Firm Honored as Media & Entertainment “Practice Group of the Year”

Law360 has selected Latham & Watkins as a Media & Entertainment “Practice Group of the Year” for 2016, reflecting the market-leading status and broad capabilities of the firm’s Entertainment, Sports & Media Practice. Latham advised on a number of recent high-profile transactions, including significant investments by overseas entities in US entertainment companies that are reshaping the industry. For example, Law360 cited the firm’s advice to Legendary Entertainment in its US$3.5 billion acquisition by China’s Dalian Wanda Group, and representation of Chinese internet and digital media giant Tencent in “several groundbreaking licensing and distribution arrangements,” including exclusive content deals with ESPN and the National Basketball Association.

In addition, the firm has been at the forefront of litigation and regulatory matters in cutting-edge areas of law and public policy, often involving issues defining the new age of converging content and technologies. Law360 highlighted Latham’s successful representation of Live Nation and Ticketmaster in a federal antitrust lawsuit challenging their merger brought by ticketing service Songkick, as well as the firm’s mobilization of “its extensive bench of litigators and bankruptcy attorneys” to advise Univision Communications in winning a court-administered bankruptcy auction of Gawker Media.

In these and numerous other matters, the Entertainment, Sports & Media Practice advises clients with a powerful combination of practical legal advice, high-level industry relationships, and a thorough understanding of the unique issues that arise in their businesses.
Now in its seventh year, Law360’s Practice Group of the Year series honors those “law firms that racked up victories in litigation and closed the big deals to make their mark among clients and throughout the legal industry,” according to the legal news service.