Caroline H. Mankey | Attorney

Caroline H. Mankey graduated cum laude from UCLA with a bachelor of arts degree in Germanic Languages in 1990. In 1996, she graduated from the UCLA School of Law and was admitted to the California bar. At UCLA School of Law, she served on the Women's Law Journal, participated in the Moot Court Honors Program and was the 1994-95 co-president of the Entertainment Law Society. During the summer of 1994, Ms. Mankey was an extern for Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt.

After law school, Ms. Mankey worked for the intellectual property boutique firm of Benjamin, Lugosi & Benjamin, LLP, where she handled a variety of trademark, copyright and right of publicity transactions and litigation. Ms. Mankey was trial and appellate counsel for Comedy III Productions, Inc., in the case of Comedy III Productions, Inc. v. Saderup, 68 Cal. App. 4th 744 (1998). Ms. Mankey joined Christensen, Miller, Fink, Jacobs, Glaser, Weil & Shapiro, LLP (now known as Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard &Shapiro, LLP) in March 1999, and thereafter became counsel for amici curiae Wayne Enterprises, Inc., Sheffield Enterprises, Inc., Global Icons, LLC, Groucho Marx Productions, Inc. and Bela G. Lugosi in connection with the California Supreme Court's review of the Comedy III case, which ultimately became one of the seminal California cases on right of publicity law. Comedy III Productions, Inc. v. Saderup, 25 Cal.4th 387 (2001), cert. denied, 122 S. Ct. 806 (2002). Ms. Mankey was also counsel for Comedy III Productions, Inc. in the reported case of Comedy III Productions, Inc. v. New Line Cinema, 200 F.3d 593 (9th Cir.), rehearing denied (2000).

At Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard & Shapiro, LLP, Ms. Mankey represents clients in a variety of complex business and intellectual property litigation matters.  In 2002, Ms. Mankey was second-chair to Patricia Glaser in a successful two-month long jury trial against Lucasfilm, Ltd. for breach of an intellectual property license.  Since then, Ms. Mankey has achieved other trial successes as first-chair.  For example, in 2005, Ms. Mankey secured a judgment of over $1 million on behalf of Nikki Sixx, founder of the renowned rock band Motley Crue, in a jury trial against Vans, Inc. for misappropriation of Mr. Sixx's statutory and common law publicity rights.  In 2006, Ms. Mankey secured a judgment of over $10 million for her client in a bifurcated bench trial of a partnership dispute.

Ms. Mankey has also succeeded on behalf of her clients in numerous appellate matters.  In May 2009, in a case argued and briefed by Ms. Mankey, the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court's denial of motions to extend a consent decree and for contempt sanctions against the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, putting an end to over ten years of contentious, high-profile litigation over the County's bus system (Labor/Community Strategy Center v. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, 564 F.3d 1115 (9th Cir. 2009)).  Based on briefing by Ms. Mankey, in May 2002, the Ninth Circuit upheld the District Court's grant of judgment on the pleadings in favor of The Walt Disney Company in a lawsuit alleging that the motion picture "The Waterboy" infringed on the copyright to the Harold Lloyd silent film "The Freshman" (Lloyd Hayes v. The Walt Disney Company, 34 Fed. Appx. 376, 2002 WL 972164 (9th Cir. 2002)). 

Ms. Mankey has published the following articles regarding the right of publicity: Life After Death, Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine, April 1999, at 41, and Commercial Speech Disorder, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Dec. 15, 1998, at 6. She also contributed to the law review article California Expands the Statutory Right of Publicity for Deceased Celebrities While Its Courts Are Examining the First Amendment Limitations of that Statute by Bela G. Lugosi, DePaul J. of Art & Ent. Law, Vol. X, No. 2 (Spring 2000).

In September 2005, Ms. Mankey was identified as one of Southern California Super Lawyers "Rising Stars."