Practice Capabilities

Loeb & Loeb has handled more motion picture, television and music industry-related financing transactions than almost any other law firm, and is sought after to provide its leadership on the industry’s most complex and sophisticated deals in today’s tenuous and constantly evolving global economic environment. We represent major independent production companies as borrowers, along with financial institutions, private equity funds, hedge funds and mezzanine funds, completion guarantors, distributors and high net worth individuals throughout the United States and internationally. Our entertainment, corporate and tax attorneys work closely together to assist companies and individuals in shaping and structuring debt and equity capital structures.

Loeb & Loeb’s legal services related to motion picture, television and music industry financing include:

• Slate financing transactions 
• Complex multi-distributor "split-rights," "gap" financings and so-called “super-gap” financings 
• Negative pick-up transactions 
• Negotiating and structuring receivables-based and asset-based lines of credit and term-credit facilities in the senior and mezzanine markets 
• Equity investments 
• Co-financing and international co-productions 
• “Soft money” tax incentive programs 
• Negotiating and structuring independent, joint venture and/or distributor-financed record labels and publishers

Service Approach

Loeb & Loeb’s team of entertainment finance attorneys work seamlessly across the firm’s Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Nashville, Washington, DC, and Beijing offices to structure, negotiate and close a diverse array of financing transactions for clients, both domestically and internationally. We remain on the cutting edge of each new trend in the market, integrating our corporate, bankruptcy, tax and securities abilities to create innovative and increasingly complex financing instruments. Our interdisciplinary approach, practical problem-solving skills and market experience assist us in resolving complex legal issues to meet our clients’ needs.

Clients and Industries

We represent most of the financial institutions involved in project finance and corporate lending in the entertainment industry, as well as venture capitalists, private equity funds and high net worth individuals. Borrower clients range from entertainment companies in the motion picture, television, music and new media production and distribution arenas to individual producers, actors, writers, directors and entrepreneurs.

Leadership in Law

Loeb & Loeb’s Entertainment Finance Group is highly active within the industry, giving frequent speeches and presentations, supporting events, and participating in a variety of entertainment-related legal forums.

Members of our Entertainment Finance Group consistently receive high accolades from leading law firm referral guides, including Chambers USA, Super Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America® and Legal 500, as well as from top entertainment industry trade publications such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. For 2010, Loeb & Loeb was awarded the prestigious Chambers Award for Excellence in Media, one of the highest honors that a firm can receive in the media and entertainment field.

Representative Transactions

• Representation of River Road Entertainment in connection with its multi-year, multiple picture credit facility with Union Bank. 
• Represented Relativity Media in connection with its slate financing transactions with both Sony Pictures and Universal Pictures. 
• Represented The Royal Bank of Scotland in its multiple picture slate financing transaction with New Line Cinema Corporation. 
• Represented Carsey-Werner Productions in a securitization transaction involving receivables from its library of more than 1,000 episodes of well known television shows. 
• Represented Alcon Entertainment in the establishment of its credit facilities with CIT, JPMorgan Chase Bank and Lehman Brothers and its overall distribution agreement with Warner Bros covering its slate of motion pictures.
• Represented Wachovia Bank, as lender, in connection with the syndicated credit facility to Dreamworks. 
• Represented The Royal Bank of Scotland and CIT Lending Services Corporation on their combined participation in the syndicated loan facility to Media Rights Capital.
• Represented an affiliate of Relativity Media in the negotiation and documentation of a film financing facility provided by a syndicated lender group led by Union Bank and Comerica. 
• Represented Newbridge Film Capital as mezzanine financier in the credit facilities for Vendome Pictures, a company established to develop, produce and finance a minimum of 15 motion pictures over the next five years. 
• Representation of Bank of America as documentation agent and as co-documentation agent in a syndicated credit facility for Skydance Productions, LLC, and the multiple picture credit facility closed for PM/IN Finance, a joint venture of Participant Films and ImageNation. 
• Represented Cold Spring Pictures in its capital formation to finance a slate of ten pictures involving equity and debt financing, and its co-financing arrangements with DreamWorks/Paramount. 
• Represented Columbus Nova in its mezzanine financing of Legendary Pictures and Legendary’s multiple picture co-financing agreement with Warner Bros. 
• Represented Merrill Lynch in a securitization transaction involving ICM. 
• Represented The Film Department in its capital formation involving equity investment, mezzanine financing and a senior credit facility led by GE Capital. 
• Represented GE Capital in both its equity investment and debt facilities for the original capital formation of Summit Entertainment. 
• Represented GE Capital in a series of slate financing transactions involving pictures to be distributed by Warner Bros., MGM, and Fox. 
• Represented Marvel Entertainment in a series of single picture financing transactions for its recent production slate. 
• Representation of Spyglass Entertainment in connection with its multiple picture debt facility with Dresdner Bank. 
• Representation of Union Bank, City National Bank, Citibank, CIT Group, 120dB Films, Grosvenor Park, Newbridge Film Capital, Pacific Mercantile Bank, and Winchester Capital Management in a multitude of single picture motion picture, episodic television and video game project financing transactions.