DanielE.
Schnapp

PartnerCo-Leader, AI, Robotics and Quantum Industry Team and Co-Leader, Interactive Media Team
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Schnapp Daniel

Overview

Dan Schnapp is a corporate and commercial transactional lawyer with more than 30 years of experience advising clients on high-stakes, strategic transactions at the intersection of intellectual property, technology and digital media. His practice focuses on structuring and negotiating strategic transactions that govern how IP and content assets, technology and data are developed, distributed, monetized and protected across evolving digital and interactive environments.

Dan has unique experience counseling clients across multiple industry verticals on the impact of emerging, transformative and disruptive technologies to their respective businesses, including generative artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, for which he assists clients in negotiating complex global licensing arrangements, managing data sourcing and usage rights, model training and output exploitation, preserving and enforcing IP portfolios, and the mitigation and allocation of risk across multiparty commercial frameworks.

Dan routinely counsels media companies, content owners and technology platform providers on the legal and commercial frameworks underpinning digital media businesses, including licensing, distribution, production, platform partnerships and multichannel exploitation arrangements. His work spans interactive entertainment, music, gaming, sports, film and television, advertising, and live events, and involves counterparties ranging from networks, publishers, rights management organizations, digital service providers and distributors to device manufacturers, content aggregators and online platforms.

His approach is deeply strategic and consultative, combining legal precision with a practical operational understanding of how technology can reshape value creation, while aligning robust legal structures with his client’s business objectives. By anticipating market and regulatory shifts, Dan assists clients in not only managing risk but positioning themselves as first movers and market leaders in novel digital economies.


Credentials
Education

J.D., Syracuse University College of Law, 1994, cum laude

B.A., University of Vermont, 1991

Admissions

New York

Honors

Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyer, Lawdragon, 2026

Leading AI & Legal Tech Advisors, Lawdragon, 2026

Top Music Attorney, The Hollywood Reporter, 2024-2025

Top Music Lawyer, Billboard Magazine, 2023-2025

Dealmakers Impact Report, Variety, 2021, 2023

Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers, 2020-2023

Top Entertainment Attorney, Variety's Legal Impact Report, 2018, 2021-2022, 2025-2026

Legal 500 US, Media and Entertainment: Transactional, 2018-2022, 2025

Legal 500 US, Technology Transactions, 2019-2023, 2025

Chambers USA, 2012-2016

Top 50 Under 45, IP Law and Business Magazine, 2008

Legal 500 Recommended Lawyer 2025
Legal500 US Recommended Attorney
Memberships

Member, Law Firm Advisory Board, Association of Media & Entertainment Counsel

Member, Distributed Computing Industry Association

Member, Mobile Marketing Association

Member, Securities Industry Association's Root Certificate Authority Initiative; has served as independent counsel to the consortium of financial institutions and regulatory agencies comprising the group

Member, American Bar Association Section of Science and Technology Law; has been an active participant in the section's various initiatives regarding electronic commerce and information security

Thought Leadership

Panelist, "Navigating AI: Evolving Legal and Policy Frameworks," ASCAP, November 7, 2023