Adam Streisand

Early career

Streisand was graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, with a BA in History.^[13] During college, he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris for one academic year.^[14] After college, he served as Legislative Aide to U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md).^[15] Streisand was graduated cum laude from American University, Washington College of Law, a member of the Honor Society, and an editor of the Law Review.^[16]

Streisand began his legal career litigating entertainment cases. On behalf of his clients, Beastie Boys and Capitol Records, Streisand won the first digital sampling case in the U.S. Courts of Appeals, Newton v. Diamond, et al.^[17] Streisand won a palimony case for comedian Bill Maher brought by former girlfriend, Coco Johnson.^[18] Streisand achieved a significant settlement against Faye Dunaway, Terrence McNally and others over the film rights to the stage play Master Class for producer Lester Persky.^[19] Streisand successfully defended Diana Ross in a copyright infringement action by photographer Art Shay. He successfully litigated a copyright infringement action for BMG Music Publishing against Melissa Etheridge. Streisand represented Quincy Jones, the key witness in the defamation trial by Steve Wynn against "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis, in which the jury returned a $40 million verdict. ^[20]. Streisand obtained an injunction for Jacques Cousteau against the use of the Cousteau name in connection with a Fiji resort against Jean-Michel Cousteau and others. Britney Spears retained Streisand in connection with the petition to establish a conservatorship over the singer.^[21]. Streisand successfully represented Kobe Bryant in a defamation action.

Estate litigation

Streisand transitioned from entertainment litigation to trust and estate litigation becoming well known for success in celebrity estate cases.^[22] He has been recognized for achievements in traditional or non-celebrity estate cases.^[23] Streisand has been widely acknowledged as a leading American trial attorney, particularly in the field of trust and estate litigation.^[24] Streisand is noted as one of the best trial attorneys in the country and for his strategic vision. Streisand is well known as the architect of the strategy to rely on an arcane provision of the California probate code, section 1310b, and resulting trial victory for Steve Ballmer resulting in his $2 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Clippers.^[25] He brought victory and permanent control of the Los Angeles Lakers to Jeanie Buss in a courtroom battle with Jimmy and Johnny Buss. In another strategic maneuver, relying on another arcane provision of the California probate code, section 21103, Streisand prevailed over claims that Douglas Tompkins’s estate should be divided by Chile’s forced heirship laws. Streisand also defeated claims to invalidate the trust of vitamin and supplement king Gerald Kessler based on bigamy.^[26] Kessler’s family alleged his widow, Meadow Williams, was a "gold-digger" who fraudulently induced the billionaire business maverick into leaving his estate to her while she was still married to her first husband. On Meadow's behalf, Streisand obtained an unprecedented ruling in 2016 from a California court, entering a divorce decree terminating Meadow's first marriage retroactively to 1993. Streisand then successfully moved to dismiss the Kesslers' claims in Nevada on the grounds that the retroactive divorce predated Gerald Kessler's marriage to Meadow, and there was no fraud in inducing the trust that left Kessler's estate to his new wife.^[27] Given Streisand's well acknowledged expertise, he is also involved in the drafting of legislation, including in particular, due to his experience in both entertainment and estates, amendments drafted by Streisand to the California Celebrities Rights Act to ensure the protection of a deceased celebrity's name and likeness and its descendibility to the celebrity's heirs.^[28] The estate of Marilyn Monroe retained Streisand to draft the amendments to the California Celebrities Rights Act.^[29]