At Nolan Heimann LLP, creativity isn't just a client trait--it's a founding principle. Built by attorneys Mishawn L. Nolan and Wendy J. Heimann-Nunes, the boutique Encino firm has carved out a distinctive niche at the intersection of law, storytelling and innovation. Whether guiding global entertainment brands through location-based initiatives or helping emerging creators protect their intellectual property, the firm's attorneys say their mission is clear: deliver strategic legal counsel with a deep fluency in the language of creatives.
"Most lawyers don't want to deal with creative clients," Nolan said with a chuckle. "Most people don't speak creative. I speak creative. ... I love the creative energy. I love innovation. I love participating on the cutting edge of what's new and telling really great stories that impact people."
A 1998 Pepperdine Law School graduate, Nolan started dancing at age 3 and ran her own dance studio while she was an undergraduate at UCLA.
"To this day, in my soul, I'm still a dancer," said Nolan, who originally enrolled at Pepperdine to pursue constitutional law. "At the end of the day, I knew I had to be with creatives. I had to participate with contributing to creativity and innovation."
After passing the bar, Nolan went to work as a transactional attorney, focusing on entertainment and intellectual property - practice areas where she still spends much of her time these days.
"My specialty really is strategy," she said. "I don't participate in the creative at all. I listen deeply to what they want to create, what they want to put out in the world, and I really try to unpack what their goal is. ... I really honor what they're trying to do, and then I help them make it happen."
In the summer of 2013, Nolan teamed up with longtime location-based entertainment attorney Wendy J. Heimann-Nunes to launch Nolan Heimann LLP, an Encino-based boutique that's now home to 19 lawyers. Today, the shop has four practice groups: entertainment, intellectual property, corporate and litigation.
"We believed that there was such a merging going on of disciplines within entertainment that there was really room for a firm to arise that had a much more holistic approach to transacting and protecting intellectual property assets," Heimann-Nunes said.
Many entertainment and creative companies require a range of assistance prior to transactions or when transactions aren't happening at all, according to Heimann-Nunes.
"We really spend a lot of time in those phases - not just when a deal's on the table," Heimann-Nunes explained. "We really love being with our clients through the lifespan of their initiatives. There's a sense of ownership that permeates our representation that it seems sometimes isn't the case with a lot of other firms that tend to be a bit more based on transaction to transaction."
A 1992 University of Chicago Law School graduate, Heimann-Nunes started out in big law but also spent time in-house for Universal Studios before launching Nolan Heimann LLP. She noted that in the past her Location-based Entertainment specialty was seen as a focus on enterprises like theme parks, family entertainment centers, zoos, aquariums, mixed-use real estate developments and resorts. But the field has since diversified and expanded dramatically.
"It's all these branded experiences folks are doing - whether it's The Friends experience or The Squid Games experience or what Netflix is doing with Netflix House," Heimann-Nunes said. "You've got the Sphere in Vegas. ... It's an industry that really is growing."
Heimann-Nunes recently assisted Mojang and Microsoft with their first-ever location-based entertainment initiative, representation that resulted in a license agreement for the Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue, which is currently touring internationally.
While the firm does represent some big names, Heimann-Nunes said the shop's portfolio of clients is diverse.
"I love representing all different levels of people," she explained. "We love working with companies developing projects. We're all about supporting creatives, and we want to get innovation out into the world."
Heimann-Nunes and Nolan also spoke affectionately about the shop's co-managing partner, David A. Schnider, who joined in 2016.
"The three of us have managed the firm together for 10 years, and we're like family," Nolan said. "The firm philosophy is everyone has something they're really good at and they're really passionate about, and that's what they bring to the table, and we encourage everyone to lean into what they do really well."
Los Angeles corporate finance attorney Jennifer A. Post has worked with Nolan on client matters in the past and a merger and acquisition deal, and she said Nolan is "an expert on all things trademark branding."
"Any company that has an important public media position, she really knows that space - both on the legal side and also what the business considerations are, what the trends are," Post said. "And because she's such a creative thinker, she's very solutions oriented, and I think she's able to work with clients who think out of the box because she's able to think out of the box and really support them."
Post was also quick to praise Heimann-Nunes as a creative thinker and said Nolan Heimann operates with a very good reputation in the industry.
"They're both really down to earth, easy to talk to," Post said of Nolan and Heimann-Nunes. "They've obviously been really successful, but that has not tarnished their friendliness or their ability to be authentic."