<\/p>\n
\n\tDixon Q. Dern, the longtime entertainment attorney who worked at CBS<\/a>, Desilu<\/a> and United Artists TV; who represented clients such as Desi Arnaz and the Television Academy; who often served as an arbitrator for labor disputes; who helped incorporate CAA<\/a> and who was a pioneer in syndicated sales and pre-financing for TV, died on July 19. That, according to an obituary posted by Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills. He was 97.<\/p>\n \n\tDern began his career as an in-house counsel for United Artists Television, Desilu and CBS before founding his own firm where he represented Desi Arnaz, the Television Academy, Village Roadshow, the Bob Hope Estate and many others.<\/p>\n \n\tDern was often at the nexus of power in Hollywood.<\/p>\n \n\tOne day in the mid-seventies, Michael Ovitz showed up, closed Dern\u2019s office door and told him he and his associates would be back for a meeting the next day. The subject of the proposed meeting was not disclosed.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe next day five guys showed up,\u201d said Dern. \u201cIt was the five founders of CAA. They were basically the top five guys in William Morris\u2019 television division and they told me they were leaving William Morris and wanted to set up a new agency. So I formed a corporation. They rented a little office with fold-up desks fold-up tables. We did their legal work for them for about six months.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDern often served as an arbitrator under various industry collective bargaining agreements, specifically the DGA and WGA. <\/p>\n \n\tDern represented the Television Academy for decades. He played a key role in settling a long-simmering feud between its Los Angeles and New York contingents.<\/p>\n \n\tFrom the Academy\u2019s official history<\/a>:<\/p>\n \n\tBy 1976, the situation had exacerbated to the point where, at the semiannual official national board meeting at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, each chapter designated five-man negotiation teams to meet separately from the rest of the attendees for a two-day summit convened to broker a detente.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tThe Los Angeles contingent consisted of Michael Baugh, Dixon Dern<\/a>, Hank Rieger, the late Bob Sweeney and then Los Angeles chapter president\u00a0Larry Stewart<\/a>, who was chairman of the negotiating committee. <\/em><\/p>\n \n\tReaching a settlement took far longer than two days.<\/p>\n \n\tAgain, from the Academy\u2019s official history:<\/p>\n \n\tAfter much legal wrangling, the two groups agreed to sever in 1977. According to the terms of the dissolution, both would retain their national status, with the group in Los Angeles retaining its original name, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and the New York body retaining the name of National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n \n\tEach group would also control specific award shows: the Los Angeles-based Television Academy kept the Primetime Emmys, and jurisdiction over the Los Angeles chapter; the New York entity retained the Daytime, News, Documentary and Sports Emmys, as well as jurisdiction over the 19 chapters throughout the U.S. that produced their own local Emmy events.<\/em><\/p>\n \n