Global Mindset. Local Instinct.

Managing Partner, Entertainment & Media

attorney Jesse Weiner

Biography

Practice Areas

Education

Bar Admissions


Biography

Jesse is the managing partner at YK Law. His main areas of practice include entertainment (music, film and TV, and art) and blockchain matters. He's brokered and helped structure international joint ventures and strategic partnerships, including the slate financing deal valued at $1.5billion between Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Co. Ltd and Lionsgate, and the recent purchase by a Chinese company of the xXx motion picture franchise from Revolution Studios and starring Vin Diesel.

He's represented financial institutions, mezzanine investors, production companies, distributors, content creators, high-net-worth individuals, funds and others involved in various aspects of the production, financing and distribution of film, television and digital content, including having represented China's top directors Zhang Yimou and Jiang Wen, and Ning Hao's production company Dirty Monkey (for the director's last major project "Crazy Alien").

In the music field, he's represented Thai-Chinese superstar Mike Angelo in deals with Tencent; as well as various other producers and song-writers.

In addition, for most of 2018, Jesse served as CEO of a private equity company that was investing in the areas of life-sciences, gaming, and the entertainment industries. He helped the company establish a joint venture with a well-established cancer treatment company. In March 2018, he assisted the company through the purchase of a publicly-traded shell company, and guided the then-public company in its acquisition of a Hollywood production/distribution house.

At the same time, he was a founding member and executive of a blockchain project company involving Mike Tyson, which was to be a blockchain-based global fighting competition, whose top contestants would earn the right to participate in an action star reality show, leading also to major motion picture roles and other branding opportunities.

His pro-bono work includes representing and supporting the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation. Based on the common heritage that was forged in the skies above China during the Second World War, the Foundation' purpose is to rekindle the spirit of cooperation between the people of China and the United States by celebrating the contributions each has made to aerospace technology, science, commerce and exploration; and by fostering a practicable dialogue about the two countries' common aviation history.

After having spent a little more than a decade in China, he is proficient in the Chinese language. And he enjoys playing Chinese (and Western) chess, long bike rides, and sailing - although he's far more dangerous than skillful on the water.


Practice Areas

  • Greater China Practice
  • Entertainment & Media
  • Intellectual Property

Education

  • George Washington University Law School, Washington, District of Columbia
    • J.D.
  • Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music
    • M.M.
  • Emory University
    • B.A.

Bar Admissions

  • New York
  • California
  • U.S. District Court Southern District of New York
  • U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York

Classes & Seminars

  • American Film Market, “Blockchain and Cinema: Developments, Opportunities, Challenges,” moderator. November 12, 2019
  • Digital Hollywood, “The China-Entertainment Industry Roundtable: A Discussion with China Experts: Investment, Joint Ventures, and Productions,” panelist. November 13, 2019
  • Global Digital Assets Summit (GDAS), “The Revolution of Digital Assets” panelist. April 10, 2022.

Languages

  • Chinese
  • English

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Understanding Intellectual Property Rights in Music

You’ve heard of famous musicians suing other musicians over allegedly stolen music, and vice versa. They are rightly seeking to enforce their intellectual property rights in their original creation. If you have created original music and want to protect it against use by others, you’ll need to understand the intellectual property (IP) rights of music. What happens if another performing…