Monte de-Leon believes clients deserve the substantive work product of a national firm without the bureaucracy or pricing that comes with one.
Monte’s core practice areas are entertainment and digital media, business formation, intellectual property, outside general counsel, and regulatory compliance, with a complementary focus on real estate. Most clients engage him across more than one of these areas, which is by design — when the same lawyer has full context on the contract, the entity, the IP, and the lease, the work is faster, cheaper, and substantially less likely to surface conflicts down the road.
Monte went to Harvard Law and began his career at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where he advised clients including General Electric and General Motors on corporate matters and was part of the team that stood up Genworth Financial as an independent company. He then moved to O’Melveny & Myers, where he represented J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. in protecting the Harry Potter franchise against online trademark and copyright infringement — a body of work that still informs how he approaches IP enforcement strategy for clients building brands today. In 2009, Monte earned a Master of Science in Real Estate from NYU and spent three years inside a development firm overseeing a 110-acre commercial project with a roughly $330 million budget, including the implementation of a tax increment financing district that required a change in state law. From 2015-2020 Monte was involved in the planning and development of a 100-acre active adult community of 300 senior homes and an adjacent assisted living facility, projected at $100 million.
That mix — big-law corporate and IP rigor on one side, real estate and development experience on the other — is unusual and is the reason clients tend to stay with him for years. Monte works directly with founders, principals, and family-office decision makers; he does not staff matters out, and the lawyer reviewing your contract is the one who drafted it. His approach with clients is plain-spoken, business-aware, and oriented toward decisions rather than memos. He will tell you what he thinks you should do, and why.
Outside the firm, Monte serves as an Associate Board Member of the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) and has appeared as a legal commentator on Court TV’s Catherine Crier Live. He’s a native Californian who has called Manhattan home since 2002.
