Litigation
Jun. 15, 2002
Spidy's Guardian Angel
Top 30 Women Litigators - Carole Handler - The blockbuster movie "Spider-Man" wouldn't have been made were it not for O'Donnell & Schaeffer partner Carole Handler.
Carole Handler
The blockbuster movie "Spider-Man" wouldn't have been made were it not for O'Donnell & Schaeffer partner Carole Handler.
A 1993 lawsuit had a handful of movie studios and Spider-Man creator Marvel Enterprises Inc. fighting over film rights. 21st Century Film Corp. v Carolco Pictures Inc., BC079359 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed April 20, 1993).
After six years of legal wrangling, Handler helped Marvel retain the film rights to the Spider-Man character. Eventually, the comic book publisher sold its movie rights to Sony Pictures for $10 million and a portion of the profits. The movie has shattered box-office records; its $114 million opening weekend was the largest debut ever for a movie.
Although the Spider-Man lawsuit made Handler the talk of Tinseltown, she doesn't want to be labeled a Hollywood lawyer. Although her first love is entertainment - Handler was vice president of litigation at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer - she insists that her intellectual property and antitrust practice has her working in all industries.
For instance, Handler is one of the lead attorneys in four cases against El Paso Natural Gas Co. and Sempra Energy for conspiring to hike the price of natural gas. In two cases, she's representing the cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and the remaining suits are seeking class-action status.
One of the top litigators in her field, Handler says that her late father, antitrust attorney Milton Handler, and former 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Shirley M. Hufstedler motivated her to stick with the law, even while she was juggling motherhood and her academic studies.
"I had a 2-year-old when I started Penn, and I had my second child in my third year [of law school]," Handler says. "It was at a time when women thought they could do everything at the same time. It's not the way I would do it today."
Marisa Navarro
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