Allen Grubman
Allen J. Grubman is an American entertainment lawyer.
Allen J. Grubman
Entertainment lawyer[1]
1967–present
Debbie Grubman
Lizzie Grubman and Jennifer Grubman Rothenberg
Early life[edit]
Grubman was born in and grew up in Crown Heights, in Brooklyn, New York.[2][3][4] He attended City College of New York, where he earned a BBA[5] While attending Brooklyn Law School, where he earned a J.D., he worked in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency and as a CBS page.[2]
Career[edit]
After graduating from Brooklyn Law School in 1967, he wrote various lawyers asking for a job. When an attorney named Walter Hofer met with him, he recalled: "I didn't know what to say, so I tried to get him to like me. I said, 'I really want to work for you, but I don't come from a very wealthy family, so I can't afford to pay you very much to hire me.'"[4] Hofer hired him to work in his music law firm as an associate for $125-per-week ($1,100 in current dollar terms).[2][4][6][7]
Grubman subsequently started his own business. In the 1970s, he signed obscure disco artists who later became popular, and thereafter he signed a number of stars.[2] Grubman started a firm with fellow Brooklyn Law School graduates Paul Schindler ('71) and Arthur Indursky ('67) in 1974, and upon Schindler's departure the firm was known as Grubman Indursky & Shire.[2][4] In 1982 he landed one of his biggest clients, Bruce Springsteen.[2] His clients include superstars and top record companies and their executives.[2] In 2005, the firm had grown to 30 attorneys.[8]
In 1992 Business Week reported that Grubman was considered "the most powerful lawyer in the music business."[2] In 2001, Newsweek called him "perhaps the music industry's wealthiest and most powerful attorney".[9]
His clients have included Springsteen, Madonna, U2, John Mellencamp, Rod Stewart, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Luther Vandross, Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.[10][11]
In May 2020, the hacker group REvil claimed to have hacked and downloaded a huge amount data from Grubman's law firm, and demanded $42 million ransom to prevent release of data.[12][13]
In 2022, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Ahmet Ertegun Award category for negotiating ground-breaking long-term agreements for his clients that allow them to maintain creative control of their work.[14]