MODELS
Stokes Law Group · Models & Talent · Legacy · Wealth · Protection
Your image is your business.
Protect it like one.
Protect it like one.
A booking is not a career. A career is what you build across every contract, every image usage, every agency relationship, and every dollar you actually collect. We review, negotiate, and draft the agreements that keep your image, your income, and your independence in your own hands.
Book a Strategy SessionThe Cost of Signing Without Counsel
Four traps that quietly cost models their careers.
Modeling is one of the few industries where the talent is expected to sign complex commercial contracts without legal review, sometimes before they are even eighteen. Every agreement is drafted to protect the agency, the brand, or the photographer. Here is what we see on the other side of the table.
Risk 01
Agency Debt Cycles
Many agencies advance costs (test shoots, comp cards, travel, portfolio development) that get deducted from future earnings. Models can work for years before crossing into positive territory, and some finish their careers still owing the agency money.
Risk 02
Usage Rights Buried in Fine Print
A one-day shoot can grant usage rights that last a decade, cover unlimited territories, and include categories (digital, print, out-of-home, broadcast) never discussed on set. Models routinely discover their image is being used years later for campaigns they never agreed to.
Risk 03
Non-Payment for Completed Shoots
Non-payment is chronic in modeling. Small brands, indie photographers, and even established production companies routinely fail to pay invoices for weeks or months. Without a properly structured contract and a written payment mechanism, recovery is often uneconomical.
Risk 04
Mother Agency Exclusivity Traps
Mother agency agreements often lock models into worldwide exclusivity with a percentage taken from every booking, forever. Some models cannot work in specific markets, or with specific booking agencies, without their mother agency's approval and continued cut.
Wondering if any of these risks are in a contract you have already signed, or one you are about to? A Strategy Session is where we find out.
See How It Works →Where You Are In Your Career
Five stages, five sets of legal needs.
Model careers move fast, and the legal priorities shift with each stage. What a new face needs is different from what a working model needs, which is different from what an established or transitioning model needs.
01
New Face
Signing your first mother agency agreement, understanding development costs, deciding whether to sign at all. Priority: making sure your first contract does not trap you for the rest of your career.
02
Developing
Booking your first campaigns, managing agency relationships across multiple markets, tracking usage rights. Priority: contract discipline before the deals get bigger.
03
Working Model
Consistent bookings, multiple concurrent contracts, image usage across many campaigns. Priority: retainer counsel that can move fast on incoming deals and manage rights across your growing catalog.
04
Established
Named campaigns, direct brand relationships, endorsement offers, cosmetics and beauty deals. Priority: protecting your name, negotiating from strength, building loan-out structures.
05
Transition Stage
Pivoting into creator, brand founder, actor, or entrepreneur roles. Priority: preserving image rights from your modeling catalog while building the next phase of your career.
Not sure which stage you are in or what your priorities should be? That is exactly what a Strategy Session is for.
Start a Conversation →LEGACY
The Counsel Relationship
The Model Counsel Retainer.
This is not a bulk-discount package. It is a counsel relationship. Modeling is one of the most contract-heavy industries in the world, with multiple concurrent bookings, agencies across territories, and image usage decisions that echo for years. When contracts move at the speed of a booking call, you need an attorney who already knows your career.
What comes with the relationship
The Model Counsel Retainer is annual counsel for working models and career professionals. It combines contract review capacity with the kind of ongoing legal relationship that most models never have access to at a boutique price point.
What the retainer includes:
- Priority scheduling for all incoming contracts, bookings, and deals
- Quarterly career and portfolio review sessions
- Direct attorney email access, no gatekeeping
- Unlimited brief questions under 15 minutes each
- Right of first review on any deal within 24 business hours
- Five (5) full contract reviews per calendar year
- Retainer-client rates on all additional reviews beyond the included five
- Coordination with your mother agency, booking agencies, and business manager as needed
- Annual image rights audit including current usage windows, territories, and buyout status
Annual Retainer
Model Counsel Retainer
$18,000
Per Year · Payable Annually or Quarterly
Discuss the Retainer
What is not on this list is the part that matters most. An attorney who already knows your career when the next booking lands.
Project-Based Services
Model packages for specific deals.
If a retainer relationship is not the right fit yet, we offer project-based reviews and negotiation services at flat-fee pricing. Every engagement begins with a Strategy Session to confirm scope.
Agency Agreements
Mother Agency, Booking Agency, and Management
Mother Agency Agreement Review
Full review of your mother agency contract including commission structure, exclusivity zones, term length, development costs, and termination rights.
$2,500Flat Fee
Booking Agency Agreement Review
Review of a booking agency contract including commission (typically 20%), territory, exclusivity, sunset commission clauses, and payment collection terms.
$2,500Flat Fee
Loan-Out Corporation Setup
Formation of your loan-out entity (typically LLC or S-corp) for tax planning, liability protection, and cleaner contract structuring. Includes formation documents and operating agreement.
$3,500Flat Fee + State Filing
Multi-Agency Structure Advisory
Strategic review of your worldwide agency structure across multiple markets, including exclusivity zones, revenue splits, and coordination between mother and booking agencies.
$4,000Flat Fee
Shoot & Campaign Agreements
Bookings, Editorials, and Campaigns
Standard Shoot Contract Review
Review of a shoot contract up to 20 pages including day rate, usage window, territory, image categories, and cancellation and weather terms.
$2,500Up to 20 pages
Major Campaign or Brand Deal
Comprehensive review of a longer or more complex brand campaign, ambassador contract, or multi-shoot agreement.
$4,00021+ pages
Cosmetics or Skincare Endorsement
Review of cosmetics, skincare, or beauty endorsement contract including product exclusivity, morals clause, social media requirements, and product liability shifting.
$3,500Flat Fee
Nudity or Intimacy Rider Review
Review of contract terms concerning nudity, semi-nudity, intimacy, or otherwise sensitive content including consent, retouching rights, and revocation options.
$2,500Flat Fee
Model Release Drafting or Review
Drafting or reviewing a standard or custom model release for a specific shoot including grant of image use, term, and exceptions.
$1,500Flat Fee
Personal Appearance Agreement
Review of contract for public appearances, retail events, meet-and-greets, or brand activations including deliverables, exclusivity, and cancellation terms.
$3,500Flat Fee
Image Rights & Licensing
Usage, Buyouts, and Rights Management
Image Usage Agreement Review
Review of an image usage or buyout agreement including scope of use, territory, term length, exclusivity, and renewal or extension options.
$3,500Flat Fee
Image Rights Audit
Audit of your existing agreements to identify what image and usage rights you have granted, to whom, for how long, and in which territories, so you know what you own going forward.
$4,500Flat Fee
Content Licensing Agreement
Drafting or reviewing agreements that license your existing images or content to third parties for commercial use, including stock photography and archival material.
$4,500Flat Fee
Add-On Services
Available with Any Package
Negotiation Representation
We engage directly with the other party's counsel and negotiate the deal on your behalf, including counterproposals, redline exchanges, and closing.
$3,500-$5,000Scope Set in Strategy Session
Pre-Litigation Demand (Unpaid Shoot)
Formal demand letter for unpaid shoot fees, kill fees, or usage licensing owed, positioned to resolve without filing suit.
$2,000Flat Fee
Pre-Litigation Resolution
Full pre-litigation resolution work including demand, negotiation, and settlement drafting, aimed at recovery without filing suit.
Starting $4,500Scope Set in Strategy Session
IMAGE
The Fight Every Model Must Win
Usage windows, territories, and the rights to your image.
Your image is the deliverable. Everything else, the shoot fee, the day rate, the travel, is the wrapper around the real product. Understanding image rights is not a legal specialty for someone else to worry about. It is the core competency of a working model, and the difference between a booking that pays once and one that pays for years.
Layer 01
Usage Windows
How long can the client use your image? Six months? Two years? Perpetuity? Usage windows are the single most important commercial term in most contracts, and they are frequently buried in generic language that sounds standard but is not.
Layer 02
Territory Rights
Regional? National? Worldwide? A campaign priced for a single country's use may end up running globally without additional compensation. Territory language must be negotiated up front, not discovered when the campaign expands.
Layer 03
Category Splits
Print, digital, out-of-home, social media, broadcast, in-store retail. Each category typically commands separate compensation. Contracts that grant "all media" rights for a print rate cost models compensation across every unpriced category.
Layer 04
Catalog and Buyout Rights
A full buyout ends future compensation. A catalog license may allow the client to store, reuse, and license your image internally forever. These structural terms determine whether a booking is a one-time payment or a career-long revenue stream.
If image usage language is in a contract in front of you right now, do not sign until you understand what you are agreeing to.
Start with a Strategy Session →The First Step
Start with a Strategy Session.
Before any engagement, every model starts here. One hour. One focused conversation. You leave with clarity on where you stand, what is at risk in any deal in front of you, and which engagement structure fits your career. This is the diagnostic that gets you to the right next step.
What we cover in your hour together
This is a diagnostic session, not a contract review. We assess your career position, identify risks in any deals you are considering, and recommend the right engagement structure for what you actually need. If you have a contract on the table, we will look at it together at a high level and flag concerns, but the line-by-line negotiation work happens under a separate engagement. The Strategy Session is how we figure out what that engagement should be.
- Diagnostic of your career position and legal exposure
- High-level look at any contract you are considering, with red-flag identification
- Clear recommendation on which engagement tier or retainer fits your situation
- Coordination with your existing mother agency, booking agencies, or business manager if needed
- A written summary of our conversation sent within 48 hours
- Confidential and protected by attorney-client privilege
Strategy Session
One Hour. Full Clarity.
$500
60 Minutes · Via Zoom
Credit Toward Engagement
If you engage the Firm within fourteen (14) days, your $500 Strategy Session fee credits in full toward your first flat-fee deliverable or annual retainer.
Sessions held Monday through Thursday. Limited to ten per week.
Common Questions
What models actually ask.
Do I need an attorney if I already have a mother agency and a booking agency?+
Yes, and the roles are different. Your mother agency develops and represents you globally. Your booking agencies book jobs in specific markets. An attorney reviews the contracts for legal exposure, negotiates specific legal terms your agencies may not have leverage on, and represents your interests exclusively. Agencies earn commissions on your bookings, which is a legitimate business model but creates financial incentives that are not always aligned with yours. Your attorney has no such conflict.
What is the difference between a mother agency and a booking agency?+
A mother agency is your primary agency, typically the one that discovered or developed you. They represent you globally and often take a percentage (usually 10-20%) of every booking you get anywhere in the world, forever, even bookings from other agencies. A booking agency is a market-specific agency (New York, Paris, Milan, Tokyo, Miami) that books you for jobs in that specific market and takes their own commission (usually 20%) on top of the mother agency cut. Understanding the split between them is critical to knowing what you will actually be paid.
How is the Model Counsel Retainer different from paying per review?+
The retainer is not a bulk-discount package. It is a relationship. It includes five full contract reviews per year plus priority scheduling, direct email access, quarterly career reviews, unlimited brief questions, and an annual image rights audit. Working models with active bookings typically hit the value of the retainer within the first two or three deals, but the real value is the relationship: an attorney who already knows your career when the next booking lands.
I did a shoot and have not been paid. Can you help me collect?+
Yes. We offer a Pre-Litigation Demand package at $2,000 for a formal demand letter, and a Pre-Litigation Resolution package starting at $4,500 for full recovery work. Whether recovery is economical depends on how much is owed, who owes it, and what your contract says. We assess this during the Strategy Session so you know your options before you spend anything on collection.
What if I already signed something I should not have?+
Bring it to the Strategy Session. A post-signature review identifies your obligations, exposures, and potential exit paths. Not every bad contract is enforceable, and even enforceable contracts may have amendment or renegotiation opportunities. This is especially common with mother agency agreements signed by young models, where questions of understanding, consent, and parental involvement can affect enforceability.
I am under 18. Can you still work with me?+
Yes, with parental or legal guardian involvement. Contracts with minors have specific enforceability rules, and most modeling contracts with minors require parental signature and (in some cases) court approval. We work directly with parents and guardians to review agency agreements, shoot contracts, and endorsement deals, and we structure our engagements to protect the minor model's long-term interests.
Do you represent models outside Florida?+
Yes. Contract review, drafting, and negotiation for modeling matters is transactional legal work that does not require the model to be in Florida. Attorney Stokes is licensed in Florida, and matters governed by another state's law (New York, California, and Texas are common) may be handled directly, may involve local co-counsel, or may be scoped to Florida-based aspects of the deal, depending on the specifics. We confirm this during the Strategy Session.
What is a "TFP" or "test shoot" and are there legal issues?+
TFP (Trade for Prints, or Trade for Portfolio) and test shoots are unpaid shoots where models and photographers exchange work for images. Legally, they are still governed by a model release, which grants image use rights just like a paid shoot. The most common mistake is assuming that because no money changed hands, the model retains rights. That is not how model releases work. If you are doing tests or TFP shoots regularly, we recommend having a standard model release you use consistently to protect your rights.
Build Across Pillars
Your career connects to everything.
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If you also take principal or commercial acting work, our actor practice handles talent representation and performance contracts.
Visit Actors →
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Creators
For models building content platforms, brand deals, and creator economy revenue outside traditional modeling.
Visit Creators →
Related Practice
Brand Protection
Trademark your name. Protect your brand as a model. Own the marks that matter as you build your career.
Visit Brand Protection →
Related Practice
Contract Review
For contracts outside modeling and talent representation, our general contract practice handles the rest.
Visit Contract Review →
PROTECT IT
Ready When You Are
Your image. Your terms.
Book a Strategy Session and we will walk through your current situation, look at any contracts in front of you at a high level, and recommend the exact engagement that fits. One hour. Full clarity.
Book Your Strategy SessionLegacies are created, not inherited.