Don Engel

Engel was an attorney in New York City, specializing in publishing law, but he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. Among the popular stars who sought him out to help in revising or canceling their recording contracts were Don Henley, Donna Summer and the band Boston. Entertainment attorney Chris Castle said that "In many important ways, what we have come to call the artists rights movement in the U.S. started with Don Engel's representation of artists against record companies who overreached." Engel argued successfully in court that California law stated that some contracts could not be extended past seven years. In 1944, that argument allowed actress Olivia de Havilland to end her contract with the Warner Brothers studio. In publishing, he represented Simon & Schuster, Grosset & Dunlap and Golden Books. Corporate clients included Harcourt Brace and SeaWorld, Interscope, Motown, MCA, Walt Disney Company, Lorimar and Paramount. ==Personal life==

Engel was born December 11, 1929, in the Bronx, N.Y., and graduated from City College of New York. He served as an intelligence officer in the Army during the Korean War, after which he studied law at New York University, where he was first in his class. His second wife, Judy, was also an attorney. He had four children, Gregory, Stephen, Jacqueline Leibsohn and Laura Engel. He died January 15, 2014, in Redwood City, California, after a 17-year battle with leukemia. Funeral services were in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles. ==References==