Behind the Grammys
Jerry Juste charts the high notes of 25 years in the entertainment industry.

Photo by Kirk Mckoy/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Behind the Grammys
Jerry Juste charts the high notes of 25 years in the entertainment industry.
When Jay-Z was recording one of his biggest hits, “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” it fell to his lawyers to make the rapper’s fresh vision a reality. The song’s novelty hinged on permission to sample the song from the popular 1970s Broadway show Annie.
Jerry Juste (’94), who was an associate at a boutique entertainment law firm in New York at the time, handled what he described as a difficult negotiation.

“The fact that it was Jay-Z was the only reason [the deal] happened,” Juste says in a Zoom interview from his home office in New York. “High-profile situations sometimes cause things to lean your way.”
During his 25 years as a lawyer in the entertainment industry—including 14 years at behemoth Universal Music Group—Juste has had the opportunity to meet many famous artists. Tricky negotiations and whirlwind deals with many moving parts became his specialty. He also watched the industry transform with the introduction of streaming platforms, which required him to constantly shift tactics and innovate.
Entre into Entertainment

Juste got his first taste of the music industry after his second year at BU Law, working as a summer associate at the small entertainment firm of Jackson, Brown, Powell and St. George in New York. His entre into the firm came through friends he grew up with in Brooklyn. One of his closest friends had hired the firm while managing the reggae music career of another young man who lived down the street, Red Fox.
Right after law school, Juste took a job as a litigation associate at the Boston firm of Mintz Levin. A large corporate law firm with an excellent reputation, it was a dream opportunity for an ambitious new lawyer.
But he soon had second thoughts. While he was waking up at 6 am to go to court—only to find himself essentially holding a briefcase for a senior partner—his friends in New York were flying to Los Angeles to attend the Grammy Awards. “I thought, hey, I worked the hardest. I should be taking trips to the Grammys,” he says with a smile.
It’s probably the best career decision I ever made. Getting back into entertainment, back in the game, being a young, hungry associate—it was the perfect place to be.
After a short time at Mintz, he took a pay cut to go back to Jackson, Brown, Powell and St. George. “My parents thought I was insane,” he says. “It’s probably the best career decision I ever made. Getting back into entertainment, back in the game, being a young, hungry associate—it was the perfect place to be.”
On the Front Lines of Hip-Hop
Juste represented many of the artists at the forefront of 1990s music, such as LL Cool J, the Notorious B.I.G., and Lil’ Kim. He worked hard to prove himself, and the firm gave him more and more responsibility. “It put me right on the front line,” he says.
He was tasked with handling the various agreements artists need to make after they are signed. An average album could have 30 to 40 such agreements, including the rights to sample other artists’ music. Sampling was a relatively new phenomenon and popular with many of the law firm’s hip-hop clients. Juste had to navigate the uncertainties of the emerging area of law. He built relationships with sample owners. “I knew what would fly and what wouldn’t fly,” he says. “We’d get in there and roll up our sleeves, clearing and closing.”

He wasn’t always successful. For example, many artists wanted to sample Prince but Juste knew from experience that it was an impossible ask. Prince had never cleared a sample. It fell to him to break the news to the artist. “You had to strike a balance. You want to show you’re going to bat for them, but deep down inside you know Prince is going to reject it, so let’s not waste your time and money.”
One time, he had to clear a sample from an Austrian symphony that was unfamiliar with the concept of sampling and felt it was philosophically wrong. He showed them examples of how it worked out well and his education convinced the symphony to allow it.
Spinning In-House Deals
Building on that experience, in 1996 he went in-house, joining PolyGram Records as director of business and legal affairs. There, Juste worked with artists signed with the Motown record label. They included Stevie Wonder and Boys II Men. That’s also when he stopped wearing a tie to work. “The president of the company said, listen, if you want these guys to trust you, you gotta look a little more like they do. I lost the suit jacket.”
He started to earn seniority, graduating to more sophisticated deals. In 1999, when PolyGram was bought by Seagram and folded into Universal Music Group, he survived the merger.
That began his long tenure at Universal—which handles about 40 percent of the music business—where he had the opportunity to meet icons like Prince and the Bee Gees.

Juste describes Wonder as one of the humblest artists he’s ever met—someone who made a point of meeting each staff member during his infrequent visits to the Universal offices and remembering tidbits from their conversations. “A year later, he’d recognize your voice and your name,” he says.
But more often, Juste would be one of many people in a meeting with a famous artist and realize, “This person can see me two days later on the street and won’t recognize me.”
He’s seen people’s lives change dramatically. He recalls artists like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber appearing shy and awkward at their first record label meetings where their managers did all the talking. A year later, he’d see them on stage performing confidently and proudly.
“After a while, you forget they’re famous, and it’s just someone who has a problem you’re helping to solve,” he says. “At the end of the day, they’re all people.”
At Universal, he learned to deal with all kinds of people, including some with large egos and political agendas. “It’s interesting in that it’s sometimes your job to tell everyone no. You have to be the bad guy but at the same time maintain your relationships within the company so you can do your job. The more senior you got, the more complex it could get.”
During his time at Universal Music Group, he worked his way up from senior director to senior vice president, managing the day-to-day work of the 20-person department.
From CDs to Streaming
The industry was changing dramatically, and with it, the legal issues. In the late 1990s, file-sharing programs like Napster presented the biggest worry for record companies concerned with copyright infringement.
The format for music distribution evolved from CDs to digital downloads. When Apple was offering its 99-cent downloads in the 2000s, those in the industry knew it was only a matter of time until streaming services would become the norm. As streaming shrunk revenues, Juste’s company eliminated excessive travel and entertainment perks and slashed artists’ budgets. “The mantra was ‘do more with less.’”

To bring in more revenue, the record companies sought contracts that would pay them royalties if a musician ended up acting in movies or TV or writing a book, as compensation for the companies’ part in creating the celebrity. Juste was the principal architect of what came to be known as the 360 deal. Developed in the mid-2000s, it is now widely adopted in the industry.
He and his team wrote the new contract language and worked with financial experts on calculating, tracking, and collecting the revenue. Artists were not keen on the idea. But the record companies felt that it was only fair, especially given the success of MTV, which was able to distribute for free the music videos that had cost the record companies tens of millions.
The rise of Spotify and other streaming services brought new questions about how the record companies would be paid and how revenues would be distributed. To aid this transition, he helped create new financial and legal formulas.
It was a demanding job that required him to constantly shift gears to work on priorities set for him by others. At the end of 2012, he decided to take some time off to figure out his next move.
Putting the Artists First
In May 2013, Juste opened a solo practice in New York, gaining clients through relationships he had built over the years within the music industry. He enjoyed the freedom and the ability to work in lockstep with the artists.
I would say I probably had the most fun job. Seeing all the artists, seeing all the hoopla. There’s just always something crazy going on.
But eventually, he grew tired of the administrative burdens of solo practice. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he joined Atlanta-based Taylor English Duma while working remotely, representing individuals and small-to-midsize companies in the entertainment industry.
Juste has had an enviable career, says his colleague Sandra Brown, who recruited him to Taylor English Duma and moved with him to Greenspoon Marder LLP in July 2021.
Brown first met him in April 2006, when she was representing an artist negotiating a record deal with Universal. “He was a tough opposing counsel. Super sharp. I had to stay up all night to really be on my toes,” she says. “It’s one of my most memorable deals. It was challenging. It was fun.”
It was the first of many deals the two worked on together. Now, they are working on the same side, fighting for artists’ rights, with Juste serving as outside counsel to entertainment clients.
Since leaving Universal, he’s branched out into other areas including film and television, music publishing, merchandising, branding, executive employment, intellectual property disputes, and rights acquisitions.
“I would say I probably had the most fun job,” he says. “Seeing all the artists, seeing all the hoopla. There’s just always something crazy going on.”