Twelve Members of the Entertainment, Sports & Media Team Recognized in Variety's Legal Impact Report

Eight Latham transactional partners and four litigation partners have been honored by Variety in its annual Legal Impact Report. Joseph Calabrese, Marvin Putnam, Nancy Bruington, Ken Deutsch, Robert Ellison, Justin Hamill, Robert Haymer, Rick Offsay, Libby Savill, Jessica Stebbins Bina, Laura Washington, and Jonathan West were all recognized as “top lawyers in entertainment and media,” highlighting their groundbreaking work in film, television, music, and digital.

The transactional team, led by Calabrese, Global Chair of the ESM Practice, was recognized for its representation on a full spectrum of film, television, sports, and content-related business transactions, while advising long-time clients and major independent film and distribution companies such as A24, Anthony and Joe Russo’s AGBO Prods., Anonymous Content, Content Partners, Crossroads, Eldridge Industries, Endeavor, Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., Illumination Entertainment, KKR, Macro Media, Media Res, MGM, Moonbug, New Republic Pictures, Parkwood Entertainment, Participant, Silver Lake Partners, Skydance Prods., Studiocanal, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., and Will Smith’s Westbrook.

The litigation team, led by Putnam, Vice Chair, Entertainment, Sports & Media Industry Group, was recognized for advising on a long-list of headline making cases including the Association of Talent Agents, Beyoncé, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, ICM, International Olympic Committee, Los Angeles Dodgers, Madison Wells Media, MSG Forum, NHL, Pandora, and SteelHouse.

“While 2020 was a year of pause and disruption, 2021 will be the year when we find out if we go back to business as usual or if things have irrevocably changed,” Calabrese told Variety, while Putnam explained that he sees the biggest pileup of pending litigation in his three-plus decades career due to the pandemic and it remains to be seen “how courts are going to deal with an enormous backlog of cases from their year-plus shutdowns.”

Latham’s ESM Industry Group advises diversified global media companies, production and distribution houses, studios, digital and new media companies, iconic celebrities, licensors/rights holders, and individual talent, as well investors and financiers leveraging the practice’s global reach and full-spectrum experience to help clients.