Skip to content

It's All Relative

But no matter how you look at it, Relativity Media's bankruptcy was the biggest Chapter 11 filing in the entertainment industry in many years.

The company’s highly publicized crisis sent shock waves throughout the entertainment community.

Loeb & Loeb has the largest and most diversified entertainment practice in the nation. So it was no surprise that many of our clients’ business interests were likely to be impacted significantly by Relativity’s bankruptcy.

In the weeks leading up to the filing, our Los Angeles-based attorneys were flooded with calls from clients, as well as from companies that knew of our reputation in the industry, seeking advice regarding the issues that could arise from a filing.

Our entertainment and bankruptcy attorneys quickly began to analyze the potential consequences of such a filing and to determine how best to protect the interests of as many of our clients and other parties as possible.

Beverly Hills-based Relativity filed for bankruptcy protection in New York, not Los Angeles, on a Thursday in late July. The first day hearing, a crucial event in every case, was scheduled for the following day in Manhattan. Our New York bankruptcy department became involved immediately, ensuring our presence at that hearing and every subsequent hearing.

Our ability to react and be in court on such short notice gave our Los Angeles clients significant comfort at the tumultuous outset of the case.

In the months of contentious proceedings that followed, we acted on behalf of different creditors and financial institutions. Our deep bench in both the entertainment and bankruptcy areas enabled us to provide individualized guidance through the serpentine bankruptcy process to multiple clients simultaneously.

Loeb & Loeb’s bicoastal, cross-practice team brought together a thorough understanding of Relativity’s complex capital structure, familiarity with the unique issues which derive from the special treatment of intellectual property in bankruptcy, and extensive workout experience. With this unique set of strengths, we have been perfectly positioned to advise our clients on what strategies to pursue and to provide rigorous enforcement of their rights.

While the case is not yet over, and the success of the bankruptcy and reorganization is not yet known, we are confident we have secured a result for each of our clients successfully mitigating the negative impacts that inevitably result from being unintentionally entangled in a large and complicated bankruptcy.