services contracts with minors.
Sandy is the National Legal Counsel for the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (the not-for-profit organization responsible for the GRAMMY Awards) and she has long served as an Advisor to the Executive Committee of the Academy’s Board of Trustees, as well as on the Board of Directors of the GRAMMY Museum’s Entertainment Law Initiative, which promotes discussion and debate about the most compelling legal issues facing the music industry.
Over the course of her career, Sandy's clients have included Madonna, Lady Gaga, Sting, The Police, Britney Spears, Shania Twain, Luther Vandross, U2, Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails, Amerie, Fiona Apple, Hall & Oates, Matisyahu, Meat Loaf, Debbie Gibson, Sally Hershberger, Judd Hirsch, Living Colour and Just Blaze.
Sandy has also represented numerous entertainment industry leaders, including Chris Blackwell, Jimmy Iovine and Russell Simmons.
The music industry companies she has represented include Live Nation, Sony Music Entertainment (including Arista Records, J Records, Jive Records, Provident Music Group, RCA Records, Zomba Recording Corp., and Verity Records), Universal Music Group (including Interscope Records, Def Jam Records, Geffen Records, GRP Records, MCA Music Publishing, MCA Records, Island Pictures, Island Music, Island Records, Mercury Records, Motown Records, and PolyGram Records), Warner Bros. Records, Warner/Chappell Music, BMG Rights Management, Primary Wave Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, National Music Publishers’ Association, Academy of Country Music, American Recordings, Cash Money Records, EMI-Capitol Music Group, EMI Music Publishing, Gee Street Records, IslandLife, the Island Trading Company, JB Music Publishing, Jellybean Recordings Inc., Palm Pictures, Maverick Recordings, Rykodisc, Inc., Vagrant Records and Wind-Up Records.
