About ILO

about ives law office...

Ives Law Office (ILO) is an independent full-service entertainment law firm located in New England and serving clients in New York, Los Angeles, New England, and throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada, the U.K. and Europe.

The firm focuses exclusively on entertainment and related issues—including in the areas of film (features and documentaries), television, animation, publishing, music, software design, art, and the intellectual property issues associated with those segments. The firm also drafts and files organization documents for corporations, LLCs and LLPs and prepares business plans, investment memoranda and related documents.

Finally, the firm actively consults with filmmakers, writers, producers, companies, nonprofit organizations with regard to business formation, production, domestic and international distribution, marketing of projects (including sales and festival/market participation) and project financing.

The bulk of ILO’s legal work is done on an hourly fee basis, plus extraordinary expenses (such as shipping, postage, and approved travel). Longer term projects and consulting may be done instead on a negotiated fee basis. Consulting is almost always on a flat fee basis. In extraordinary circumstances, the firm will help to assemble the pieces of a project in exchange for a production credit and fee and/or profit participation.

In any case, the goal of ILO is to provide a collaborative partnership according to the needs of the particular project or client goal, and to accomplish the client's objectives promptly, efficiently and economically.

ILO’s primary attorney is John G. Ives. John has been in the entertainment industry as an attorney, producer, distributor and entrepreneur for nearly thirty years, and is admitted to practice in New York and Massachusetts.

John co-founded Cinecom Films in New York, responsible for the development, acquisition and release of such films as Robert Altman’s Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Oscar-nominated El Norte, Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense, and Academy Award winner A Room With A View, as well as many other films by independent filmmakers such as John Sayles and Mr. Altman. Following Cinecom, he was President/CEO of FilmDallas Pictures, which helped create two Academy Award winners, Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Trip To Bountiful. At FilmDallas, he developed and supervised several productions, and released the critically acclaimed Man Facing Southeast.

In L.A., John was Of Counsel to the Beverly Hills entertainment law firm Tulchin, Traney & Co., involved in film, TV and video packaging and financing, production and distribution legal services, and representing finished films in the domestic and foreign markets. He was advisor to producers, directors, writers, production and distribution companies, and oversaw several mergers and acquisitions. He was a consultant to several foreign companies seeking to set up U.S. distribution. He optioned an animated feature to Warner Bros., was given a producer deal, and oversaw two years of development.

John’s initial legal experience was in the General Counsel’s Office at Citibank in New York, focusing on overcoming legal barriers to bank activities in interstate banking, savings and loans, and insurance instruments. He left Citibank to form Cinecom.

John ran art theaters in Massachusetts, then returned to the movie theater business in New York. He graduated from Boston University School of Law in 1979. He helped organize the Israeli Film Festival in New York, which became an annual bi-coastal event. He is the author of “American Originals: John Waters”, as well as a novel and several screenplays.

The firm utilizes associated law firms to fulfill client needs with regard to securities, taxation and litigation issues.