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Music industry icon John Branca ’72 and Harvard Business School’s Jim Sebenius present two Harvard Business School case studies on negotiating Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the buying of The Beatles’ music catalog. 

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John Branca ’72 is a legendary entertainment lawyer and a partner and head of the Music Department at the law firm of Ziffren Brittenham, LLP, the largest entertainment law firm in the world. He has represented over 30 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acts, including The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, the Bee Gees, Carlos Santana, Aerosmith, The Beach Boys, and Fleetwood Mac. Other clients have included Alicia Keys, Dr. Dre, Justin Timberlake and the Backstreet Boys. As co-manager of the estate of Michael Jackson, Branca has shepherded the creation of a successful touring show, an acclaimed Las Vegas production, the Tony Award-winning MJ The Musical, and the forthcoming biopic Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua. Branca was involved in the formation and sale of Interscope Records and has served as counsel to numerous music industry investors. After graduating cum laude with honors from Â鶹ƵµÀ, Branca received his law degree from UCLA School of Law. John is a member of Oxy’s board of trustees and serves on the Obama Scholars Advisory Council. Outside of his support for Oxy, he is a philanthropist and is involved in many community organizations, including the Jackie Robinson Foundation and MusicCares where he serves as Chair Emeritus. Branca is an ongoing guest lecturer at the Harvard Business School, Stanford University, UCLA Law School, USC Law School, Â鶹ƵµÀ, and Los Angeles City College, among others.

Jim Sebenius specializes in analyzing and advising corporations and governments worldwide on their most challenging negotiations. He is the Gordon Donaldson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he founded the Negotiation unit and teaches advanced negotiation to students and senior executives. He also directs the Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School.

With co-author and business partner, David Lax, he originated 3D Negotiation TM, a uniquely powerful approach for analyzing and advising on complex negotiations. He is a founder and partner in Lax Sebenius LLC, a 3D negotiation strategy firm with an extensive global client list.

He holds a B.A., summa cum laude, from Vanderbilt, an M.S. from Stanford’s Engineering School, and a Ph.D. in business economics from Harvard.