Gamal David Hennessy

Contracts, licensing and entertainment law make up the bulk of my legal career. I started out in the Technology Procurement of Metlife negotiating licenses for computers, software and consulting services. MetLife provided me with a solid professional foundation, but all the contracts I worked on related to Y2K hysteria, so I have no idea if the company ever needed any of the projects I worked on.

Central Park Media gave me my first real taste of entertainment licensing. I handled their copyright, trademark and talent agreements, but most of my work involved securing the rights to anime and manga from Japan. Our catalog included everything from the painfully tragic Grave of the Fireflies to the infamous Legend of the Overfiend. I also got a bit of exposure writing third party licenses when we sold off rights in territories we couldn’t reach.

In 2002, Marvel brought me in to handle their new international publishing department. My main function was helping Marvel break into the Japanese market, but I also managed the licenses for Marvel books and merchandise in Europe, South America, and the Middle East. In addition, I drafted many of the exclusive talent deals Marvel began to set up around the time Ultimatesstarted to gain traction. I left Marvel soon after Ultimates,X-men and Spider-Man deals were established in Japan.

I started to focus on my nightlife writing and my own legal practice after leaving Marvel. I got a daytime position to pay the bills and started my own publishing company called Nightlife Publishing. The first project I tried was a nightlife magazine called New York Nights. That ran online for about five years, but I shut it down because of lack of revenue. In 2010, I published Seize the Nightbased on what I’d learned about nightlife industry and culture working on the magazine. Releasing a nonfiction book exposed me to the self-publishing process which inspired me to write my own fiction and release it through Nightlife Publishing. 

As I built my publishing catalog, I also began helping freelance professionals and small businesses with their contracts and licensing issues. I’ve given lectures at the University of Albany and Comics Experience and helped negotiate creator-owned deals, publishing agreements, and consulting contracts. C3 is an expansion of that work. My goal is to help freelancers understand their legal position and give them the tools to get the most out of their work.