Joseph P. Costa

Joseph Costa brings approximately 20 years of litigation and transactional experience to the firm. He worked in the litigation departments of Finley, Kumble, Wagner; Ervin, Cohen & Jessup and Leopold, Petrich & Smith before opening up his own firm.

In addition to his wide-ranging litigation work, Mr. Costa works with an array of entertainment and media clients in the capacity of general counsel, has represented talent and individuals in contract drafting and negotiations and has extensive transactional experience representing these clients. Specifically, Mr. Costa has an expertise in matters relating to copyright infringement, trademark infringement, Internet law, rights of publicity, transactional and litigation services relating to the direct response industry, licensing agreements, real estate litigation and general business litigation and transactional matters.

He has performed legal services for clients that have included, Lucy Liu, Christopher Lloyd, Deborah Winger, Bob Marley LLC, ATT, Foote Cone & Belding, The Gersh Agency, Paradigm, Savvier, and the Perfect Pushup.
Joseph Costa grew up on Long Island, New York, before attending the University of California, Los Angeles, where he majored in English literature. He attended law school at the National Law Center, George Washington University, where he served as the President and Editor in Chief of the Moot Court Board.  He has lectured extensively and taught classes at UCLA, through the Beverly Hills Bar Association, before the Association of Talent Agencies and at the Sundance Film Festival. 

Joseph Costa was selected by his colleagues as a Southern California Super Lawyer for the years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.  He has been featured domestically and internationally on television and radio programs to discuss numerous issues relating to the entertainment industry, including on Celebrity Justice, and Access Hollywood.  Joe is the proud father of four daughters and resides in Pacific Palisades, California.

Alan Abrams

Alan Abrams is head of the Costa Abrams & Coate Transactional Department overseeing business and legal affairs for the firm’s transactional clients.

Alan began his career in the entertainment industry with the Writers Guild Of America, West, in 1978 where he served as Associate Resident Counsel handling grievance and arbitration proceedings and assorted other matters for screen and television writers in the film and television industry. Several years later, Alan then moved into private legal practice with the small, but highly successful entertainment boutique law firm of Russell & Glickman where he assisted the producers of many of the top ten television series of the day, including “Three’s Company” and “Barney Miller”. After a successful run in private practice, Alan then joined Paramount Pictures Corporation in the television legal affairs area, representing Paramount in connection with its hit television series, its ongoing television development activities, and in connection with several of its highly successful “Star Trek” feature motion pictures. After leaving Paramount, Alan joined the then premier independent film “mini studio”, Cannon Films, where he oversaw the development, production and distribution of Cannon’s extensive film output, with a special emphasis on banking, cable and video exploitation of the Cannon library and current product and foreign sales of independently financed motion pictures. Following Cannon, Alan rejoined Paramount in the television business affairs department where he oversaw the legal and business affairs for many of its successful syndicated television series and was instrumental in setting up and overseeing its successful late night talk show, “The Arsenio Hall Show”. In 1989, Alan was named Vice President of Business Affairs for Imagine Films where he helped usher in many of its early hit theatrical motion pictures, such as “Parenthood”, “Kindergarten Cop”, “Backdraft” and “Far and Way.”

Alan ventured into private practice again in 1991 and has since then focused on independent films, representing the producers of “Catch Me If You Can”, “I, Robot”, the “Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book” series of films, “The Adventures of Pinocchio” series of films and “Monster” among many others, as well as performing legal services for upcoming films from Tim Allen (“The Six Wives of Henry LeFay”), Mike Judge (“Extract” starring Jason Bateman), Hillary Swank (“Betty Anne Waters”) and the anthology film “New York, I Love You” for which Alan handled financing matters by melding state and federal tax credits, with equity and a presale gap loan to complete the complex financial structure of this film. On the international front, Alan acted as counsel to one of international co-producers of “Cold Mountain” in connection with the co-production and complex tax advantaged financing of this film. In the television area, Alan recently handled all legal and business affairs matters for the Showtime television series “Look”, based upon the award winning independent feature by the same name, and continues to represent talent in connection with various television reality series.

Alan’s private practice client list includes a variety of corporate and independent producers, distribution and sales agency companies, banks, studios, literary/talent agencies, animation producers and distributors, legitimate stage producers, directors, writers, performers, song writers, concert promoters and other individuals, for whom he has negotiated and documented a wide variety of deals. Alan maintains his special expertise in the area of representation of independent film producers in talent and rights negotiations and complex production, financing and distribution arrangements, including international co-productions, distribution and foreign tax and US production incentive based financing arrangements.

Over the course of a thirty one year long career in the entertainment industry as an attorney and business affairs executive, Alan has been instrumental in the creation, production and distribution of hundreds of hours of film and television programming.

Additional information on the some of the many productions Alan Abrams has participated in as lead attorney is available on IMDb at: http://imdb.com/name/nm0009156/

Charles M. Coate

Charles M. Coate brings two decades of litigation experience to the firm. He began practicing law in 1989 and has focused on business, entertainment and intellectual property litigation since 1991. As a litigator, Mr. Coate has represented or been retained by St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company, American Airlines, Millennium Films, Inc., ICB Entertainment Finance in addition to numerous motion picture producers, distributors and financiers from all over the world.Over the years he has litigated or resolved disputes involving Twentieth Century Fox, MGM, Miramax Film Corporation, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Sylvester Stallone and Larry King, as well as award winning films such as “Catch Me If You Can” and “Boys Don’t Cry” among others. An increasing part of his practice involves both domestic and international arbitration matters.

Mr. Coate is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeal For the Fourth and Ninth Circuits and the Courts of The State of California. He is also a long-standing member of the Entertainment Sections of the Beverly Hills and Los Angeles County Bar Associations and has lectured at the South By Southwest Film Festival and before the Beverly Hills Bar Association on entertainment litigation issues. Mr. Coate is married, has two children and lives in Manhattan Beach, California.

Darius Anthony Vosylius

Updated bio coming soon.

Mark S. Schneider

Mark S. Schneider is an associate attorney with Costa Abrams & Coate LLP. Mr. Schneider’s legal practice focuses on transactional entertainment law, specifically development and production transactions for motion picture and television projects, entertainment and general business matters, talent representation, and intellectual property law. Mr. Schneider represents television and film actors, writers, producers, directors and production companies.

Mr. Schneider graduated from The University of Southern California in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Upon graduating from USC, Mr. Schneider received the Troy Leadership Recognition Award for outstanding service to the student body. In 2007, Mr. Schneider received his Juris Doctor degree from Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, California. While at Pepperdine, Mr. Schneider served as a judicial extern to the United States District Court in Nashville, Tennessee.

Theresa Johnson

Updated bio coming soon.

Lindsay Cinotto

Updated bio coming soon.

Alex Katofsky

Alex P. Katofsky is an associate of the firm and has worked on hundreds of matters including jury and court trials, arbitrations, mediations, and appeals to the numerous Courts of Appeals and the California Supreme Court.

Mr. Katofsky has extensive experience in the prosecution and defense of business litigation, professional liability, real estate, insurance, and personal injury matters, as well as transactions involving the purchase, sale and lease of commercial real estate, restaurants and other businesses.  Mr. Katofsky has also drafted and negotiated license, marketing, and franchise agreements relating to the sale and distribution of consumer products. 

His business litigation experience includes the representation and defense of publicly and privately held companies in a variety of complex business disputes. Mr. Katofsky’s professional liability practice includes the defense of lawyers, insurance agents/brokers, and real estate professionals. His real estate practice includes the representation and defense of owners, tenants, brokers and agents in disputes involving sales, leases, commissions, and evictions.  He has also litigated numerous insurance coverage actions.

As a licensed real estate broker, Mr. Katofsky also has a vast knowledge of commercial and residential real estate transactions.

Mr. Katofsky is admitted to practice before all California State Courts and the Central District of the United States District Court of California.

Mr. Katofsky received a Juris Doctor from University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. He also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from California State University Northridge.