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James Thoma joins Reed Smith in Los Angeles

By Richard Binder

Reed Smith has announced the addition of James Thoma to the firm?s growing Entertainment/Media Finance Team in the Corporate & Securities Group in Los Angeles. His 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.

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.

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, where he established their entertainment department, 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

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on August 25, 2010 (boomark / email).