Variety’s Legal Impact Report 2022: Top Attorneys Winning Cases and Making Deals in Hollywood

LITIGATION

Partner

Glaser Weil

As a law student, Baum never thought about becoming an entertainment attorney. Today he’s in arbitration with several cases — contract disputes, accounting and profit participation issues, defamation, misconduct accusations, and more — involving celebrity clients and entertainment companies. His work requires discretion, especially during arbitration. Baum enjoys a challenge. Having represented clients on both sides of the #MeToo movement, he’s glad to see that those cases are beginning to change the industry for the better.

Where’s the truth? “People live in the land of their perceptions,” Baum says. “What people perceive and what they believe is 10 times more important to them than what the actual truth is. They’re just stuck on their perception.”

LITIGATION

Partner

Kasowitz Benson Torres

Berlinski, a talent-disputes expert, found himself in a swirl of publicity recently via his representation of Scarlett Johansson in her fight with Disney. The actor complained that Disney forced its subsidiary Marvel to release “Black Widow,” in which she starred, on its Disney Plus streaming service simultaneously with the film’s release in theaters, violating a commitment to an exclusive theatrical release and resulting in devaluation of Johansson’s compensation, which was to be largely based on the film’s total box office. Significantly, despite Johansson having signed an agreement with Disney to arbitrate her dispute with the Mouse House in a confidential hearing, Berlinski managed to inflict widely publicized public embarrassment upon the studio, leading to a significant payout for the actor.

Sign of the times: “What a lot of folks are dealing with now is how to compensate talent for the value that they’re bringing to a project when the metrics we’ve used historically to value that talent’s work are changing so dramatically,” Berlinski says.

LITIGATION

General Counsel, Exec VP, Business & Legal Affairs

Partners Entertainment and Media Litigation Group

Partners Entertainment and Media Litigation Group

Partner, Commercial Litigation

Venable

Venable’s Entertainment & Media Litigation Group has taken on cases for clients such as ViacomCBS, Showtime, Fox Digital Entertainment and several A-list celebrities. Much of Brenner’s work includes anti-SLAPP cases and idea submission claims; in recent months he’s handled confidential matters for Hydra, ViacomCBS and Showtime. Briggs — who also serves as president of Los Angeles’ Board of Police Commissioners —obtained $15 million in damages in singer Kristina Buch’s case against producer Noel “Detail” Fisher, and reps numerous high-profile performers in cases spanning copyright and contractual issues, endorsement deals, and other litigation. Fink spends a considerable amount of time on confidential, alternative dispute resolutions for celebrity clients, and represented DMG in its dispute with its former GM, Chris Fen- ton. Well-versed in copyright, trademark, and general business matters, Rosenberg also provides threat-management services to high-profile individuals dealing with stalking and harassment.

Fight for Rights: Anti-SLAPP matters are important to Brenner, who fights for First Amendment rights. “When litigating idea submission claims, it is never lost on me that I’m fighting for someone’s reputation. It’s much more than a matter of money when someone accuses my client of dishonesty or idea theft. You’d better be able to back it up if you are going to make such a serious claim.”

LITIGATION

Partners

Lavely & Singer

Brettler defended Britain’s Prince An- drew in a now-resolved misconduct claim; and got fraud charges tossed for Kevin O’Leary of “Shark Tank.” Brettler also reps Armie Hammer and Chris Noth facing allegations. He filed a defamation lawsuit for client David Portnoy of Barstool Sports. Weinsten won and defended an injunction for client studio executives asserting extortion by Charlotte Kirk, the actor whose name was associated in multiple Hollywood sex scandals; and defends using the Coachella name for a client of a California native tribe. Weinsten’s other clients include Digital Domain, Gucci, TV executives Deirdre and Scott Gurney, Paris Hilton, TV reporter Maria Menounos, Ben Silverman’s Propagate Content, and commercials house Tool of North America.

Copyright complexities: Weinsten sees an epidemic of copyright claims made by photographers against celebrities for merely posting photos of themselves on social media. Among possible responses, Weinstein says, “if the celebrities contributed artistically to the final image [having initially collaborated with the photographer], they can claim co-ownership of the copyright.”

LITIGATION

Partner; Co-Chair, Communications & Media Industry Group; Co-Chair, Diversity & Inclusion Initiative

Partner; Co-Chair, Communications & Media Industry Group; Co-Chair, Commercial Litigation Practice Group

Partner; Co-Chair, Music Industry Group; Vice Chair, Sports Industry Group

Partner; Chair, Music Industry Group

Covington & Burling

DelNero advised Univision in its $4.8 billion, Spanish-language TV mega merger creating TelevisaUnivision. For this, the Washington D.C.-based attorney worked a myriad of regulatory approvals. Kamin repped China-based ByteDance prevailing in court rulings versus a federal executive order banning its TikTok in the U.S. Kamin further defended the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee by getting abuse claims dismissed for actions by non-USOPC people; and also repped Nexstar pursuing two cable TV operators for breach of carriage contract. Kamin, Sahni and Sperling repped re- cord labels and publishers pursuing music piracy claims against two inter- net services providers. Kamin and Sahni defended CBS Interactive in an Illinois class-action case seeking cable franchise fees from streaming services. Sperling reps Sony Music Enter- tainment in music royalties disputes. Kamin and Sahni are based in Century City; Sperling in New York.

Time to update: Sahni says conflicts periodically erupt from contracts created before the streaming age, including municipalities seeking local cable TV franchise fees from out-of-town streamers. Collecting local taxes “doesn’t match the economics or reality of streaming,” says Sperling. Sahni adds that applying dated contracts can be “trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”

LITIGATION

Partner and Co-Chair, Media, Entertainment and Technology Practice Group, Century City

Partner and Co-Chair, Global Trial Practice Group, New York

Partner and Co-Chair, Trade Secrets Practice Group, Los Angeles

Partner, New York

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Edelman, Snyder, Samplin and Ascher defended AMC Network in “The Walking Dead” profit participation dispute, winning a ruling three weeks ago, shrinking one plaintiff’s case. Edelman and Samplin repped Verizon Media, Yahoo and Oath prevailed over image-use claims. Repped by Snyder and Ascher, Bob Dylan and Universal Music defeated a financial claim by a Dylan song collaborator.

Edelman defends Sony Music Entertainment from musicians seeking to reclaim music rights; and TV host Rachel Maddow, MSNBC, and corporate siblings in an anti-SLAPP dismissal over defamation. Snyder got Tinder founders and early employees a $441 million settlement; other clients include Facebook, Lady Gaga, Madison Square Garden and Bruce Springsteen. Samplin won a dismissal for Verizon’s Oath over trade-secret misappropriation claims; and defended cosmetics brand Huda Beauty in an infringement claim.

Ascher says talent sometimes claims additional compensation from usage by in-house streaming platforms, if not contemplated in the talent’s original employment contracts. “We expect more disputes around that,” he says. Edelman and Samplin are in Los Angeles; while Snyder and Ascher are in New York.

Streaming model risks: Samplin wonders if big streamers doing talent buyouts of backends assuming a prospective show will be a hit “is a sustainable model as their content proliferates.”

LITIGATION

Partner

Freedman + Taitelman

Freedman is a go-to guy in crisis litigation to recoup pay and reputations for those discharged from high-profile jobs: Chris Cuomo exiting CNN, Mike Richards leaving TV game show “Jeopardy!” and Chris Harrison departing “The Bachelor” long-running TV series. The Los Angeles-based attorney also defends Quentin Tarantino selling NFTs based on his “Pulp Fiction” screenplay. Freedman additionally handles online influencers and collateral issues in divorces.

Look before you leap: Freedman says Hollywood employers face legal peril firing personnel based on accusations alone. “Networks and studios need to be very careful when they decide to become the judge and jury,” he cautions.

LITIGATION

Partners

Freedman + Taitelman

Hardy repped “21 Jump Street” screenwriter Michael Bacall recouping professional fees from an unlicensed attorney, talent agent Richard Lawrence defeating a $22 million lawsuit and musical artist FKA Twigs pressing a boyfriend abuse matter. Kaplan de- fended Quentin Tarantino selling NFTs based on “Pulp Fiction” and advises sports agent Ben Dogra over his CAA separation. Marsh repped Nicole Young in her civil action against her ex-husband, Dr. Dre, reportedly receiving a $100 million settlement, and also talent manager Eric Podwall seeking unpaid commissions from Smokey Robinson. Troupson advised Chris Harrison in settlement for departing as host of ABC Television’s “The Bachelor” and various Hollywood executives for financial settlements from job exits. The litigation foursome are in Los Angeles. While “industry consolidation” is often cited for job cuts, Marsh says that justification doesn’t always hold up under scrutiny. “The universe of jobs may be shrinking, but that doesn’t excuse employers from complying with labor and employment laws,” he says.

Exposing abuses: Hardy adds that job- protection laws and regulations are being strengthened in part because Hollywood’s #MeToo movement ex- posed abuses. “[Events in] the entertainment and media industry actually resulted in a change of public policy,” he says.

LITIGATION

Chair, Entertainment Labor Group

Loeb & Loeb

Bierman is among the few labor experts who represent film, television, digital companies, broadcasting and cable networks, distribution companies, brands, and advertising agencies in guild, union, and other labor matters. She worked closely with Black Label Media and Bunim-Murray Productions, along with the various guilds, to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, while working on agreements in con- nection to shutting down and then re-opening productions, as well as working with Time’s Up on various safety guidelines.

Pandemic impact: “COVID-19 contin- ued to be very challenging for produc- tions, not just from a physical safety perspective, but also from a psycho- logical and political perspective,” she says. “The industry’s ability to cope with COVID-19 protocols on produc- tions has evolved substantially.”

LITIGATION

Managing Partner

Partner

Kendall Brill & Kelly

During the pandemic, Kendall and Kelly found themselves settling more cases through arbitration and fewer through trial. The veteran litigators (along with partner Nary Kim) began 2022 by scoring an arbitration win for CAA in a $55 million suit brought by film financier Worldview Entertainment, securing a dismissal of all claims, and their current caseload includes defending Paws Incorporated (owner of the Garfield character) in a pending arbitration with Alcon Media Group. Kelly, along with partner Nary Kim, also worked on a deal for Paramount Pictures subsidiary Paramount Licensing Inc. in a $20 million-plus breach of contract case against a former licensing partner in connection with the development of Paramount hotels and a theme park outside London.

Trial by Zoom: “I think the judges preferred to see attorneys’ faces without having the mask in the way, rather than having people live in the courtroom covered with a mask,” Kendall says.

LITIGATION

Founding Partner

Partners

Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley

Decades of collaboration have forged strong bonds between Kinsella and Kump, who have worked together for more than 30 years. Such teamwork is behind much of the firm’s success. Kinsella paired with Fitzgerald to negotiate a landmark $200 million settlement — one of Hollywood’s largest — in Frank Daranbont and CAA’s long-running “The Walking Dead” profit participation case against AMC. Kinsella and Fitzgerald collaborated on several profit participation, vertical integration and licensing deals. Kump, who has long represented the Kardashian and Jenner families, oversaw a large number of confidential cases in the past year, and teamed with Fitzgerald on entertainment litigation for HBO Latin America. Kump also played a key role in securing client MRC a nearly $31 million award in its arbitration case against Kevin Spacey for damages caused by the actor’s conduct when working on “House of Cards.”

Divide and conquer: Each attorney possesses skills that complement his counterpart’s. Says Kump: “Dale is able to navigate the audit process in order to litigate claims for numerous long-running shows. He stands up to the studios on behalf of creators. [I’m] a staunch advocate for clients … and fight tooth and nail to protect IP. Chad has done a great job of handling confidential mat- ters for talent in arbitration and helping talent lawyers understand the arbitration process.”

LITIGATION

Partner

Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp

A copyright expert and co-chair of the Entertainment and IP Litigation Practice Group, Lepera has worked as a litigator and strategic adviser on some of the music industry’s landmark contemporary disputes. Most notably, Lepera served as Katy Perry’s lead counsel during the “Dark Horse” copyright infringement suit, scoring a crucial and victorious reversal of a jury verdict on a motion for judgment as a matter of law.

Always something fresh: Despite decades of experience, Lepera says she enjoys learning new things every day and remains “intrigued by the complex legal doctrines that are front and center in the business.”

LITIGATION

Chair, Entertainment & Media Litigation Group

Partners, Entertainment and Media Litigation Group

Paul Hastings

This trio of attorneys reps major studios and clients in some of the most notable negotiations throughout the industry. Godley represented Warner- Media in the second phase investigation of the alleged misconduct on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” and provided next steps guidance (winter and spring 2021). Godley also reps social-media client Sidetalk, an Instagram show with more than 5 million followers and more than 500 million unique views across platforms, in ongoing copyright and trademark disputes. Pearl, a go-to First Amendment attorney, led a team that advised Activision in defamation-related lawsuits and managed a team that gained a full dis- missal of antitrust claims relating to the Steam videogame platform. Marenberg is repping ABC Television and Disney over challenges to their COVID-19 vaccine mandate in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. He’s also repping Pixar over defense of fraud and breach of contract claims regarding “Onward,” and has already gained a dismissal of a separate lawsuit that alleged copyright claims relating to the film.

Applying expertise: “Our practices overlap and then we all have areas of emphasis,” Marenberg says. “The three of us have a lot of knowledge together and when cases come in we think about how to handle them and collaborate.”

LITIGATION

Partners

Davis Wright Tremaine

New York-based McNamara and Strom are preeminent defenders of the First Amendment. In recent months they beat a $95 million defamation suit brought against Sacha Baron Cohen and Showtime for their series “Who Is America?” by former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Ray Moore, and won the affirmation of a dismissal of a copyright infringement and libel-in- fiction lawsuit by Wall Street performance court Denise Shull over Show- time’s “Billions.” More recently, they successfully defended Netflix and the producers of the docuseries “Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich” in an $80 million defamation and breach of contract suit brought by attorney Alan Dershowitz that was dropped in March.

Chilling effect: “There aren’t many successful defamation cases, but we’re seeing more and more of them brought by Russian oligarchs and the whole Trump administration, and they have the top lawyers in the world that make you spend years and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars defending your work,” says Strom.

LITIGATION

Founding Partners

Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae

LITIGATION

L.A. Managing Partner; Chair, Entertainment & Media Litigation

Partner, Entertainment & Media Litigation; Deputy General Counsel

Partner, Entertainment & Media Litigation

Katten Muchin Rosenman

Modabber is a trusted adviser to some of the world’s most recognized musicians, including Trent Reznor, Stevie Wonder, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Min Jin Lee, Lil Nas X and Celine Dion and places a big emphasis on helping to control the rights to his clients’ output. Halberstadter is a go-to-lawyer for intellectual property disputes involving major movie and TV studios, production companies, and streaming services, working with heavy-hitter clients including ViacomCBS, Showtime, Starz and Lionsgate. And Weiner handles cases involving copyright, contract, ac- counting, and business tort claims, as well as personal claims against entertainers, directors and professional athletes, working with clients including NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Endemol Shine Group.

Music isn’t free: “There’s been a massive increase in the amount of unlicensed music being used on social media platforms that needs to be addressed and stabilized,” Modabber says. “People still aren’t clear that music isn’t free, particularly when songs are incorporated into social-media marketing campaigns.”

LITIGATION

Partner; Chair, Litigation Dept

Greenberg Glusker

This year, Moss represented director Rian Johnson in a dispute with his former agent and got a copyright infringement suit dismissed against NBCUniversal Media, Jerry Seinfeld, and Stacey Snider over “Bee Movie.” But the case he found most interesting was a wiretapping accusation against a Barstool Sports reporter that he argued before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Adjusting with the times: About NFT and copyright issues, Moss says: “As technology changes and people find ways to monetize intellectual property, lawyers like me need to make sense of how it fits into a set of laws that obviously were not written with any of this in mind. To be on the forefront of evolving modes of entertainment and communication is a pretty exciting thing.”

LITIGATION

Partner; Trial Practice Chair; Firm Vice Chair

Partner; Co-Head, Entertainment, Sports & Media Group

Partners

O’Melveny & Myers

O’Melveny’s team of entertainment litigators is led by Petrocelli, who has been in the news for repping CNN in its dismissal of anchor Chris Cuomo and for repping NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt in a $2.85 billion lawsuit filed by SmileDirectClub for alleged defamation. Lens worked with Petrocelli to successfully squelch a copyright termination effort that threatened to derail a reboot of Fox’s “Predator” franchise, then filed a series of suits on behalf of Marvel and Disney to combat recent moves by the estates or relatives of Marvel writers and artists seeking copyright termination rights on characters including Spider-Man, Iron Man and Thor. Working with Petrocelli and Lens, Godesky helped Marvel and Disney in the resolution of Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit regarding the distribution of “Black Widow.” She also serves as co-lead counsel defending singer-songwriter Kesha in a lawsuit brought by her former producer Dr. Luke, while Marroso is the co-lead counsel repping Global Rights Music, a startup advocating for composers including Bruno Mars and Smokey Robinson, in an ongoing antitrust suit against a coalition of 10,000 radio stations.

Trending litigation: “Copyright termination and issues around the streaming of content on affiliated platforms will continue to dominate the negotiations and disputes in the industry for the foreseeable future,” Petrocelli says.

LITIGATION

Partner; Co-Chair, Entertainment, Sports & Media Industry Group

Partners

Latham & Watkins

Putnam repped the Assn. of Talent Agents and separately Intl. Creative Management for different matters in the now-resolved packaging fees labor dispute, and the ATA for follow-up. Putnam also works with Ellison and Washington on the following litigation, and all three are in Century City. Ellison advises the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. defending against claims and as- sisting its restructuring amid industry pressure; Madison Square Garden Co. in a dispute over the Los Angeles Forum sale; MGM and Mark Burnett Productions on various matters; and Johnny Mathis defending against liability claims involving employment law. Washington represents Beyoncé, her BGK Trademark Holdings and Parkwood Entertainment in a variety of matters. Washington also defends Miramax and former the Weinstein Co. board members in defeating Harvey Weinstein-related claims.

Day of reckoning: Putnam expects the U.S. Supreme Court to soon revisit free speech protections. “A day of reckoning is coming as a result of our societal movement from real news to clickbait,” Putnam says. “It’s something everyone should be watching closely.”

LITIGATION

Co-Leader, Global Commercial Litigation & Disputes practice; Managing Partner, L.A. office

Partners

Senior Managing Associate

Sidley Austin

As co-leader of Sidley’s global commercial litigation and disputes practice, managing partner of its Los Angeles office, and head of the Greater Los Angeles Litigation group, Ransom is the connective tissue of this powerful team. Clients include UMG, Capitol Records, Rhino Entertainment and Warner Records. Many of their cases could impact the music industry for decades to come. Highlights: Ransom, Commons and De Lilly represented UMG and Capitol in a putative class action brought by original Beach Boys member David Marks, claiming an underpayment of royalties associated with streaming of recordings in other countries; the court granted Sidley’s motion to dismiss Marks’ First Amended complaint. Gilford, De Lilly and Ransom are currently representing UMG Recordings and Capitol Records in a putative class action regarding a provision of the Copyright Act that allows authors to terminate a grant under certain circumstances after 35 years. Ransom obtained an order narrowing the case, which is now in the discovery phase.

Finding compensation: “It took the music industry a little while to figure out how to successfully monetize digital exploitation of music,” Ransom says. “The Napster days and the challenges of file sharing haven’t entirely gone away. Nonetheless, I think the music industry has been particularly successful in finding a way to distribute its music but to get compensated for it through streaming.”

LITIGATION

Principal Shareholder

Greenberg Traurig

The former federal prosecutor and prominent showbiz litigator entered national headlines recently through his representation of Britney Spears in her conservatorship dispute. Over the years his work has spanned a broad range of cases and has touched the lives of the industry’s foremost players, including clients Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steven Spielberg, Keanu Reeves, Sean Penn, as well as Meta/Facebook and Verizon. In the philanthropic arena, Rosengart serves as General Counsel for the non-profit Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), handling it on a pro bono basis. CORE was founded by Penn in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. It now works globally and its most recent efforts have focused on combatting COVID-19 worldwide and establishing a presence in Poland in connection with the Ukrainian refugee crisis.

Fighting injustice: Rosengart, who is Variety’s 2022 Power of Law honoree, says he repped Spears because “I was concerned that she had been deprived of certain civil or fundamental liberties, even as she was earning hundreds of millions of dollars as a performer, from which others were benefitting,”

LITIGATION

Partner; Co-Chair of Matrimonial & Family Law Practice Group

Blank Rome

The daughter of a successful trial lawyer, Royce abandoned corporate law early in her career to enter one of the most highly personal areas of the legal profession: matrimonial law. Recently, she was in the news for representing Arnold Schwarzenegger in the final stages of his divorce from Maria Schriver. While client confidentiality precludes her from mentioning other cases, public records show that she’s handled recent marriage dissolutions for Channing Tatum, Jeff Garlin and Forest Whitaker.

Importance of the pre-nup: “You’re going into the business of marriage together, and you have to be clear in terms of what your respective rules and rights are, because you have to be equal,” she says.

LITIGATION

Partners

Pryor Cashman

With the National Music Publishers Assn. and Nashville Songwriters’ Assn. Intl. among its clients, the Pryor Cashman team is knee deep in wrangling with DSPs before the Copyright Royalty Board over interactive streaming rates determined for the current 2018- 22 term as well those of the next. Scibilia also won a dismissal for Universal Music Group in TufAmerica’s dispute of DJ Kool’s “Let Me Clear My Throat” and represented Ariana Grande, UMG, Warner Music, BMG, Kobalt, Concord Music and others in a dispute over the singer’s “7 Rings.” Semel reps Warner Music in arbitration regarding Sirius XM’s use of music released prior to Feb. 15, 1972. He and Semel have also repped the Mechanical License Collective since that agency was created by the 2018 Music Modernization Act. Other key clients: Sony Music Publishing, ABKCO, peermusic and trade groups RIAA and Merlin.

Sharing the wealth: “In a marketplace increasingly dominated by companies where music distribution is just one of their business models, ensuring creator control and fair and transparent compensation requires not just unrelenting focus, but also a deep knowledge of all of the relevant industries,” Scibilia says.

TRANSACTIONAL

Founding Partner

Partner

Alter Kendrick & Baron

Alter’s New York-based, female-centric firm stands at the forefront of working with major and independent music publishers as well as private equity, repping Primary Wave in its acquisition of the estate of James Brown, Reservoir Media Management’s purchase of Tommy Boy Records and South Korean giant HYBE in its $1 billion merger with Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. Alter and partner Baron are also known for their work in helping artists regain publishing and master recording rights under the U.S. Copyright Act.

Content consolidation: Alter anticipates an increasing consolidation of content ownership in the music space “as more of the short-term investment vehicles driving the current boom reach the end of their life cycles and complete exits.” Adds Baron, “It is an honor to be entrusted by our clients to ensure that any risks are identified and mitigated, and that all parties to the transaction are happy at the conclusion of the deal.

TRANSACTIONAL

Partner; Co-Chair, Entertainment Transactions Practice; Co-Chair, Entertainment Finance Practice

Partner; Co-Chair, Entertainment Transactions Practice

Partner; Co-Chair, Entertainment Finance Practice

Associate, Media & Entertainment Group

DLA Piper

Ara and Sherman advised ZASH Global Media & Entertainment acquiring video platform Lomotif. Ara and Imp counseled TikTok launching its first NFTs and incubator TikTok for Black Creatives; the duo also repped Apple TV Plus expanding its production footprint. Ara advised South Korea’s Coupang Play snagging U.S. music and sports streaming rights; and CJ ENM for a K-Pop boyband competition TV series. Markman repped Michelle Rodriguez for a three-picture deal to star in a Dungeons & Dragons adaptation for Paramount; music publisher Concord producing a film/TV slate; actors Dylan Sprouse (“Beautiful Disaster”) and Cole Sprouse (“Moonshot”); and WOW (Women of Wrestling). Sherman assisted Concord acquiring Downtown’s music copyright portfolio, reportedly for more than $300 million; and Concord arranging $1 billion in debt financing. He also advised financer HarbourView Equity Partners in a $1 billion joint venture, and other transactions. The foursome is based in Century City.

Unlocking the metaverse: Ara feels that attorneys are the de facto guardians of the emerging metaverse, the communal online world. “Because every aspect of the metaverse is a human creation, intellectual property is the foundation,” Ara says. “What’s in the metaverse has to be respected, compensated and shared.”

TRANSACTIONAL

Vice Chairman, Global Entertainment & Media Practice

Greenberg Traurig

Black repped producer Lashan Browning (“Love & Hip Hop” TV franchise) for Paramount Global funding. The Century City attorney works executive separation contracts, including Kim Godwin departing CBS News (and joining ABC News). Other clients are Bill Gates/Gates Ventures, basketball’s Golden State Entertainment, Steve Harvey Global, Pokémon and toy giant Spin Master (“Paw Patrol”).

Holistic approach: Black feels dealmaking needs to be “holistic” amid societal demand for change and justice; evolving psychology from global strife; and desire for greater human interactions. “There isn’t a deal that I have done that hasn’t taken all of these factors into play,” he says.

TRANSACTIONAL

Partners

Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang

After more than a decade each at Del Shaw Moonves, Bobb and Dang were elevated to name partners in January. In the previous year, Bobb negotiated Lena Waithe’s overall deal with Warner Bros. TV, Michaela Jae Rodriguez’s leading role opposite Maya Rudolph in an untitled Alan Yang comedy for Apple TV Plus, David Oyelowo’s overall ViacomCBS deal, and Ava DuVernay’s pact to write, direct and produce the feature adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” Dang closed series deals for writer/co-creators Byron Wu (Netflix’s “The Brothers Sun”) and Jim Hecht (HBO’s “Winning Time”) and negotiated iHeart, Black Effect, Audible and Simon & Schuster Imprint pacts for Charlamagne tha God.

Brand accountability: “We’ve been pushing for a kind of a reverse morals clause where we hold the brands accountable for their actions so that it doesn’t put our client in a difficult position,” says Bobb.

TRANSACTIONAL

Partner, Co-Founder

Boyarski Fritz

Before launching his own firm, Boyarski served as Warner/Chappell Music’s senior vice president and general manager. There, he played a key role in orchestrating multimillion-dollar deals with Katy Perry, Paramore, Green Day and Lil Wayne. Now a founding partner of Boyarski Fritz, Boyarski has procured heavy-hitting clients including the estate of Prince, Earth Wind & Fire and Joan Jett, as well as Disney, AEG and BMG. Still, Boyarski is most proud of the adaptability of his practice. “One day I might be handling a major transaction for a Fortune 500 company … the next, a development deal that will help a young artist launch their career.”

TRANSACTIONAL

Partner & Leader, Manatt Entertainment

Manatt Entertainment Senior Partner

Manatt Entertainment Partners

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

With headquarters in Century City, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips’ Bromley leads the firm’s entertainment group for clients including Diplo, Pop Smoke, Jack White, Eagles, Migos, the John Lee Hooker estate and Odesza. A staunch advocate of creator rights, Jordan sees a major issue in “creators finally getting their fair share of music consumption revenues.” Custer, who reps Stephen Stills, Christopher Cross and Joni Mitchell, marks his proudest recent achievement “advising Neil Young in connection with the care of his music catalogs, including handling the controversies over its infringing use by the Trump campaign and his well publicized issues with Spotify.” Gilbert, whose clients include Peter Frampton, Jackson Browne, Wynonna Judd, Pat Benatar, kd lang, Kenny G, Lyle Lovett and Paul Williams, is intent on “getting artists and songwriters their fair share of streaming royalties” and “negotiating music publishing catalogs so that songwriters can benefit from their years of hard work.” The N.Y.-based Tashman’s clients include Papa Roach, Blondie and BMG Rights Management.

Cutting through: “Licensing of music on a worldwide basis has never been so wrought as it is right now,” Tashman says. “The arduous task hinders growth, innovation and, ultimately, income.”

TRANSACTIONAL

Partner, Chair, Litigation Dept.

Glaser Weil

Glaser reps numerous high-profile entertainment clients in contract negotiations and other confidential matters, and always goes to the mat to give them the best possible representation. Her client the Yucaipa Cos.’ breach-of-contract claims against Lantern Asset Management is set for trial before the Los Angeles Superior Court this summer. She’s also vigorously opposing Wildfire Productions’ suit against Team Lemieux/Pittsburgh Penguins.

Call of (jury) duty: Glaser says juries are good judges of liability. “Occasionally, they get a little screwy with dollars, because if you’re making $75,000 or $100,000 a year and somebody’s talking to you about $100 million, it’s Monopoly money, and most of us don’t think that high.”

TRANSACTIONAL

Partners, Entertainment, Sports & Media Practice

Latham & Watkins

Bruington worked financing and Offsay M&A for Endeavor selling its production business; and the duo repped Skydance Media for a big credit facility. Johnson and Offsay repped Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its $8.45 billion sale. Johnson and West handled Spotify for podcast/live audio content. Bruington advised eOne, Moonbug Entertainment and distributor A24 for credit facilities; and Media Res Studio on financing Apple TV Plus productions. Johnson repped equity investors relaunching Castle Rock Entertainment; Jägermeister investing in Dwayne Johnson’s Teremana tequila brand; and a micropayments-based Buzzer distributing sports content. Offsay advised MarVista Entertainment for its sale to Fox Entertainment; Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group buying broadcast TV stations; and South Korea’s JTBC Studios buying a majority stake in Hollywood producer Wiip. West repped investor KKR for its BMG music venture; Scooter Braun-led Ithaca Holdings for its merger; and Tom Brady in branding and joint ventures. The transactional four are based in Century City.

M&A boom: Offsay says that there’s a boom in “recent M&A activity for companies involved in premium scripted content — as well physical studio production locations, VFX businesses and non-scripted.” Johnson adds that investors are “traditional strategic media investors as well as private capital.”

TRANSACTIONAL

Partner

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

Chatham advises clients on production issues, management strength, deal structuring and new-media business, and is the go-to Hollywood dealmaker for consumer brands backed by celebrity influencers, who continue to shape the changing entertainment landscape. His clients are generating more than 800 hours of television per year, and are operating a number of digital platforms with tens of millions of users per month.

Rise of social: “Creators of content have more influence and direct access to audiences now than ever before. Box office performance and TV ratings are still relevant, but the capitalization of millions of followers on social media and other emerging platforms are just as important, if not more,” says Chatham.

TRANSACTIONAL

Partner

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton

Clark repped Lionsgate acquiring a majority of Spyglass Media Group’s feature film library that included a multi-year first-look television program deal. The Century City-based attorney advised loanDepot.com for naming rights to baseball’s Miami Marlins stadium, and also handles Spotify’s podcast division for talent and production company agreements. Other clients include Sony Pictures, ad agency Ogilvy & Mather, gamer Tetris and Amazon’s Twitch.

Fame and fortune: In a fresh wrinkle to using famous people to launch consumer brands, Clark notes that private equity firms are becoming funders of such ventures. To achieve success, Clark notes that “the celebrity has to really lean in” to the promotion.

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Partner, Entertainment Group

Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

Cleary represents Charla Lauriston and Rekha Shankar (NBC Television’s “Grand Crew”); writer-actor X Mayo (Amazon’s series “Yearly Departed”); actor Marcel Spears (CBS Television’s “The Neighborhood”); and Mandii B and Bridget Kelly for a seven-figure podcast distribution deal. Her comedy clients include Danielle Perez, Nori Reed, Sam Taggart, Jes Tom and Jeff Wright. Cleary finds Hollywood’s doors opening wider for people of color to create and sell content.

New awakening: “In the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the social unrest that followed, the consciousness of the industry shifted,” Cleary says.

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Founder, L.A. Entertainment Practice

Co-Chair, Atlanta Entertainment & Media Practice

Chairman, Global Entertainment & Media Practice

Greenberg Traurig

Just a partial list of the clients represented by these three attorneys offers a who’s who of both entertainment and social media titans. They range from Mel Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Katy Perry, Jerry Seinfeld and John Williams (the Los Angeles-based Cooper), to country stars Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, George Strait, Kacey Musgraves, Steve Martin and Little Big Town (the Atlanta-based Rosen), to Facebook, TikTok, Spotify, Equinox/ Soul Cycle, Verizon and Zoom (Rosenbloum, also in Atlanta). Cooper insists his proudest moment was his participation in, forming and representing the Recording Artist Coalition with Irving Azoff, Don Henley and Crow in repealing the RIAA’s legislative attempt to add “recordings” as a work for hire in the Copyright Act. “The development of accessible new technology will facilitate direct licensing, allowing artists to exploit their original creations to the public in ways we’ve never seen before.” Rosen adds: “Power is more in the hands of the creators than ever before but navigating all the possibilities is going to take long-term vision.”

Peering into the future: Rosenbloum, with his own tech-heavy client roster, says he see “the advent of the metaverse and NFTs, which are going to present numerous legal challenges for the music and entertainment industries over the next several years, in particular the licensing of rights.”

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Chair, Entertainment & Media Litigation Group

Ginsburg Daniels Kallis

Daniels crafts cutting-edge deals leveraging top mainstream talent and high-level digital influencers, helping put together celebrity campaigns for Swiss pharma company Idorsia (Jennifer Aniston, Taika Waititi) and online book platform Literati (Stephen Curry, Megan Rapinoe). He’s also expanded his firm’s crypto and NFT practice with clients including Bright Moments, a leader in IRL (in real life) NFT minting experiences.

Smart money on digital: “What someone spends on a digital [ad] campaign pales in comparison to a Super Bowl campaign, but I think a lot of brands now realize that they get a lot more bang for that buck by engaging with digital creative,” he says.

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Partner

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton

Darwell advised Amazon for its acquisition of MGM for $8.45 billion including insights to MGM’s film library; and Amazon acquiring certain exclusive rights to Kanye West/Drake’s “Free Larry Hoover” benefit concert. The Century City-based attorney also worked Troy Aikman’s investment/ partnership in beer startup Eight. Darwell’s other clients include Disney Television/Disney Television Animation; the estate of Doris Day; Focus Features; producer Gunpowder & Sky; Hemisphere Media Group; Meta Platforms (Facebook), and Nickelodeon.

Enter the live stream special: Darwell sees live-streamed music concerts planting huge footprints “hitting multiple platforms often accompanied with exclusive content and merchandise capsules. There can be specific limited-edition merchandise that celebrates the special.”

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Founder & Principal

The Davis Firm

The man who negotiated the sale of Barry Manilow’s song catalog to Hipgnosis in 2020 remained active in that arena last year, creating deals for catalog deals worth hundreds of millions for songwriters, artists and producers throughout 2021. His firm also crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s for chairs and presidents at music companies, including Jeannette Perez’s promotion to COO of Kobalt Music in October and Ryan Press’ rise to president of Warner Chappell Music in November. A true labor of love last year was the superstar-filled We Love NYC Homecoming Concert in Central Park on Aug. 21. Davis and his father, industry legend Clive, were enlisted by then Mayor Bill de Blasio to assemble the event that drew 60,000 attendees and millions of viewers worldwide.

Catalog good and bad: “I have a love-hate relationship with catalog deals,” says Davis. “I appreciate that we are able to transfer tremendous wealth to creators, and have been able to deliver life-changing equity events for them. The value of their life’s work is finally being realized within creators’ lifetimes for so many. I am wary, however, about further consolidation of value and power with a few large corporations. We are not fully considering what removing approvals and long-term appreciation from the creators means and there will be ramifications down the line.”

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Partner; Global Co-Chair, Entertainment Sports & Media Practice

Latham & Watkins

Deutsch represents multi-hyphenate Jon Favreau (Disney Plus’ “The Mandalorian” creator/showrunner) and his Golem Creations, including metaverse initiatives. Deutsch also advised leading private-equity investors in Rob Reiner’s reincarnated Castle Rock Entertainment; and ongoing film finance for New Republic Pictures that co-finances Paramount movies. Other clients include A24, Anonymous Content, Content Partners, Charles King’s multicultural Macro Media and Oaktree Capital Management. Deutsch recently was elevated to lead the law firm’s entertainment-sports-media practice.

Focus on social change: “An often-overlooked aspect of the entertainment industry is its potential to effectuate social change,” Deutsch says. “I’ve always gravitated towards companies that are profit-driven but also have a broader social mandate.”

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Partners

Greenberg Glusker

The L.A.-based quartet handles a mix of talent deals, financing and M&A. Galsor has been busy advising big-name clients including filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo (“The Gray Man”); James Cameron (“Avatar” sequels, “True Lies” series); and David Fincher (“The Killer,” Netflix pact); Tom Cruise (“Mission: Impossible” films); Vin Diesel (“Ark” video game and animated series, “Fast & Furious,” “Riddick” and “XXX” franchises); and the J.R.R. Tolkien estate (Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings” series). He also reps actors Chris Hemsworth (“Extraction 2,” “Thor 4,” “Furiosa”) and Ubisoft Entertainment (“Assassin’s Creed” series for Netflix), alongside James, whose recent accomplishments include closing financing for the launch of the genre-focused prodco Rotting Press and multiple feature film deals for actor Alice Braga (including the lead opposite Ben Affleck in “Hypnotic”). Not to be outdone, Moore repped Cross Creek Pictures on the sale of its big-budget animated film “Ladybugs” to Netflix and Gravitas Ventures in its $75 million sale to Anthem Sports and Entertainment, while Savranskaia work with clients including Univision, documentary filmmaker Alison Eastwood and the Ray Bradbury estate.

Future of performance-based backend: “You don’t need to necessarily see the numbers [from streamers] as long as you mutually designate a respectable audit firm to come in and tell you whether they did it right or not,” says Galsor.

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Partner

Cohen Gardner

A punk rock singer in his college days, Garrett reps an eclectic mix of talent that ranges from Macon Blair, writer-director of Legendary’s upcoming reboot of “The Toxic Avenger,” to Creative 7 Prods., headed by NBA star Carmelo Anthony and Asani Swann. Other clients include Pat Williams (BET’s “The Ms. Pat Show”), Simon Racioppa (Amazon’s “Invincible” and “The Boys Present: Diabolical”), “SNL” cast member Melissa Villaseñor and author Gabrielle Zevin (“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”).

Possessive streamers: “They want 100% exclusivity for six episodes that are only going to take 10 weeks to produce,” he says. “What do you want them to do with the rest of their year? We’re negotiating that out.

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Partner

Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman

Gellman reps talent and some companies, including Kenya Barris (“Blackish”), for co-ownership of BET Studios in a partnership with Paramount Global. Another client is animation writer, producer and composer Loren Bouchard (“Bob’s Burgers”) extending at 20th Century Fox Television. Gellman works with the Century City-based law firm’s team negotiating a Netflix deal for director Hwang Dong-hyuk and Siren Pictures — makers of Korean global TV sensation “Squid Game.”

Here come the squids: Gellman says more TV hits could be non-English from outside Hollywood, as streamers commission local-language content including “Squid Game.” “It’s a watershed moment and I think it’s just the beginning,” Gellman says.

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Partners

Gendler & Kelly

Gendler and Kelly worked together to close extensions of overall deals for Shonda Rhimes and Shondaland (“Bridgerton,” “Inventing Anna”) with Netflix and Alex Kurtzman and Secret Hideout (five “Star Trek” series, “The Man Who Fell to Earth”) with ViacomCBS, along with multiple deals for showrunners David E. Kelley (“The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Anatomy of a Scandal”) and Courtney Kemp (Netflix, Lionsgate’s “Power” franchise). Their stable of clients also includes numerous other writers, directors and producers (David Chase, Rob Marshall, Ed Solomon, Shawn Ryan, Kurt Sutter, Brad Falchuk, and Lindsey, Bonnie & Terry Turner), top-of-line actors (Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Chris Pine, John C. Reilly) and authors (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Jenny Han, Daniel Silva).

Backend compensation’s future: “Maybe there’ll be deals where you don’t get paid anything more than guild scale up front, but you get a tremendous amount of money if based on results, whether it’s the number of subscribers they’re able to add or the stock performance,” Kelly says.

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Senior Partners

Ziffren Brittenham

Fischer repped Chernin Entertainment’s extension of its Netflix deal to series commitments; Greg Daniels’ Bandera animation joint venture; and Darren Star for Netflix shows. Fischer also handled gigs for Ben Affleck in movies and WynnBet commercial presenter; and Sean Hayes including Discovery Plus TV specials. Music focused Lande repped Beyoncé as an ambassador for luxury brand Tiffany (with husband Jay-Z); Justin Timberlake for deals including multiple roles in DreamWorks’ “Trolls 3”; BTS/HYBE for its stadium tour; and Pharrell Williams. Gilbert-Lurie advised Dick Wolf reviving “Law & Order” for NBCUniversal, and Jerry Bruckheimer for “CSI: Vegas” at CBS. Gilbert-Lurie worked a film deal for Imagine Entertainment
at Apple Studios, Sandra Bullock starring in “The Lost City” and Claire Danes for an Apple TV Plus series. Wolf handled Skydance supplying live-action features to Apple; and Judd Apatow for his first-look pact with NBCUniversal. Other Wolf clients include Scholastic (“Clifford the Big Red Dog”); writer-producer Scott Silver (“Joker 2”); and production company Media Res. The four are L.A.-based.

Better deals? Expecting just a handful of vid-streamers to eventually dominate, Gilbert-Lurie says Hollywood awaits “whether that consolidation leads to better deals for talent because they’ll be deep-pocket companies or whether it will go in another direction.” A key issue is performance-based contingent compensation.

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Partners

Ginsburg Daniels Kallis

Ginsburg has been cutting a succession of high-profiles deals for client Timothée Chalamet, including pacts for starring roles in “Don’t Look Up,” director Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All,” and Warner Bros.’ “Dune 2” and its “Wonka” franchise. He also reps screenwriter Allison Schroeder (“Hidden Figures”), who is set to script “Heart of Stone” and “Stuntman” for Skydance, “Rose Red” for Disney and “Minecraft” for Warners. Other clients include showrunner Sara Hess (HBO’s “House of the Dragon”) and actor Rachel Bloom (Hulu’s “Reboot”). Together, Ginsburg and Kallis handle writer/director J.D. Dillard (Fox’s remake of “The Fly,” Korean War epic “Devotion,” and an upcoming “Star Wars” feature) and actor LaKeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Atlanta”), whose deal they set to star in Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” and the Apple TV Plus series “Changeling.”

Unexpected lockdown benefits: “Two years of negotiating DoorDash selection rights with our kids has sharpened my dealmaking acumen beyond anything I’ve ever encountered at the office,” says Ginsburg.

Partners, New Media, Motion Picture, Television, Theatre & Sports Group

Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks

The New York-based trio looks for innovative ways to help clients maximize media, brand and licensing opportunities across a wide swath of platforms. In recent months, Gottlieb set up biopics for Madonna at Universal and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne at Columbia and a docuseries adaptation of Jessica Simpson’s memoir “Open Book” at Amazon. Other clients include Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Facebook Watch, Live Nation Prods., Elton John’s Rocket Pictures, iHeart Media and Spotify. Strent has worked with LeBron James, closing deals for the NBA star with Crypto. com, Pepsi and Tonal, and handling
matters for the LeBron James Family Foundation and his digital sports platform and production company Uninterrupted. He also reps John Skipper’s Meadowlark Media, Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ Purple Pebble Prods., actor-model-entrepreneur Shay Mitchell, New York Magazine/Vox Media and Lizzo. Grant has been closing deals for clients such as Ana de Armas (Apple
TV Plus feature “Ghosted,” John Wick spin-off “Ballerina”), Spike Lee (first-look deal with Netflix) and Robert De Niro (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), and handling business affairs for Richard Plepler’s Eden Entertainment, which has an overall deal with Apple TV Plus.

VOD’s untapped riches: “Very few of the streamers are focused on the stockpile of merchandise assets that they’re sitting on, and I don’t think we’ve really even begun to see them monetize that,” Gottlieb says.

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Founding Partners

Managing Partner

Partner

Granderson Des Rochers

One of the most diverse and eclectic firms in the industry, Granderson Des Rochers represents high-profile clients in cutting-edge film, television, music and media deals. Over the past year, Granderson handled the tour agreement for J. Cole’s the Off-Season Tour. Des Rochers’ clients include such marquee names as Zendaya (“Euphoria,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home”), director Reinaldo Marcus Green (“King Richard”), actor Jesse Williams, playwright Jeremy O. Harris, director Blitz the Ambassador, and documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger. Moody represents a number of live-streaming platforms, gaming companies, fitness and mindfulness companies including Hydrow, Liteboxer and Steezy, an NFT platform called RCRDSHP, and several social media companies, including Triller. Martin recently represented Macro Media in connection with its joint venture with Philip Sun to launch talent management firm M88, and along with Granderson, handled the joint venture deal for Quality Control’s Solid Foundation Management and SoundCloud.

VRevolution: The ever-busy Des Rochers sees virtual reality as the next big thing in entertainment. “We’ve been saying this for some time but the technology seems like it’s finally caught up with its core aspirations,” he says. “I imagine the next iteration will radically alter almost everything about the way we live, including and perhaps especially our business.

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Senior Partner

Name Partner

Partner

Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks

If you’re not familiar with the bigger names in this firm, you don’t work in the music biz. Grubman, for example, negotiated headline-making catalog sales for Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Sting and the David Bowie estate, while
Meiselas represented the Weeknd on the deal for forthcoming HBO series “The Idol,” in which the singer stars,
writes and executive produces. Meiselas also negotiated stadium tours for the Weeknd and Lady Gaga, and guided the latter’s participation in her duets album with Tony Bennett, “Love for Sale,” along with the related Radio City Music Hall concert and TV special. He did Lizzo’s deals for the Amazon series “Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” and a branding affiliation with Fabeltics, while Jacobs sealed sponsorship opportunities and ads for Lil Nas X with Taco Bell, Uber Eats and Postmates for Lil Nas X.

On the road again: Meiselas says: “To me the summer of 2022 is about safely and successfully getting the live performance business back on track after two summers when the COVID pandemic effectively prevented touring and live shows.”

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Partner; Co-Chair, Sports Entertainment & Media Industry Group

Latham & Watkins

Hamill advised long-time client Endeavor in selling its production company to South Korea’s CJ ENM, buying OpenBet for $1.2 billion and its IMG unit acquiring a Spanish sports event. He repped Silver Lake Partners’ purchase of a $100 million, 33% stake in an Australian sports media company, and KKR for its $1.1 billion acquisition of a Kobalt Capital music-rights portfolio. Other clients are Authentic Brands and mobile platform Buzzer Media.

In-person comeback: With lockdowns fading, Hamill says, “I think there will be a considerable dealmaking in sports and other live events as consumers look to engage in premium in-person experiences in the post-pandemic world.”

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Partner, Team Leader, Entertainment

Nixon Peabody

Heisler reps the highest earners across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Her clients include social- media powerhouse Addison Rae, who has more than 86 million followers on TikTok. Heisler negotiated Rae’s deals with Netflix and Pandora. She also reps Doing Things Media and negotiated their $21.5 million Series A Preferred Stock financing. Athlete Conor McGregor and model-activist Emily Ratajkowski are also clients.

Extra value for brands: “I have a really strong background in licensing and part of what we’re doing in these deals is allowing the brand to use the name, image or likeness of my client,” says Heisler.

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Partner, Global Entertainment & Media Practice; Chair, Century City Office

Partners, Global Entertainment & Media Practice; Co-Chairs, Entertainment & Media Finance Group

Partner, Global Entertainment & Media & M&A Practice

Paul Hastings

Hernand and Williams repped Fox Entertainment’s purchase of MarVista Entertainment and also South Korea’s HYBE investing in Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. Hernand advised Morgan Stanley and LionTree repping MGM Studios in its $8.45 billion sale; and branding agency Celebrands for its formation and $120 million capital raise. Williams repped Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook in selling a minority investment to Candle Media; Comerica Bank for a loan to Park County (“South Park’s” Trey Parker and Matt Stone); and MidCap Financial for a loan to Chicken Soup making an acquisition. Mayerson handled Indian Paintbrush producing Wes Anderson’s film adaptation “Henry Sugar” at Netflix; a recently created studio slate financing film fund closing Series A financing; and helped crack a Ponzi scheme in Hollywood on behalf of a client investor. Monroe repped AT&T and WarnerMedia selling TMZ reportedly for around $50 million; AT&T selling its minority ownership stake in the San Antonio Spurs; and media/entertainment financier and advisor 30West making an equity investment.

Investing in the biz: Content production “makes Hollywood very attractive for financing,” says Williams. “It’s a tremendous wave of opportunity” for financiers.

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Partners, Co-Chairs, Entertainment Practice

Partner, Chair of Digital Media & Technology Practice Group

Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard

Hill and Pulman repped Dmitri M. Johnson’s dj2 Entertainment (“Sonic the Hedgehog”) for an Amazon Studio first-look deal. Hill negotiated agreements for Zando publishing with Sarah Jessica Parker, John Legend and Lena Waithe; and basketballer Kevin Garnett’s Content Cartel Studios’ first-look Village Roadshow deal. Pulman repped Jason Blum’s Blumhouse co-acquiring horror-drama “Nanny” at Sundance, reportedly for $7 million; and repped producer Sister attaching Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) to a project. Jaffe repped Exactly Right Media for its Amazon Music/Wondery podcast distribution pact; and Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey on all matters for their “Office Ladies” podcast. Hill is in Los Angeles, Pulman and Jaffe in New York.

Gamers’ advantage: Hollywood embraces video game adaptations “due to the immersive nature and community it builds with fans,” says Pulman. Thus, gamers “have leverage to control more rights than is expected in traditional entertainment deals,” adds Hill.

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Partner & Chair, Entertainment & Media Transactions

Partner, Entertainment & Media

Katten Muchin Rosenman

Hobel represents television, digital and film companies in groundbreaking deals, while advising clients on intellectual property rights, complex guild and labor issues, and lucrative talent and output arrangements. His deals represent hundreds of millions of dollars in production value and revenue, with A-list clients including Warner Media, Debmar-Mercury, FremantleMedia North America, EPIX, Hulu and George Harrison’s Handmade Films. Tomanov reps writers, directors, producers, motion picture and television studios, distribution and production companies, animation studios, toy companies, video game companies and tech firms, with high-profile clients including animation legend Matt Groening (“The Simpsons” and “Disenchantment”), and Legendary Entertainment.

Streaming tide: Hobel considers the ultra-competitive streaming area as one of the key sectors of the industry. “We are continuing to see increases in development and production activity driven significantly by the demands of the streaming services for high-quality programming. Deal structures are constantly evolving as new business models and technology are introduced,” he says.

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Partner; Co-Chair, Entertainment Group

Partner

Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz

Hurwitz and Levites repped the Roald Dahl Story Company sale to Netflix, reportedly for $660 million; and Yla Eason adding her Black superhero Sun-Man to Mattel’s Masters of the Universe roster. Hurwitz advised James Gunn for writing, directing and executive producing “The Suicide Squad” spinoff series “Peacemaker”; and Tony McNamara’s (“The Great”) overall TV deal at 20th Television. Other clients include J.C. Chandor (“Spider-Man” spinoff movie “Kraven”); Phil Johnston (“Wreck-It Ralph”); and “Pam & Tommy” creator Robert Siegel. Levites repped U.K.-based Beano Studios launching Emanata Studios with Hollywood projects; Euro producer/ financier Anton; and Uglydolls creator David Horvath. Hurwitz is in L.A., Levites in New York.

Changes afoot: As streaming reshapes the marketplace, “dealmaking isn’t as pro forma as it used to be,” says Levites. “The pandemic has accelerated the change.”

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Global Chair, Entertainment and Media Practice

Partner, Entertainment and Media Practice

Paul Hastings

Hyman reps “Wandavision” showrunner-creator Jac Schaeffer in her Marvel Studios overall deal; Danielle Brooks starring in “The Color Purple” musical film adaptation; Anthony Ramos (“In the Heights”) starring in the latest “Transformers” movie; and New Slate Ventures for multiple projects. Emanuel handles mega-producer Ryan Murphy with his overall Netflix deal and Fox Entertainment; multi-hyphenate Robert Rodriguez making thriller “Hypnotic,” starring Ben Affleck; Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn for their multi-year Skydance film/TV deal; and producer Ted Hope for several film projects.

Showbiz on steroids: Hollywood always experiences shifting business models, but now Hyman says it’s on steroids with streaming, social media and podcasting all popping at once. “Fans are supporting creators directly,” Hyman says “If you are ignoring that, you are missing out.”

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Chair, Entertainment, Sports & Media Practice Group

Partners

Barnes & Thornburg

Karlov repped the NFL in all aspects of the Super Bowl music half-time show, and with colleagues advised promoter Australian TEG on the Kanye West/Drake concert seen on Amazon Prime and Imax. Karlov’s other clients include Michael Bolton, T Bone Burnett, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, MGM for music publishing and Rufus Wainwright. Karlov worries that rampant unauthorized use of copyrighted music on social media is becoming ingrained behavior; he says that the industry needs to offer efficient legit licensing to consumers. A finance and distribution maven, Hunt reps Natixis Coficine (including Focus Features’ “The Outfit”). Other Hunt clients are City National Bank, Bay Point Capital, Convergent Media Capital, East West Bank, Dubai-based 50 Degrees Entertainment, Bank Hapoalim and Western Alliance Bank. Thompson reps ex-footballer Peyton Manning and his Omaha Prods., which produces the “Monday Night Football” alternative telecast. Other Thompson clients include cable network TV One, Twitch and boxing’s Top Rank. Advising brands/celebrities, Prince handles NBA’s Russell Westbrook and his Zero World Media including, with Thompson, producing a docu. Other Prince clients include DeMar DeRozan, NBA’s No. 2 draft pick Jalen Green, Candace Parker and music-focused VOD platform Artist Presented Experiences.

NIL bonanza: Thompson observes a Wild West emerging for college athletes now allowed to cash in on their name-image-likeness (NIL) since rules vary by state and school. He sees an “arms race” brewing as NIL riches factor into athlete recruiting.

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Co-Chair, Capital Markets & Corporate; Co-Chair, Sports

Deputy Chair, Capital Markets & Corporate

Loeb & Loeb

Hurdle is a transactional lawyer focusing on clients in the media, entertainment and technology industries. He recently advised SuperDraft in its common stock investment from Caesars Entertainment, and provided M&A guidance in connection with Element Partners’ $105 million acquisition of poker-related business and assets, including the entities comprising the World Poker Tour, from Allied Esports Entertainment. Khalili is a top legal adviser in the media/content, technology, health & wellness and sports/esports industries in M&A, joint ventures and complex commercial transactions. He advised Netflix on its acquisition of Night School Studio (“Oxenfree”), and has worked with Lionel Richie on branding deals and strategic investments, including his collaboration with Tyra Banks’ ice cream company, SMiZE Cream.

Buyers’ advantage: “We expect to see more of a buyer’s market in dealmaking, and it will be interesting to see how sellers respond to a level of prices closer to historical averages,” says Hurdle.

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Partner

Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll

The landmark 2016 inclusion rider co-authored by Kotagal and Fanshen Cox was updated in 2021 — in partnership with Color of Change and Endeavor Content — to make it more intersectional while amplifying accountability. Kotagal says for real progress to occur, the industry must focus on the rider’s third and fourth steps: gathering data and holding itself accountable.

It takes a villlage: “The legal expertise is one piece of a complex puzzle involving folks who are communicators, folks who are producers, folks who are organizers and folks who are steeped in the day-to-day of the industry,” says Kotagal. “There’s no way to do this work without that kind of powerful coalition.

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Founder/Owner

Managing Partner

LaPolt Law

A powerhouse attorney with an academic background in both music and law, LaPolt built one of the music industry’s leading firms — and the only one of its stature headed by a female lawyer. While LaPolt has won numerous industry accolades and represented clients ranging from Steven Tyler to 21 Savage, she says she is most proud of her music advocacy. Addressing the lack of adequate compensation for songwriters, LaPolt cofounded Songwriters of North America (SONA) and, on a pro-bono basis, contributed to the landmark passage of the Music Modernization Act in 2018. Scott, an entertainment industry veteran, headed business and legal affairs for Universal Music Group in Canada for 11 years before making her way to Hollywood in 2012. In Los Angeles, she became VP at Sony Pictures Entertainment, where she spearheaded the creation of original music for the studio’s film and television projects. Now a managing partner at LaPolt Law, the firm represents worldwide recording artists such as Cardi B, Mick Fleetwood and Deadmau5.

Know it all: “Learn everything you can about the business of music, not just the contracts,” Scott says. “Then you’ll know what is actually important to negotiate for.”

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Partners

Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman

This group of attorneys reps top names across the entertainment spectrum, collaborating when one or another has experience that can boost a negotiation. Passman repped Amanda Gorman in both her poetry publishing and her Estée Lauder deals. He also worked with Camila Cabello on her “Cinderella” accord for Amazon. Snow repped Daniel Dae Kim in his deal for “Hot Zone: Anthrax” for NatGeo and worked on Ben Stiller’s pact to produce the “High Desert” series for Apple, and helmer Lindsay Beer’s deal to write and direct the “Pet Sematary” prequel series for Paramount Plus as well. Snow has experience with influencers and negotiated a variety of social media deals for Busy Philipps. Levin has a long-time working relationship with Dwayne Johnson and leads the negotiations for “Red One,” which is now set at Amazon. She also repped him on the deal to appear in a Fortnite videogame. Levin negotiated Regina King’s deals to write and act in a Shirley Chisholm biopic and repped her in a Wells Fargo endorsement deal.

Collaboration is key: “This is a supportive environment,” says Levin. “We work together to bring about the best outcomes for our clients in the negotiations that they trust us to do for them.”

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Name Partner

Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman

Levine’s clients include Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Prods. at Universal; Bill Lawrence and his Doozer Prods.’ (“Ted Lasso”) overall television deal with WBTV; Stephen Curry and his Unanimous Media first-look TV deal with Universal and also Penguin for publishing; Aziz Ansari; Ramy Youssef; and “Squid Game” creative talent at Netflix.

Tough, but not too tough: Century City based Levine says transactional attorneys need to be tough and aggressive but not scorched-earth. Dealmaking requires “a dynamic where the other side has a trust that you are somebody who can get a deal done and understands the other side’s needs as well,” he says.

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Partner

Associate

Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang

Bilingual in English and Spanish, Lezcano and Ramirez have developed an expertise in repping non-U.S. Latin talent in local content deals with major streamers, negotiating Wise Entertainment’s first-look deal with Amazon to develop Latin-themed programming for the English, Spanish and Portuguese language markets, multiple deals for writer-producer Daniel Krauze for English- and Spanish-language programming (Amazon, Legendary/HBO Max, Apple TV Plus, Sony, MGM/Netflix), and an agreement between the rightsholders, executive producers, Secouya Studios and Amazon for a reboot of “Zorro.” They’ve also cut deals for a wealth of English-language, Latin-themed content, including Nadine Velazquez’s “La’tina” (Showtime) and Miguel Nolla’s “Trap Queen” (Onyx Collective) and negotiated Davy Perez’s writer-producer pact for Paramount Plus’ “Star Trek” franchise.

Universality in diversity: “My grandmother and my aunt’s favorite movie of all time was ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’ because you could just replace all the Greek characters with Latino characters, and it’s the same movie,” says Lezcano.

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Founding Partner

Managing Partner

Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler Feldman & Clark

Lichter reps rarified talent on their biggest deals, including Oscar-winning helmer Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland,” “Eternals”), helmer Marc Forster, who recently completed “White Bird: A Wonder Story” for Lionsgate, and documentary filmmaker Irene Taylor, who is helming and producing a doc about the Boy Scouts sexual-harassment controversy for ABC. She also reps MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Jacqueline Woodson, who is now writing “Behind You,” a series for Netflix and Shondaland. Feldman reps helmer Steven Soderbergh, who recently completed “No Sudden Move” and “Kimi.” He also reps helmer Barry Jenkins, who just finished “Underground Railroad” and is now at work on the prequel for “The Lion King.” Other Feldman clients include Viola Davis and Lily-Rose Depp.

Streaming all the way: “The streaming issue was just nascent when the pandemic started, but now it has been pushed to the forefront in every deal whether it’s a traditional feature or ends up streaming,” says Lichter. “We’re dealing with streamers in a much more concentrated way than ever before.”

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Partners; Co-Chairs, Media, Entertainment & Technology Practice

Partners

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

Masuda and Gourley jointly represented LeBron James’ Spring Hill Entertainment selling a minority stake at a $725 million valuation; James and Arnold Schwarzenegger selling the Ladder nutrition company; and Paul Wachter’s Main Street Advisors in raising funds and various investments. Ross and Gourley advised the Kevin Mayer- and Tom Staggs-led Candle Media in M&A for talent-owned Hello Sunshine and Westbrook Global. Masuda advised Square buying a majority stake in Jay-Z’s Tidal music streamer for $297 million; and Tom Werner, James and Maverick Carter in restructuring and capital raising for their Fenway Sports Group. Masuda repped esports talent manager Loaded Management in raising capital and restructuring; and Michael Eisner’s Tornante Co. selling Topps trading cards. Ross handles Universal Pictures, celebrity hairstylist Jen Atkin selling her Ouai hair-care company and app Screenshop in its sale. Tsoneff returned to the firm in January after working legal at a production company. Masuda feels that content creators are in the driver’s seat because technology creates new pathways to consumers such as web outfits licensing very short pieces of music and the re-sale of NFTs automatically generating additional talent payments.

Long live the king: “Content is still king,” Masuda says. “It’s just the distribution methods continue to evolve.”

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Partner

Fox Rothschild

Miller’s client list reads like a who’s who across film, television, music and more. His clients include Angela Bassett, Courtney B. Vance and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and the NAACP, which forged a content development partnership with CBS Studios with Miller’s help. The deal will place projects at Paramount Plus and Apple TV Plus and feature major talents such as Whoopi Goldberg.

A fresh look at IP: The deals for the NAACP “really came out of conversations I had to renegotiate a distribution agreement, and in the process we talked about the potential of the brand and having them think of ways to reach people, celebrate images and look at their IP,” says Miller.

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Partner, Corporate & Entertainment Transactions; Co-Founder & Co-Chair, Blockchain & Digital Currencies

Venable

O’Brien has made it his mission to be at the forefront of tomorrow’s technologies, specializing in matters at the intersection of entertainment and crypto, closing NFT deals for talent and crypto platforms alike. For example, he repped a major music artist in the development of artwork for sale through an NFT platform; a marquee actor in a promotional agreement with Crypto.com; and a top sports star in the licensing of his name and likeness with the NBA Top Shot NFT program. The lawyer also repped Paradigm Talent Agency in the sale of its North American music booking agency to an affiliate of Wasserman Media Group.

Blazing a trail: “The digital age has been a mixed bag for Hollywood,” says O’Brien. “NFTs and the blockchain are ushering in a great opportunity — digital scarcity — for creators and rights owners. But it takes lawyers with a clear understanding of evolving laws and principles to help clients blaze their trail through this Wild West crypto landscape.”

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Partner; Co-Chair, Communications & Media Industry Group

Partner; Co-Chair, Music Industry Group

Of Counsel; Founder, Video Games & E-Sports Practice

Special Counsel

Covington & Burling

Century City-based Polashuk advised PBS for carriage of member TV stations and PBS Kids TV channel on DirecTV. Polashuk’s other clients include Walt Disney Co., Paramount Global, Fox Corp., NFL Network, Ovation TV Pac-12 Networks, TV One, and Univision Communications. Perry repped Fox Entertainment on various NFT initiatives, including a $100 million creator fund; and also brewer AB InBev for collectible Key to the Budverse NFTs, which sold out quickly. Perry and Hill are based in New York. Washington, D.C.-based Irvin advised Chinese gaming giant Tencent on a multiplayer videogame. Irvin’s extensive videogame practice includes Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Psyonix Studios, PUBG Mobile, Riot Games and streamer Trovo. Hill advised the NFL on football rights for Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox and NBC, reportedly for more than $100 billion. Other Hill clients include MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA of America, Portland Trail Blazers, EPIX, MSG Networks, TV One and Weigel Broadcasting.

Tech keeps them busy: Polashuk expects content bundling to get more expansive with “so much more customization because of the advancements in ad tech.” Perry anticipates real-world products will be offered in digital in the metaverse as a “tokenized version. That type of activity is on the horizon” and will require extensive legal work.

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Founder, Managing Partner

Managing Partner

Partner

Of Counsel

Ramo Law

Ramo handles business affairs for content-creating powerhouses such as Imagine Entertainment, Hello Sunshine and Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud and HartBeat Prods., in addition to working with prolific producers such as Yale Entertainment. Chang oversees unscripted matters, handling clients including Boardwalk Pictures (“Chef’s Table”) and Scout Prods. (“Queer Eye”). Canchola specializes in TV, serving as outside production counsel for Skydance Television (“Reacher”) and 20th Television. She also advises clients on all aspects of development, financing and production for both film and television. She reps clients such as Aggregate Films, with Compas leading the firm’s New York office, advising clients on all aspects of scripted and unscripted television, motion picture and new-media development, including Push It Prods. (“The Upshaws”), Imagine Documentaries (“Lucy and Desi”) and the Jim Henson Co. The shifting landscape that’s occupied by the various digital outlets has created dynamic new business models. “The talent content valuation model is the new industry gold rush. The valuations and sales of companies, which were founded by high-profile talents, are where everyone’s chief focus is currently on,” Ramo says.

Podcast nation: Ramo notes that “everyone must be listening to podcasts nonstop because that business is evolving into a distinctive audio ecosystem.”

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Partners, Entertainment, Technology & Advertising Practice Group

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton

Frequently working as a team, Robinson and Schnapp represented Peloton licensing music bundled with its exercise equipment; music rights org ASCAP; and News Corp. in separate Apple and Google content distribution deals. The New York-based duo’s clients also include Swedish music rights org STIM, AdPredictive for its advertising data licensing and esports infrastructure/producer Vindex. Robinson advises Sony Pictures Entertainment, Etsy and Vox Media. Schnapp counsels Spotify for podcast/audiobook production; Async Art on NFTs and Steinway Musical Instruments. Schnapp says tech advances in blockchain that enable cross-platform transactions, virtual reality and augmented reality elevate the unfolding metaverse virtual world.

Digital enablement: Schnapp says digital media capabilities “now converge and that reps a unique opportunity for stakeholders to reach their audiences in a more immersive and engaging manner.”

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Partner

Associate

Fox Rothschild

You might know Rogers’ name from his work in high-profile cases for Rick Ross and French Montana. Among recent feats, the chairman of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Assn. renegotiated Kanye West’s Def Jam contract, fetching millions of dollars in advance of the release of the album “Donda.” He also worked a label deal with Columbia for West’s manager, Abou “Bu” Thiam and led a stock restructuring and sale agreement for Ross’ ownership share of Sovereign Brands. Rose assisted Rogers in some of those transactions and also represented such producers as Ronny J, TooDope! and lil88, such artists as YBN Nahmir, Bluebucks Clan and Kali, along with several deals on behalf of others with a variety of major labels not yet disclosed.

High tide: “I get excited helping artists leverage their personal brand to create generational wealth,” says Rogers. “For those artists with savvy teams, it is a great time to be in this business.”

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Partner

Myman Greenspan Fineman Fox

Rosenberg & Light

Yes, he did the paperwork for Justin Beiber ’s chart-topping “Justice” album and the singer’s same-named tour, as well as a starring role for Ariana Grande in the film adaptation of “Wicked” and the launch of her r.e.m. cosmetics line. But Rosenberg is particularly proud of Bieber’s recently announced partnership with Betterhelp, which will provide a month of free therapy to his fans and his road crew, and Grande’s $1.5 million match pledge to advocacy groups fighting anti-trans legislation in Texas and Florida. Client John Legend kept him busy, too; he negotiated the artist’s exit from Columbia, a new label pact with Republic and the sale of his song catalog to BMG and KKR. Rosenberg continues to rep the LVRN label (Summer Walker, 6lack) and Justin Tranter, who wrote Imagine Dragons’ hit “Enemy” and penned the musical “The Circle of Becoming” with Idina Menzel and V (formerly Eve Ensler).

Higher ground: “Important to me is helping to promote underrepresented people — women, people of color and the LGBTQ community — into positions of leadership,” says Rosenberg. “My clients Michelle Jubelirer and Tunji Balogun were appointed chairwoman and chairman of, respectively, Capitol Records and Def Jam. I was very proud to be part of that.”

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Co-Founders

Attorneys & Partners

Rothenberg, Mohr & Binder

Just one of Binder’s clients, Marshmello, kept him busy with deals to create a “Melloverse” with game Fortnite, play a Wynn Nightlife residency in Vegas and appear in the opening ceremony of the UEFA Champions League Final in Portugal. Binder also landed an MGM Grand stint for Alesso and an Interscope deal for Morray while also repping Gunna, SZA, Jake Wesley Rogers and Flo Milli. Rothenberg inked an administration deal with Sony Music Publishing for artist, songwriter and producer Jon Bellion and a joint venture with Universal Music Publishing for writers Bellion develops. He also reached a distribution agreement for Logic with BMG; deals for Charlie Puth (LG, TikTok, Grub Hub); publishing pacts for Skylar Grey and producers-writers Rice N Peas; and renegotiated label deals for Trevor Daniel, Bankrol Hayden, Jazmine Sullivan and A$AP Ferg. Mohr reached branding and acting deals for duo Chloe X Halle and label deals for Kendra Jae and AG Club, while Almy continues to rep composer-producer Dan Romer (“Luca,” “Dear Evan Hanson”) and songwriter-producer Teddy Geiger.

Under new management: With new chairs at Capitol (Michelle Jubelirer), Def Jam (Tunji Balogun) and Island (Imran Majid, Justin Eshak), “the decision of where to sign a record deal is more challenging than ever,” says Binder. “The landscape is wildly competitive, leading to more opportunities for strategic dealmaking. After much consideration, Top Dawg Entertainment [TDE] landed a massive partnership with Michelle and Capitol for its newest signee Doechii. Michelle deeply connected with Doechii and understood TDE’s vision from the moment they first met.

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Managing Partner

Partners

Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman

These three top music barristers represent some of the biggest musical acts, including Taylor Swift and Adele, as well as icons Elton John, Paul Simon, Randy Newman and Quincy Jones. Perhaps the firm’s biggest deal last year was negotiating Green Day’s Hella Mega Tour, with a $65 million gross. The firm also negotiated deals for composer Ludwig Goransson, negotiated Pink’s “All I Know So Far” doc for Amazon and Camila Cabello for Disney’s “Cinderella” and her L’Oreal cosmetic line. Says Salomon, who helped negotiate the sale of Neil Diamond’s catalog and his Broadway musical: “What’s really satisfying is helping artists navigate a complicated world to achieve their goals.” Schiffres wonders about maintaining the music business’ double-digit growth over the past five years prompted by streaming. “I’m concerned with both growing the pie and making sure our clients are getting as big a slice as possible.

Catalog sales warning: Passman says artists should think hard before selling their catalogs. “With big dollars being dangled, it’s important to analyze whether a sale is right for your particular situation.”

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Partner

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton

Century City-based Sands advised talent agency ICM Partners on its sale to CAA, and earlier ICM Partners acquiring Select Sports Group. He repped Super Bowl MVP Troy Aikman as presenter for Taos Mountain Energy Foods, and helped financing for Spotter, which aggregates influencer videos. Other clients include Sony Pictures, TV format giant Banijay-Endemol, cable network Ovation TV and producer Wiip.

Investing in the web: Sands notes that pure financers now find that buying low-cost web content is an attractive alternative to pricy Hollywood fare. “It’s a totally different economics paradigm for investors looking to allocate capital in the entertainment industry,” he says

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Partner; Co-Chair, Entertainment, Sports & Media Industry Group

Latham & Watkins

Savill advised digital kids content outfit Moonbug Entertainment (and shareholder Raine Group) on its sale to Blackstone-financed rollup Candle Media, founded by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, reportedly for $3 billion. She also worked Moonbug’s acquisition of CoComelon, and two financings. Savill repped KKR’s purchase of Kobalt Capital music catalog for $1.1 billion and a related securitization.

Growth on all sides: The London-based attorney says cash-rich private equity financiers are investing in content producers around the world that, in turn, are pumped up by program orders from go-go video streamers. “It’s like the three sides of a triangle all looking for growth,” Savill says.

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Partner, Global Head, M&A Group

Partner

Partner; Co-Head, Tax Group

Sullivan & Cromwell

In 2021, L.A.-based Krautheimer collaborated with Sawyer and Wheeler — both at the firm’s New York headquarters — to combine their expertise in M&A, tax structure, and capital markets to shape their client AT&T’s landmark $106.5 billion deal spinning off Warner Media business into a combination with Discovery. Krautheimer and Sawyer focused on transactional aspects of the deal via nightly Zoom meetings. Wheeler and the tax team created a tax-free transaction by negotiating and constructing the largest-to-date Reverse Morris Trust transaction. Even more impressive: the teams completed negotiations on the 300-plus page deal in just two weeks — during a pandemic. The tight turnaround was necessary to maintain secrecy given the massive scope of the deal and the number of parties involved. Krautheimer, Sawyer and Wheeler participated in AT&T’s sale of Vrio as well as its $16.25 billion deal with TPG Capital to separate DirecTV from AT&T and establish a new DirecTV entity.

Race against time: “Trying to do a deal of this scale in this time period really does require a group of people that work quite well together. It was a challenge. It was two exhausting weeks,” Krautheimer says. “It was a very quick timeline for a challenging transaction, and it’s gone quite smoothly since.”

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Partners, Entertainment & Media Group

Reed Smith

Century City-based Sessa and his New York counterpart Shapiro head up the music, entertainment and media business practice for the 145-year-old Pittsburgh-headquartered firm, which includes more than 1,500 lawyers in 30 cities around the world. Sessa’s roster includes Bon Jovi, Billy Corgan, Meek Mill, Kesha, Irving Azoff ’s Artists Group and Derek Hough, while Shapiro has repped Rihanna in deals for her beauty lines and Anitta for her Netflix special. Shapiro’s proudest recent moment was winning a successful $8 million suit in federal court for EDM star Kaskade, against the Las Vegas Palms Casino and Resort, which allegedly tried to use the pandemic as an excuse for nonpayment. Shapiro pointed out that Kaskade first filed the suit for the breach in late 2019, four months before COVID was even identified.

Supporting the creatives: “It’s simply great to see the result of great work for a great client,” Shapiro says. Sessa adds, “To be able to assist creative geniuses who shape culture is an honor.”

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Founding Partner

Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein

Lezcano Bobb & Dang

Shaw prides herself on a practice that is foundationally diverse, from the veritable rainbow coalition of attorneys she works alongside at the firm she co-founded back in 1989 to the clients she’s cut big deals for, which in recent months has included directors Nia DaCosta (“Captain Marvel 2”), Stirlin Harjo (“Love and Fury”), Misha Green (“Tomb Raider” sequel), Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Woman King”) and Victoria Mahoney (“Shadow Force”); writer Ta-Nehisi Coates (untitled Superman movie); and writer-producer-comedian actress Quinta Brunson (“Abbot Elementary”).

Streamers enabling talent: “There are so many more distribution outlets, people are getting an opportunity to show the kind of the talent they always had,” she says.

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Managing Partner, New Media, Motion Picture, Television, Theater & Sports Group

Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks

New York-based Shire has maintained a busy multiplatform practice, negotiating Chris Licht’s deal to become the new head of CNN, Gayle King’s pact with CBS, the sale of David Bowie’s music catalog to Warner Chappell Music, the New England Patriots’ deal with Apple TV Plus for a 10-part docuseries and numerous non-sports matters for NBA star LeBron James, including his digital sports platform and production company Uninterrupted. Other clients include Robert De Niro, Spike Lee, Drake, David Byrne, Andrew Lloyd Webber, iHeart, Sony Music and Spotify.

Rising stock of docs: “Five years ago, they would sell for pennies and now, thanks to the streamers, they’re selling for unbelievable amounts of money,” he says.

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Co-Chair, Entertainment, Sports & Media Group

Partners, Entertainment, Sports & Media Practice

O’Melveny & Myers

The quartet is part of O’Melveny’s team of nearly 100 attorneys in its Entertainment, Sports & Media Group, co-chaired by Siegel, who served as co-lead counsel for Korean entertainment conglomerate CJ ENM in its acquisition of an 80% stake of the scripted business of Endeavor Content, and FuboTV in its $190 million acquisition of French streamer Molotov SAS. Her client roster also includes Warner Bros., Paramount, Bron Studios and Genius Sports. Joining O’Melveny from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in October, Conner repped the estate of Tom Clancy in negotiations of multiple rights agreements with Paramount for the late author’s novels, and Red Arrow Studios in the $73 million sale of its majority stake in Gravitas Ventures to Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Tobey and Vannini served as lead counsel on several big M&A transactions, with Tobey handling WarnerMedia’s sale of TMZ to Fox Entertainment and Vannini repping ViacomCBS Networks Intl. in its acquisition of a majority stake in Fox TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico, and a shareholder in the $900 million sale of media company Hello Sunshine.

No more one-size-fits-all: “The content providers want a menu of options for distribution and pricing models and innovative ways that a consumer can interact with the product,” says Siegel.

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Partner, Chair Entertainment & Sports Dept.

Fox Rothschild

Repping A-list talent, indie filmmakers, content platforms and more, Simon has a prestigious client roster. He negotiated on behalf of MALKA Media Group for its $75 million sale to MoneyLion. He also repped Joanne Woodward for herself and late husband Paul Newman in a publishing deal with Knopf and a streaming deal with CNN. Alec Baldwin and Bill Nye are clients as well.

Unscripted phenom: “I think what’s happened in unscripted stands equal to everything that’s happening because if you think about all the mainstream companies and networks that have unscripted divisions now, it would have been unheard of 10 years ago,” says Simon.

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Industry Co-Lead, Digital Media & Entertainment; Industry Lead, Games; Chair, Copyright; Co-Chair & Partner, Technology Transactions

Industry Co-Lead, Digital Media and Entertainment; Partner, Technology Transactions

Industry Co-Lead, Digital Media & Entertainment; Partner, Blockchain & Technology Transactions

Chair, Private Investment Funds; Partner, Corporate

Fenwick & West

This quartet from Fenwick & West provides tech-native legal expertise for its clients from four different offices. Seattle-based Dailey leads the firm’s private investment funds practice, working with clients including Russell Westbrook Enterprises and Kygo’s Palm Tree Crew. Los Angeles-based Klungness has helped bring blockchain and Web3 to the mainstream, repping NBA star Spencer Dinwiddie’s social token company Calaxy, cryptocurrency exchange FTX in its deal with the Coachella fest to launch an NFT collection and major NFT marketplaces including OpenSea, MagicEden and SuperFarm. Over the last year, New York-based Lalla has advised on transactions with an aggregate value of more than $2.6 billion, including the launch of $50 million Gen Z-focused VC fund Animal Capital (with Dailey), the $300 million acquisition of youth entertainment company Complex Networks and $75 million in financing for fitness tech platform Future. San Francisco-based Stanley handles commercial contracts for Epic Games and Riot Games, strategy and operations for Gamestop’s NFT marketplace and matters for Netflix’s new games division.

Bleeding-edge challenge: “It’s important to balance the decentralized nature of the blockchain or NFT project and the artist’s interest in retaining its rights and its name and image, because those two things are not always 100% aligned,” says Lalla.

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Partner; Global Chair, Media, Technology & Commercial Transactions Group

Hughes Hubbard

Working the intersection of media and technology, Syrkin advised Sotheby’s, the 278-year-old British auction house, for its NFT marketplace — the Sotheby’s Metaverse and Sotheby’s investment in NFT developer/commerce suite Mojito. Syrkin worked with Roku buying and integrating Nielsen’s advanced video advertising business; WarnerMedia for its HBO Max expansion into Latin America; and Madison Square Garden Entertainment’s purchase of majority control of live entertainment Hakkasan Group.

Gold rush: Syrkin finds digital media at an inflection point for explosive growth. “The evolution of online payments, cryptocurrency and fintech services, lies at the core — essentially, driving the latest, supercharged tech gold rush,” he says.

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Partners

Sidley Austin

Members of Sidley Austin’s transaction teamwork well independently and together. Each member of the team has his own accomplishments —Thompson handled the $8.45 billion sale of MGM to Amazon; Fronk represented Amazon in lengthy negotiations with Disney for the new custom voice assistant, Hey, Disney!, which will debuts this year; Petretti handled financing on over $1 billion worth of music-related acquisitions for top global music groups; and Weiss represented the Spring League in selling the U.S. Football League assets to Fox Sports. Together they provide legal expertise and firepower to tackle complex transactions. Thompson is working on a deal — potentially in the hundreds of millions of dollars — to sell a well-known podcast business to a major podcast aggregator; Weiss is providing support with IP- and copyright-related issues, and Petretti is assisting with the financing piece of the puzzle.

Future forward: There’s a reason Thompson constantly asks clients about long-range plans. “Someone told me a long time ago, ‘Any lawyer should be able to tell you what the law was and is. A good lawyer thinks about where the law is going and what you need to be planning.’ It’s sort of like getting that crystal ball out,” he says.

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Chair, Entertainment Litigation; Managing Partner, L.A. Office

Chair, Entertainment Transactions Practice

Chair, Music & Digital Media Practice

Partner

Willkie Farr & Gallagher

Epstein, Mulrooney and Weingarten left Venable to launch a Los Angeles office of New York-based law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher in September, and were joined by Fohrman, previously of Sheppard Mullin, in January. Weingarten, the office’s managing partner, is a veteran entertainment litigator who was in the media spotlight repping Jamie Spears in the legal battle over the conservatorship of his daughter, pop star Britney. A specialist in corporate and tax law, Epstein closed a variety of deals, repping Spyglass Media Group in a multi-pronged pact that dealt 200 features to Lionsgate, and Ryan Reynolds’ creative marketing agency Maximum Effort Marketing in its sale to Mountain Digital. Mulrooney focuses on estate planning for high-net-worth individuals, including actors, directors, writers, producers and artists. Fohrman works the intersection of media and tech, including blockchain and NFTs, handling novel-use cases involving the integration of music and the metaverse for some of the biggest social media companies, and overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars in music rights transactions.

Sky not falling: “Over and over again, they say this technology is going to be the death of this or that, and every single occasion that this comes up, it’s really been an opportunity for the business to not only overcome that adversity, but to use the technology to thrive,” says Weingarten.

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Partner

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

Yen has broken ground on a significant slate of deals across the industry, including notable production and development agreements, financings and M&A transactions. Her clients include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Miramax, eOne, Perfect World Pictures, O2 Filmes, FilmRise, Content Partners, David Chang’s Majordomo Media and Kevin Hart’s HartBeat, with Yen helping them through complex transactions. Quick to spot trends, Yen always looks forward to what’s next, with a sharp eye being placed on content creators.

Talent rises: The continued consolidation of media has driven high valuations and investments into independent, talent-fronted production companies. “It’s changing the endgame for some talent,” she says

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Managing/Founding Partner

Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman

Yorn restructured ownership and rebranded the law firm, which moves in August to a nearby open-space collaborate environment in Century City. Yorn is also assembling a tech and consumer-focused investment fund. His clients include Matthew McConaughey, Jason Sudeikis, Scarlett Johansson, Alicia Keys, Ellen DeGeneres, influencer sisters Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, Zoe Saldaña, and creatives behind TV series “Squid Game.”

Three targets: Looking forward, Yorn observes, “There are three things to focus on: international growth for streaming; the metaverse and tokenization of NTFs as part of our zeitgeist; and dealmaking for studios and talent where everyone wins.”

IN-HOUSE

Global Head of Legal Affairs, Spotify Studios

Global Head of Business Affairs, Studio Content

Spotify

An experienced music executive, Bauman has lent his talent to media titans including HBO and Machinima, and jumped to several key roles during his five-year stint at Spotify, where he now heads legal for original content and serves as associate general counsel. During the pandemic, he helped foster an “explosion” of podcast growth on Spotify, in addition to founding his own content discovery app, ZinBin. Chi, meanwhile, secured a first-of-its-kind deal with J.J.Abrams’ production company Bad Robot to produce podcasts exclusive to Spotify; solidified a partnership with Ava DuVernay’s Array, also for exclusive podcasts; and nabbed an exclusive rights deal to popular Alex Cooper podcast “Call Her Daddy.” Furthermore, Chi manages the Chernin Entertainment partnership, and in the same vein, spearheads the TV/film adaptation vertical under
Spotify Pictures.

Podcast future: “There is a continued surge of excellent new music and podcast content being created every day,” Bauman says. “I believe we’ll see continued innovation and new tools evolve across the whole industry.”

IN-HOUSE

Exec VP, Business & Legal Affairs

Fox Entertainment

Working with his key associates — including Lori Bernstein, Kathy Edrich, Jeff Fuhrman, Melissa Gold, Julian Keyzer and Laura Mathe — Bramhall juggled multiple initiatives. He help bring about Fox’s acquisition of TMZ, and was integral in finalizing Fox’s landmark deal with chef and TV personality Gordon Ramsay. Additionally, he served as the legal point man behind Fox’s acquisition of MarVista Entertainment. He hasn’t allowed COVID to slow things down.

Back to human contact: “From contract negotiations to production timelines to the elongated delay of the return to work, the pandemic’s impact on every aspect of the industry cannot be underestimated,” Bramhall says. “We’re all ready to safely get back to the office, so we can work together live and in-person.”

IN-HOUSE

Exec VP, General Counsel

Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios

DeVitre handles more than affiliate and retransmission agreements for the rapidly expanding Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group. He completed acquisitions of the Weather Channel, HBCUGO.TV, and MGM’s over-the-air diginets ThisTV and Light TV. He also helped integrate several local TV stations and made a multi-year, multi-platform deal with Google/YouTube.

DeVitre’s responsibilities evolve along with the company, which currently boasts more than 20 television stations, eight cable networks, and several digital offerings like the GrioTV, LocalNow and Sports.TV.

Learning curve: “The joy of the job is something I’ve grown with,” DeVitre says. “I’ve learned more in the past 10 years than at any other point in my career, which is amazing, because 10 years ago I was already a really senior lawyer.”

IN-HOUSE

Chief Legal Officer; Exec VP

Legendary Entertainment

Erramouspe’s first full year at Legend­­ary included massive and industry-shifting deals. He oversaw negotiations for a $760 million deal to sell a minority stake to Apollo. But it’s his challenging negotiations with Warner Bros. concerning the day-and-date releases of “Dune” and “Godzilla vs. King Kong” that stand out because the negotiations identified, addressed, and resolved unprecedented pandemic-related movie release issues the film industry had never faced before, resulting in a blueprint for the future.

The edge of dealmaking: About the Warner Bros. negotiations, Erremouspe says: “The challenge was that we didn’t have a real framework to look to for guidance. We were out on the edge of dealmaking. Which is fun, but does have its challenges.”

IN-HOUSE

General Counsel, Exec VP, Business & Legal Affairs

Chief Counsel + Business Affairs, UMPG; Digital Rights Management, UMG

Exec VP, Business & Legal Affairs, Head of Litigation

Exec VP, Business & Legal Affairs Latin America & Iberian Peninsula; Head, Universal Music Latin Entertainment

Universal Music Group

From the first 10% stake that Tencent partners took in 2019 through September’s $53 billion launch on the Euronext Amsterdam in September, the largest initial public offering in the history of the music business, Universal Music’s legal team guided the process that not only lifted the company’s value, but also that of every large player in the business. UMG’s worth is more than six times greater than where investors pinned it just eight years ago, while the steps it took to peel away from parent Vivendi encouraged competitor Warner Music Group to launch its own IPO, one of the biggest of 2020.

Aside from the demanding tasks that took UMG public, McMullan kept a watchful eye on internet providers who allow repeated copyright infringements, including Charter, Brighthouse, Grande and RCN, including a $1 billion verdict against Cox that was upheld March 29 by the federal district court in Alexandria, Va. Kokakis orchestrated the February acquisition of Sting’s song catalog, key digital licenses with TikTok and Triller, and publishing deals with Lionel Richie and Ariana Grande collaborator Tommy Brown, among others. Vives struck deals with significant estates, including that of the influential Juan Gabriel, plus streaming royalty terms for global artists while handling complex litigation throughout North America. She and Harleston are founding members of UMG’s diversity-focused Task Force for Meaningful Change.

Taking care of business: “The run-up to UMG’s public listing at the end of September was a transformational period for the company and I couldn’t be prouder of the key role my team played or the end result: the most successful public listing in the history of the music industry,” says Harlston. “Even with the demands of the public listing, my team also continued to sign exciting new artists, acquire the iconic catalogs of some of the world’s most celebrated artists and develop innovative licenses with partners in new areas of our business spanning fitness and health, short-form video and live-streaming. It’s been thrilling — and more than a little exhausting — but none of this success would be possible without the UMG lawyers named on this list and the contributions of so many others on my team.”

IN-HOUSE

VP, Business & Legal Affairs

SB Projects & Ithaca Holdings

During her first year of law school, Strauss attended a Steve Aoki concert and wrote him a note on the back of a ticket asking for an internship. To her surprise, the DJ responded and connected Strauss with his label, Dim Mak. Soon, she became the company’s legal intern and never looked back. Years later, while working at WME, Strauss helped negotiate Aoki’s performance deals and Vegas residency. Now, she serves as vice president of business and legal affairs at Scooter Braun’s groundbreaking SB Projects and Ithaca Holdings.

At ease in the biz: “Getting to spend my days supporting an industry that I love makes it easy to go to work each day,” says Strauss.

IN-HOUSE

General Counsel

Skydance Media

A Canadian native who previously worked for Vice Media, McKinnon played a key role in the Skydance New Media’s partnership with Marvel Entertainment to develop an original action-adventure game and the formation of Skydance Sports and its subsequent partnership with Meadowlark Media to produce a pair of documentaries. Her day-to-day responsibilities include overseeing the company’s consumer products division, helping manage IP registration and compliance, and developing and advising on its COVID-19 protocols.

Pandemic workaround challenges: “It’s kind of gone in waves with the various variants and with the guilds,” she says. “And then you’ve got people traveling, so governments will impose restrictions on what you have to have in order to enter a country.”

IN-HOUSE

General Counsel

VP, Legal Affairs & Business Development

Primary Wave Music

Ortner and Rhulen, Primary Wave Music’s legal team, closed key acquisitions worth more than $500 million in 2021. In the fourth quarter alone, Rhulen closed more than $200 million worth of deals, while Ortner has negotiated more than $350 million of acquisitions since joining the company in May. Among assets recently landed: estates of James Brown and Toto’s Jeff Porcaro, works from Def Leppard, Paul Rodgers, Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley and Mike Starr, Survivor’s Jim Peterik, and the Regent Music and Jewel Music catalogs. Beyond that, the pair oversees all legal and business affairs with regard to asset management and exploitation, content development and branding initiatives. Projects they’ve facilitated: an immersive Las Vegas show built around the music of Bob Marley, Sun Records-centered podcast “Midnight at the Sun Diner,” a Whitney Houston cosmetics line from MAC, Styx-themed “Oh Mama” beer, and Air Supply’s Valentine’s Day promotion with Edible Arrangements, along with biopics and docs in development, including “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” the film about Houston that premieres in December.

Be nimble: “We manage our daily juggle,” says Ortner. “On any given day we might be considering a complex chain of title issue in acquisitions, licensing interpolations of a gem in our catalog, negotiating a consumer-products deal for an estate, sorting terms to produce a podcast or planning an NFT drop. We have to be ready for anything the creative team throws our way.”

IN-HOUSE

Exec VP & General Counsel

Senior VP, Head of Litigation

Senior VP, Head of Digital Legal Affairs

Senior VP, Deputy General Counsel

Senior VP, Deputy General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer

Warner Music Group

If you only looked at the deals Warner Music completed in the second half of 2021, Robinson’s legal eagles more than earned their keep. In July, the major closed on the assets of Doug Morris’ indie label 12Tone Music, (Anderson .Paak, Dolly Parton, Joji, and ILLENIUM). August sealed a partnership agreement with Madonna for the artists’ career-long catalog. September saw WMG land another career-spanning catalog with the estate of David Bowie, and in December it acquired 300 Entertainment (Megan Thee Stallion, Gunna, Mary J. Blige and Young Thug). In addition to acquisitions, Warner Music eyed emerging technology, including a metaverse deal with The Sandbox to create The Sandbox’s first music-themed gaming world. The company also unlocked NFT opportunities in a partnership with Blockparty, launched artist channels and programming through an alliance with Twitch, and expanded virtual entertainment opportunities with Wave, Genies and Kuaishou.

Brave New World: “As we look to the future, we’re focused on strengthening our internal capabilities—like transacting in crypto or populating virtual environments at scale with our music and other intellectual property — to make sure we’re able to make the most of these partnerships,” says Robinson.

IN-HOUSE

General Counsel, Head of Business Affairs

Scopely

Rosenthal has closed deals for Scopely, a large privately held mobile game company, with many of the biggest names in entertainment — Marvel, ViacomCBS, Sony and WWE. He played a major role in Scopely’s $50 million investment in three European gaming companies in 2021. The attorney also led Scopely’s expansion across Asia and assisted in creating legal entities in Singapore, South Korea and Japan. Rosenthal advises Scopely on ventures into the blockchain space as well.

Adapting old laws to new realities: “There are very few laws that are on point to blockchain,” says Rosenthal. “But we’re using pre-existing laws and regulations that date back to the 1930s in some cases to try to enforce what’s happening in 2022, and that’s complicated.”

IN-HOUSE

Deputy General Counsel, Litigation & Employment

CAA

Shepherd’s major tasks of late included working regulatory review of the ICM merger and post-merger planning; and, separately, Franchise Agreement compliance with the Writers Guild of America that resolved a three-year labor dispute. Additionally, tasked with tackling COVID challenges, Shepherd developed policies and protocols to keep the talent agency humming, including complying with the patchwork of constantly evolving health regulations covering its 20 locations. Elsewhere, the Century City-based attorney’s responsibilities cover internal diversity, equity, and inclusion, where she’s heartened that Hollywood and entertainment audiences embrace greater sensitivity to multi-cultural differences.

Strength in diversity: “There is more richness in the way people are engaging with one another,” says Shepherd.

IN-HOUSE

Exec VP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

City National Bank

Big challenges arose when the pandemic hit in March 2020, and Speaker and his colleagues worked around the clock to secure more than 25,000 PPP loans worth almost $6.2 billion for their clients when many were at risk of shuttering forever. In addition to navigating these programs, Speaker also oversees the bank’s outreach to underserved areas through the Community Reinvestment Act, in which funds are used to build affordable housing and create small businesses, among other initiatives.

On-call banking: “Find a banker you can have a relationship with,” Speaker says. “From my experience the real problems in life don’t happen between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. You need someone you can call on at 3 a.m. if your business is about to go out of business.”

IN-HOUSE

Exec VP Business Affairs and General Counsel

Exec VP, Business and Legal Affairs, International

Exec VP, Deputy General Counsel, Chief Compliance, Ethics & Privacy Officer

Senior VP, Corporate Deputy General Counsel

Exec VP, Head of Business and Legal Affairs, Global Digital Business

Sony Music Entertainment

Implementing the 2021 launches of the music major’s Artist Forward and Songwriters Forward programs was not only a priority for Swidler’s team, but also a manifestation of a creative-friendly philosophy advanced by Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob Stringer and Sony Music Publishing chairman Jon Platt. These include such initiatives as Artists Assistance the Legacy Unrecouped Balance Program and Real Time Artist Tools. Sony Music’s attorneys also facilitated the acquisitions of Brazilian label Som Livre and label services platform AWAL.

The more than 200 deals that Blondell helped close in the U.K., Canada, Continental Europe, Latin/Iberia and Asia since the start of 2021 brought major artists into the tent, along with label and distribution opportunities. Leak oversaw Sony Music’s global response to the pandemic while furthering initiatives of Sony Music Out Loud, a collective he co-founded on behalf of LGBTQ employees. Meisel led Sony’s investment in the IPO of Net Ease Cloud Music and the purchase of U.K. podcasting business Somethin’ Else. Meanwhile Walker oversaw the inclusion-focused Racial & Social Justice Task Force, all the while diligently maximizing revenue through takedowns of infringing content.

Times they are a-changin’: “More than ever, it’s important to give fans more ways to connect with and support their favorite artists, but at the same time, to work closely with policymakers to re-examine existing laws in an industry that is different today, and will evolve tomorrow,” says Swidler.