Providing
comprehensive legal services and industry know-how to the entertainment
industry on a national scale.
The
entertainment industry is changing as rapidly as the technology and the
distribution platforms upon which it relies. Independent filmmakers are
creating more movies at a larger scale, while established studios are producing
fewer films, with a focus on blockbusters and franchise pictures. The panoply
of state and foreign tax incentives and new financing structures is becoming
increasingly complex. All the while, new distribution models are increasing the
availability of content — including music, books and television — while turning
traditional marketing, distribution and profit models upside down.
Ranked
among the top law firms in the region by Chambers USA, The Legal 500
and other national ratings publications, the entertainment law team at Jones
Walker counsels companies and individuals in the entertainment, arts and
hospitality industries. With lawyers practicing in New Orleans and New York, we
provide current, seamless and geographically relevant counsel to clients where
they create, where they do business, and where their customers live.
Our
lawyers know the entertainment industry from the inside out and are immersed in
the day-to-day deal reality of finance, production and distribution. Members of
our practice have served as in-house counsel and have developed extensive
professional relationships at major movie studios, independent production
companies, and sports and entertainment enterprises; have founded their own
successful production and distribution companies; have closed and advised on
hundreds of production and distribution deals, including well-known and
critically acclaimed blockbusters and festival favorites; and have counseled
clients on almost every aspect of the entertainment business.
We
represent film studios, independent film production entities, film financiers,
distributors, talent and management agencies, professional sports franchises,
restaurant and hotel franchises, music recording companies, radio
communications entities, digital entertainment companies and established
actors, musicians, directors, writers, athletes and artists. We provide
practical legal, business and creative advice that helps clients compete and
thrive in today's dynamic entertainment marketplace.
Jones
Walker is committed to fostering and supporting the continued growth of entertainment
projects in the state of Louisiana, across the Southeast, and in major media
centers on both coasts. We provide legal services in the following areas:
Film Finance and Development Strategies
Jones
Walker attorneys have extensive experience in all stages of motion picture and
television program development, financing, packaging and distribution. We
regularly advise lenders, investors, and gap, tax-credit and incentive-based
financiers, as well as studios and independent filmmakers, on projects
throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada with budgets ranging from
$100,000 to over $80,000,000.
We help
clients identify potential institutional and non-institutional financing
sources and structure, negotiate and close transactions in the following areas,
among others:
- Monetization of motion
picture investment and production tax credits, deductions (e.g.,
Section 181), rebates, grants and other federal, national, provincial,
state and local incentives
- International and domestic
presale financing
- Institutional media lender
financing
- Gap and debt financing
- Equity investments
- Motion picture slate
financing, including fund formation
- Motion picture library and
catalog acquisitions
- Production and distribution
company startup strategies and formation
With
respect to loans and investments involving tax credit and other incentive
programs, we analyze budgets vis-à-vis the expected value of incentives and
transferrable credits, help ensure the project and production company are duly
qualified and certified to earn the available incentives, manage applications
for incentives, communicate with government authorities, producers and
third-party auditors, and provide related transactional support. We also assist
clients in identifying and selecting shooting and other locations that can help
them qualify for applicable incentive programs, and provide strategic advice to
filmmakers on packaging and distributing their films, selling projects to distributors
or studios, and marketing their work domestically and internationally.
Production
Legal
Our
practice covers the full spectrum of production legal, from development and
rights deals to above-the-line talent negotiation. We represent clients in
negotiations and interactions with guilds, crew leaders and department heads,
and regularly advise on matters associated with vendors, shooting, production
and post-production locations, and creative contributors such as composers
including protecting and obtaining copyrights and clearances to music used in
films.
Distribution
Legal
The first
requirement in negotiating a distribution deal is knowing who to call. The
entertainment law team at Jones Walker includes lawyers with significant
experience and an extensive network of professional relationships in the
distribution and acquisition of film and episodic content. We provide
comprehensive services in the negotiation of complex distribution agreements
and have advised in the acquisition of hundreds of motion pictures both
domestically and in the foreign marketplace. We have also played a key role in
helping numerous companies raise the capital necessary to launch and expand
their distribution companies.
Talent
We
provide effective legal services and strategic advice to individual
entertainment and media clients in the motion picture, television, theatre,
news, radio, fashion and music industries, including actors, writers,
directors, producers, radio and television personalities, playwrights, composers,
musicians, comedians, models and designers.
Media and Cable
Our
attorneys provide a broad range of legal services to local and regional media
and cable outlets, as well as regional affiliates and internet-based digital
media entertainment entities. Our experience includes cable, radio and digital
media entity formation, acquisitions and financings. We draft and negotiate a
variety of commercial agreements, including employment and non-compete
agreements, affiliate agreements, advertising agreements, and strategic
partnerships and alliances.
Sports Entertainment
We have
wide-ranging experience representing professional sports franchises in a
variety of corporate and operational issues, including debt and equity
financings, labor and employment, real estate, tax and intellectual property
matters. Additionally, we provide advice to current and former professional
athletes in relation to a variety of legal concerns, including general
corporate and business advice, trust and estate planning, and commercial
litigation.
Music and Theatrical Production
We
represent musicians, record companies, writers and authors in the drafting and
negotiation of recording, licensing, sales and other agreements. Intellectual
property and creative assets are the lifeblood of these industries; with this
in mind, our experienced intellectual property team provides comprehensive
prosecution and protection services relating to copyrights, trademarks, patents
and brands.
We also
represent recording labels, promoters, theatrical production companies, and
developers of recording studios and live performance venues, as well as
institutional lenders and other financiers, with respect to the financing of,
and investments in, the production of live performances (concert tours, theatrical
productions, etc.), and the development of musical and live performance
properties and infrastructure. We help clients identify and access state
incentive programs and non-incentive based financing that capitalize upon the
region's cultural economy, stimulate the development of music recording and
live performance infrastructure, and promote and develop touring concerts,
plays and other theatrical productions.
Digital Interactive Media and Software
We
represent developers of applications, software, platforms and other interactive
digital media with respect to all aspects of their business, including, without
limitation, protection of intellectual property, financing, employment and
immigration matters, coding and development agreements, inbound and outbound
license agreements, and sales and distribution on a global scale.
Louisiana,
New York, Georgia, and other states in which we practice offer tax credits,
rebates, grants and other incentives to encourage the development of digital
interactive media within their borders. As part of our Digital Interactive
Media and Software finance practice, we assist our clients in monetizing these
incentives as a means to finance the development of digital interactive media
products and platforms.
Hospitality
Our hospitality team brings together lawyers
from many of the firm's practices, including corporate and securities, real
estate, banking, tax, construction and intellectual property, to offer a full
range of coordinated legal services to the hospitality industry. We have years
of experience counseling hotels, restaurants and bars in areas such as local
and state zoning and real estate matters, franchising, debt and equity
financing, commercial litigation and licensing.
