Petition to Confirm Successful Arbitration over Rights to “To Kill A Mockingbird”

On February 9, 2022, Petitioners Atticus Corporation (“Atticus”), Hannah C. Pakula and Boardwalk Productions (“Boardwalk”) (collectively, “Petitioners” or “Producers”) submitted their Petition to Confirm Arbitration Award against Respondents Tonja C. Carter, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Nelle Harper Lee, and Harper Lee, LLC to The United States District Court For the Southern District of Alabama Southern Division.

Rimon PC’s Los Angeles-based partner Mark S. Lee represented the successors to the producers of the Academy Award winning “To Kill A Mockingbird” motion picture in a dispute with the Estate of Harper Lee over who owned what rights in the literary work. Harper Lee, and the Estate following her death, initiated and pursued arbitration to claim that the Petitioners no longer owned any rights associated with “To Kill a Mockingbird” because Ms. Lee served what is called a “Notice of Termination” in the Copyright Act in 2015.

“The Arbitrator ruled that the 2008 Grant superseded and replaced the grants made by Lee to the Producers in the 1961 Agreement as amended. The Arbitrator further determined that the 2008 Grant conveyed certain rights in TKAM to the Producers.”

Both parties settled with an agreement to clarify who owns what rights under that 2008 Grant, and agreed that the earlier award and settlement agreement could be confirmed in a judicial proceeding as contemplated by the Federal Arbitration Act.

Rimon has 45 offices across five continents. The firm is widely known as being at the vanguard of legal innovation. The firm has been repeatedly recognized by the Financial Times as one of North America’s most innovative law firms. The firm’s Managing Partners were both named ‘Legal Rebels’ by the American Bar Association’s ABA Journal and have spoken on innovations in the practice of law at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools. Rimon and its lawyers have also received numerous awards for excellence, including from Best Lawyers and Chambers.