The Living Legends Foundation today announces the passing of a giant, entertainment attorney and advocate Kendall A. Minter, Esq., who passed suddenly due to medical complications on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, at 1:58 p.m. ET in Atlanta, Georgia. Details on his homegoing service will be announced in the coming days.
A longtime officer and General Counsel of the Living Legends Foundation, Minter helped lead the organization to its successful 32-year history.
“Kendall and I have been friends and colleagues for more than 30 years,” says Living Legends Chairman David C. Linton, who in 2015 presented Minter with the organization’s Chairman’s Award. “Kendall is one of the reasons why the Living Legends Foundation has maintained and survived as one of the leading and one of the few Black Music organizations. We are still standing because of his guidance. He helped us to sustain the organization through some turbulent times, especially during the transition from the old model of the recording industry to today’s model. He provided us with steady and sound legal counsel through the years. We are forever grateful for his service and leadership, not only to the Living Legends Foundation, but the other Black organizations that he helped build during the past 40 years, as well as his commitment to a long list of Black music and entertainment executives that he mentored and counseled.”
Born on May 24, 1952, and raised in the Flushing section of Queens, New York, Minter received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Cornell University (1974) and his J.D. from Cornell Law School (1976). Upon his graduation from Cornell Law School, he joined Fairchild Industries as Associate General Counsel and Corporate Representative for Broadcasting.
In 1978, Minter returned to New York City and joined the law firm Burns, Jackson, Miller, Summit & Jacoby as an associate. In 1980, he embarked upon his sole practice and established the Law Firm of Kendall A. Minter, which eventually opened affiliated offices in Los Angeles and London.
Throughout his career, Minter has practiced law in Georgia, New York, and the District of Columbia. In 1984, he joined the law firm of Barnes, Wood, Williams, and Rafalsky as counsel, where he remained until establishing Minter & Gay in 1987. In 1992, he merged his practice into the firm of Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Balon as counsel. In early 1995, he relocated to Atlanta and joined the firm of Sales Goodloe & Golden, as counsel, where he established and developed an entertainment department. Minter has also been Of Counsel to the New York City entertainment law firm Rudolph & Beer and the Atlanta law firm Taylor English.
Before his passing, Minter was Of Counsel with the Entertainment & Sports practice group at Greenspoon Marder LLP, an AMLAW Top 200 national law firm with more than 225 lawyers, 23 offices, and 35 practice areas in Stone Mountain, Georgia. At Greenspoon Marder, he represented a diverse clientele in the areas of entertainment, corporate, intellectual property, sports, and new media matters.
He led and maintained his 43-year law practice, now known as Minter & Associates, based in Atlanta, Georgia, where he represented varied clients from internationally renowned recording artists and entertainers, celebrities, actors, producers and songwriters, politicians, religious leaders, churches, entertainment executives, authors, and sports figures. His clients past and present included: Faith-based: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bishop Eddie Lee Long and New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Pastor E. Dewey Smith, and Victory World Church; Music: Lena Horne, Miriam Makeba, Huge Masekela, Peter Tosh, Roy Ayers, Third World, Bunny Wailer, Shabba Ranks, Musiq Soulchild, Najee, The Backstreet Boys, Cassandra Wilson, Freddie Jackson, Montell Jordan, Ashanti, M.C. Lyte, Heavy D & The Boyz, Jagged Edge, Goodie Mob, and the Ying Yang Twins; Gospel Music: Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, Tasha Cobbs Leonard; Music Producers: Mtume, Teddy Riley, Jermaine Dupri, Bryan Michael Cox, and D’Mile; Record Labels: Arrow Records (Dr. Creflo Dollar); Radio: Frankie Crocker; Sports: Evander Holyfield and Ray Mercer; the Government of Jamaica, and The Central Park Five (now known as The Exonerated Five), among numerous others.
Minter was the co-founder and the first executive director of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA), founded in 1980, and later, he was also a member of its advisory board. In 1988, he served as a board member and later became Chairman of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. In 2008, he was named the Chairman Emeritus and served on its advisory board. He served as a board member to Sound Exchange, Georgia Music Partners, and the DeKalb Entertainment Commission.
The author of Understanding and Negotiating 3600 Ancillary Rights Deals: An Artist’s Guide to Negotiating 3600 Record Deals, Minter was an adjunct professor at Georgia State University in the School of Music and the College of Law, where he taught Copyright and Music Publishing. Before his tenure at Georgia State University, he was an adjunct professor at Benjamin Cardoza School of Law. He was a contributor and columnist to several music trade and consumer publications on music and entertainment law and practices.
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