Jonathan Handel | |
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Education | Harvard University (AB, JD) |
Jonathan Handel is an American entertainment lawyer, journalist, author and commentator.[1][2][3]
Handel is an expert on entertainment labor, having reported extensively on the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, DGA, IATSE and other unions.[4] He has previously served as outside Special Counsel to SAG-AFTRA, and on the legal staff of the WGA.[5][6][7][8][2]
Prior to this, he was a journalist at The Hollywood Reporter, and has also written for the Los Angeles Times, Variety and Puck.[9][10][11] Additionally, he has authored five books and is an adjunct professor at Southwestern Law School and lecturer in law at the USC Gould School of Law.[12][13]
He currently practices entertainment and technology law at TroyGould and serves as an executive at WIO.[14][15]
Handel studied Applied Mathematics, graduating from Harvard College in 1982, and Harvard Law School in 1990.[16][17]
He began his law career clerking for Judge Irving Goldberg on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Dallas, TX.[18]
In 1991, he was selected to serve as a federal associate independent counsel to investigate alleged White House political misconduct related to the search of then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton's passport files.[19][2][20][21]
In the months prior to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, Handel began publishing a series of blogs on the Huffington Post, leading to him becoming recognized as an expert regarding Hollywood unions.[2][22][23][24]
From 2010 to 2020, Handel was a journalist at The Hollywood Reporter.[25][26]
In 2020, he was appointed as outside Special Counsel to SAG-AFTRA.[8]
As of 2022, Handel serves as an executive at WIO, an entertainment software company.[27][28][29]
Handel regularly provides legal analysis for media outlets such as The New York Times, BBC, Reuters, NBC, CNN, ABC and CBS.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]
Handel is an expert on entertainment royalties, having authored the only book on residuals.[38][39][40]
Handel is the son of late sociologist Gerald S. Handel.