Toby Butterfield is a partner in the firm’s Litigation and Intellectual Property Groups. Mr. Butterfield has 20 years of experience litigating and counseling on copyright, trademark, defamation, digital media, and commercial matters. He has been listed as a New York area “Super Lawyer” for Intellectual Property Litigation by Super Lawyers magazine since 2007.

Mr. Butterfield’s clients include media and entertainment companies, and designers and manufacturers of luxury goods. His recent work includes successfully resolving a longstanding dispute for literary agency McIntosh & Otis concerning commissions generated by “To Kill a Mockingbird” and other well known works; negotiating a complex technology deal for a well known New York real estate group; successfully representing the publisher of Business Traveler magazine in a trademark dispute with a competitor; and obtaining emergency injunctive relief for HIT Entertainment, Inc. -- owner of Barney®, Thomas the Tank Engine™ and Bob the Builder® -- effectively shutting down the manufacturer and distributor of counterfeit adult costumes of those well known characters.

Mr. Butterfield writes and speaks frequently for bar associations and industry organizations. He teaches a regular class on Media & Entertainment Law at Cardozo Law School, and has been co-chair of CMJ’s Entertainment Business Law Seminar and a regular presenter there since 2011. He regularly authors articles such as “Coming to Terms: Hidden Traps for Media Entities and Producers in Website Terms of Use” for the ABA’s Landslide magazine, and the first chapter of “Counseling Content Providers in the Digital Age” on defamation for the New York State Bar Association. He writes for Media Law Resource Center publications on Fair Use, Copyright Termination, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and other hot topics and speaks regularly for the Practicing Law Institute and at legal and television industry conferences all over the world.

Mr. Butterfield recently chaired the New York City Bar’s Committee on Entertainment Law, and previously chaired the City Bar’s Committee on State Courts of Superior Jurisdiction and WNYC Radio’s Community Advisory Board. Mr. Butterfield has appeared on BBC World News, been quoted by The New York Times and was the Administrator of the New York State Supreme Court Screening Panel for Democratic Party judicial candidates in New York County.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Butterfield was a partner at Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP. He graduated from Oxford University, the Inns of Court School of Law in London, and received an LL.M. from New York University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.