Eight Barnes & Thornburg Attorneys Featured in Variety's 2021 Legal Impact Report

LOS ANGELES – Variety magazine has named eight Barnes & Thornburg attorneys from the Entertainment, Media and Sports Practice Group to its 2021 Legal Impact Report, a prestigious annual list that highlights leading attorneys in the media and entertainment industries. Variety is one of the leading entertainment trade magazines, which lauds the best entertainment attorneys around the world with its annual Legal Impact Report. 

The report includes practice group chair and partner Jason Karlov; partners Carolyn Hunt, Rebekah Prince, Bryan Thompson, Steve Weizenecker, Scott Witlin, and Ryan Barncastle; and associate Amanda Taber. Members of this accomplished group are consistently recognized for their high-profile entertainment and sports work, and the firm has appeared in the Legal Report each year since 2016. 

The 2021 Legal Impact Report recognizes Karlov for his work across the music, television, film, live events, advertising, licensing, and technology industries. Karlov has represented clients including, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, Grateful Dead Music Publishing, Twitch, and Rufus Wainwright. With Taber, he also represents The Killers, Billy Mann and Benton James of Icons & Giants, Imagine Dragons, NFL/NFL Network (for strategic live music partnerships, such as with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation), MGM (for music administration), and T Bone Burnett.

Hunt is noted for her finance and distribution work in the film and television industries. She has advised Natixis Coficiné, Hercules Films, Code Entertainment, Bold Films, City National Bank, K Period Media, East West Bank, TM Film, and Highland Films. With Weizenecker, she also represents City National Bank, Convergent Media, Bay Point Capital, and Marie-Christine Jaeger. 

Prince is featured for her work with high profile clients handling numerous sports, entertainment, and corporate transactions, including licensing agreements for such clients as Wolfgang Puck Worldwide.

Thompson is lauded for his work in TV, digital media and financing, having represented Top Rank, Take Flight Films, and more. Thompson is known for his ability to balance pragmatism with sophisticated zealous representation, resulting in the most favorable outcomes for his clients time and time again. 

Weizenecker, who practices in the firm’s Atlanta office, is one of the few Georgia entertainment lawyers recognized this year in the Legal Impact Report. He continues to be recognized as one of the lead lawyers on issues involving production incentives for film, television, and videogame production. His clients include TV One, Viacom International, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, NBC Universal, Netflix, Swirl Recording & Film, Reveal Studios, Extra Credit Media, and FNL Productions. With Hunt, he represents City National Bank, Convergent Media, Bay Point Capital, and Marie-Christine Jaeger. He also represents top worldwide entertainment financiers including Cast & Crew Financial Services, Canada’s eOne, U.K’s Ingenious Media. 

Witlin earns his nod for his labor and employment law work in the entertainment space including unique experience in the videogame, new media and animation spaces for clients such as Animal Head Animation, Watch This Productions LLC, and Learning Depot, LLC. 

Barncastle is recognized for his work as a business transactional attorney with clients and experience in several legal disciplines. Given his experience as a dealmaker across a broad spectrum of industries including entertainment, media and sports, Ryan is an integral part of the firm’s entertainment practice. He has represented clients such as Breakwater Studios LLC, and Karamo Brown. 

Taber is featured for her work in nearly all disciplines of entertainment, media and sports, including music, podcasts, television, film, social media, live events, licensing, endorsements/sponsorships, and copyright and on several large transactions, including the sale of The Killers’ and Imagine Dragons’ music catalogs and music clearance work for the NFL alongside Karlov.

Attorneys in the Barnes & Thornburg’s Entertainment, Media and Sports Practice Group provide a full spectrum of representation. They have a thorough understanding of the business, financing, distribution and licensing needs of the film, television, music, technology, gaming and sports industries. The group represents motion picture producers, financiers and distributors, serves as outside general counsel for musicians and entertainers, and negotiates significant marketing and promotional agreements.

Variety’s Legal Impact report is released annually to highlight legal professionals that have made significant deals and have litigated complex disputes for entertainment industry clients, studios, and networks. 

With more than 700 attorneys and other legal professionals, Barnes & Thornburg is one of the largest law firms in the country. The firm serves clients worldwide from offices in Atlanta, California, Chicago, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minneapolis, New York, Ohio, Raleigh, Salt Lake City, Texas and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit us online at www.btlaw.com or on Twitter @BTLawNews.