Film, TV + Podcast

What We Do and How We Do It

Our firm’s integrated approach keeps clients ahead of the most important legal issues affecting their businesses, and we have fostered long-standing relationships with leading players in every area of the entertainment industry. Pryor Cashman capitalizes on the strengths of our Media + Entertainment transactional and litigation groups and our leading-edge intellectual property attorneys to remove obstacles, manage risk, and make deals happen.

We offer clients a deep bench of industry veterans who work seamlessly to create cutting-edge business structures, negotiate goal-focused contracts and deals, assist with brand building and franchise development, identify potential areas of liability, and vigorously enforce contractual and property rights in high-stakes litigation. Every client has access to our corporate, tax, immigration, real estate, and banking and finance attorneys, ensuring the best outcomes so you can focus on creating the best entertainment for your audiences.

Bringing Ideas to Screens and Platforms

We offer a wide range of support to help award-winning films, television series, documentaries, and podcasts make the journey from concept to reality. We represent leading film and television studios, production companies, and networks in deals to acquire underlying material, engage writers, producers, directors and talent, and negotiate and execute a wide variety of complex transactions with financiers, distributors, and streaming platforms. We also provide turnkey business affairs services to companies, helping them make competitive, forward-looking deals and establish business structures that will help them accomplish their objectives.

Pryor Cashman attorneys are highly pragmatic dealmakers, working with clients to efficiently and cost-effectively develop and produce entertainment content, protect and monetize their intellectual property, mitigate risk, and solve problems—along with helping them move into other business areas to build and expand their brands.

Developing and Monetizing “Transmedia” Franchises

Pryor Cashman attorneys have worked on some of the most high-profile and valuable entertainment brands and intellectual properties in the world. Our team is experienced in all aspects of sophisticated rights acquisition, co-production, distribution, and licensing and merchandising agreements for clients with global reach and franchise aspirations. We are industry leaders in complex “transmedia” deals, and our deep industry knowledge and understanding of the film, TV, podcast, publishing, licensing, and gaming businesses enables us to guide clients as they seek to exploit their intellectual property across multiple platforms and channels. Additionally, our trademark and litigation teams help clients protect and enforce their rights, while our corporate attorneys regularly handle high-level asset purchases and M&A deals relating to high-value entertainment IP.

Working to Develop Podcasts and Audio Entertainment

We regularly work with audio producers and distributors to help them develop, produce, distribute, and monetize their productions across all audio platforms. We have advised at all stages of multiple award-winning podcasts distributed by companies including Amazon Music, Audible, iHeart Spotify, and Stitcher.

Our podcast experience covers scripted and unscripted podcasts that are produced and financed via a variety of business models. We are adept at negotiating distribution, licensing, and ad sales agreements to monetize audio projects, and we regularly negotiate derivative rights deals in connection with the adaptation of podcasts into film and TV productions for a wide variety of audiences.

Providing Fair Use and First Amendment Analysis for IP

Our leading fair use and First Amendment attorneys work with clients throughout the media, entertainment, publishing, podcast, and interactive industries to ensure their intellectual property and creative works are protected from copyright infringement, including asserting and defending against fair use claims. We review manuscripts, screenplays, teleplays, documentaries, “ripped from the headlines” scripted productions, podcasts, and video games for risk assessment and mitigation purposes. Our attorneys work directly with leading studios, producers and writers to advise on issues around the depiction of real people and brands in creative works, helping them tell their stories while limiting legal risk.

These teams are skilled in representing clients regarding defamation and privacy issues in newsgathering and advertising, and we are known in this space for successfully settling a highly publicized, first-of-its-kind social media defamation case.

Providing Corporate/M+A Support

Pryor Cashman’s renowned Corporate Group assists media and entertainment companies of all sizes with their essential corporate needs—from entity formation through to potential sale. We counsel clients on operations, capital raising, licensing arrangements, joint ventures, research and development agreements, and other contracts.

Our corporate partners see the big picture and understand where our clients are today, where they want to go, and how to get them there. We quickly assess a situation or opportunity and cut to the chase, delivering practical, incisive, and actionable advice, and devising a clear path to resolve issues and complete transactions in a cost-efficient manner.

We help private and public companies select their business structures; negotiate shareholder and partnership agreements; manage human resources; purchase, lease, and develop real estate; and acquire, protect, and optimize IP. To fund growth and fuel operations, we advise companies and capital sources—investment funds, private equity companies, and investment banks—on public debt and equity financings, including IPOs, secondary offerings, and shelf registrations. We also have experience negotiating capital financings, private placements and bridge financings, private investments in public equity (PIPE), and exchange offers.

Advising on Wealth and Succession Planning for the Entertainment Industry

Behind the scenes, our attorneys assist individual artists and executives, athletes, and producers with personal and professional immigration needs, tax issues, matrimonial and custodial matters, and estate planning. We also assist authors, creators, literary estates, and songwriters with planning for the future by helping them create wills, establish trusts, or monetize their assets to protect and provide for them and their families.

Facilitating Immigration Services

Entertainment is a global business, and our immigration and global mobility attorneys work with companies and individuals ensure that international executives, entertainers, and celebrities can travel and work in the United States and abroad. From visa options to quick-turnaround passport renewals, our team’s contacts and know-how can make sure your people are where they need to be, when they need to be there.