Allan Krasnick is one of Canada’s senior and most experienced entertainment and labour lawyers. He is senior counsel to Sequoia Legal LLP in Victoria and was most recently special advisor and legal counsel to the Premier of British Columbia. In his entertainment law practice, Mr. Krasnick has coordinated motion picture finance for third party producers, executive produced movies, represented film unions as a labour lawyer and First Nations as corporate, government relations and entertainment counsel. He has been in-house counsel to the film industry local of the Teamsters. Earlier, and for many years, he was Canadian labour and production counsel to both Universal Studios and Warner Brothers. He started the Union of BC Performers in 1990. As outside entertainment lawyer to the Government of British Columbia in the 1990’s, while counsel at the law firm Heenan Blaikie, Mr. Krasnick created the motion picture tax credits that originated in B.C. and have been implemented in scores of jurisdictions around the world.
A member of the Law Society of British Columbia since 1982, Mr. Krasnick has extensive experience as a business, tax, labour relations and legal affairs adviser to major studios, production companies, entertainment software developers, producers, broadcasters, banks, investors, advertising agencies, artists, indigenous organizations, and government. For more than 30 years, he has regularly advised members of British Columbia’s cabinet.
Mr. Krasnick has been production counsel on more than 100 feature films, television movies, and television series. He has produced nine movies. For many years, Mr. Krasnick sat on the board of directors of The Bridge Studios and BC Place Stadium. Mr. Krasnick has organized provincial trade missions to Los Angeles and has spoken frequently to audiences in Los Angeles and elsewhere on business, legal and labour topics relating to the Canadian film industry. He has been Canadian legal counsel to several major studios, and to the Hollywood-based Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers during the mid-1990’s formative period of the BC Council of Film Unions.
His labour relations career started with his articles for the late David Vickers, when he edited Mr. Vickers’ labour arbitrations, worked on the efforts to move patients out of mental institutions, and advised the future BC Supreme Court justice on public policy matters. He continued from there as the first in-house lawyer for the BC Government Employees Union. He followed that activity with a period as national executive director for Canada’s leading union of journalists and national organizer for the country’s principal actors’ guild: during those years, Mr. Krasnick spearheaded collective bargaining with Canadian broadcasters, producers, and the major Hollywood studios. It reflects Mr. Krasnick’s effectiveness and understanding that these same studios retained him as counsel to represent them on complex commercial and legal matters after his decision to enter private law practice.
Prior to starting his career in law, Mr. Krasnick was a newspaper editor and journalist, managing daily newspapers and writing a syndicated column from the B.C. legislative press gallery while still in his twenties.
Senior Counsel, Sequoia Legal LLP, current.
Special Advisor and Legal Counsel to the Premier of British Columbia, 2024.
Entertainment Lawyer, Sole Practitioner, Vancouver and Victoria, 2002 – 2024.
Senior Entertainment Counsel, Davis & Co. (now DLA Piper), Vancouver 1999 – 2002.
Entertainment Lawyer, Heenan Blaikie, Lawyers, Vancouver 1995 – 1999.