(August 25,
2010, Los Angeles, CA) - James Thoma,
who for more than 20 years has represented leading financiers, funds and banks
in the motion picture and television industry, has joined the firm's growing
Entertainment/Media Finance Team in the Corporate
& Securities Group in Los Angeles. Thoma's practice will continue
to focus on media fund formation, major investments in media companies and tent
pole picture financing with a strong emphasis on international co-productions
and investment.
Thoma, who
established the Akin Gump entertainment department in 1999, joins Michael S. Sherman, former chair of the Entertainment Industries Group at Jeffer Mangels Butler
& Mitchell LLP in Los Angeles, who joined Reed Smith's Century City office
as a partner in April, and interactive entertainment attorney, Patrick Sweeney, who joined the firm
in May.
In
conjunction with the funding of motion pictures and televisions programming,
Thoma represents producers, mezzanine players and investors. His list of
financed movies includes movies as diverse as "Dances with Wolves," "Tomb
Raider," "Basic Instinct" and the recent "Terminator 4".
Thoma has
participated in several groundbreaking product placement agreements relating to
tent pole pictures and negotiated one of the largest product placement deals in
industry history in The Matrix movie series. Thoma is one of the
leading experts in Article 9 issues relating to motion picture and television
series, including, foreclosure issues. He has conducted forecloses on more than
$1 billion in film assets for a variety of lenders.
Reed Smith has had a market leading media project/asset
financing practice in the UK for more than 20 years. The firm has acted for all
kinds of financiers and now advises a number of the most active banks, capital
groups and public funding bodies in the film and television production finance
area.
A 1980
graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, Thoma had been a
shareholder at Greenberg Traurig since 2005. Prior to joining that firm, he was
a partner at Akin Gump from 1999 to 2005, and a partner at Mitchell Silberberg
in Los Angeles from 1990 to 1999. From 1987 to 1990, Thoma was counsel at the
then-prominent entertainment firm Wyman Bautzer.
Another addition to Reed Smith in Southern California is Zac
Locke, who recently joined the firm in the Century City office as an
associate in the Corporate & Securities Group, Media &
Entertainment Industry Group. He counsels clients in Entertainment and
Corporate transactions and worked with Michael Sherman at Jeffer, Mangels,
Butler & Marmaro, LLP. Zac represents producers, filmmakers, record labels,
musicians, writers, actors and production companies, among others. He has
experience in rights acquisitions, services contracts, copyright disputes and
entertainment guild issues and also handles general corporate matters,
including but not limited to corporate formation, franchise issues and buying
and selling of assets.
Zac received his J.D. in 2008, and was a Dean's Merit
Scholar, at University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. He graduated
University of California, Los Angeles, summa cum laude in 2001. He was the
Editor-In-Chief of the UCLA Entertainment Law Review and President of
the Entertainment Law Association
Reed
Smith is a global relationship law firm with nearly 1,600 lawyers in 22
offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Founded in 1877, the firm represents international businesses, from Fortune 100
corporations to mid-market and emerging enterprises. Its lawyers provide
litigation and other dispute resolution services in multi-jurisdictional and
other high-stakes matters; deliver regulatory counsel; and execute the full
range of strategic domestic and cross-border transactions. Reed Smith
advises several industries, including financial services, life sciences, health
care, advertising, technology and media, shipping, energy trade and
commodities, real estate, manufacturing, and education.