Manatt Launches Manatt Digital Media Aimed To Disrupt The Digital Media Landscape With Innovative Full-Service Legal, Business Consulting And Investment Services

LOS ANGELES, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, today announced the creation of Manatt Digital Media to offer innovative, one-stop, full-service legal and business consulting services for clients in the digital media, entertainment and advertising industries.

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Through the deep experience and relationships of its team, Manatt Digital Media will provide its clients the industry's most comprehensive legal and business consulting services. It will also leverage its deep network of industry relationships for the benefit of its clients of every size and stage, from startups to growth-stage and mature public companies. Manatt's clients will benefit from the firm's unrivaled access to artists, deal-making prowess and proven litigation experience, focused on protecting innovation, defending brands and mitigating risk. Manatt Digital Media will also make digital media investments from the firm's venture capital fund.

With clients that range from individual international superstars to start-up and growth-stage private companies to publicly traded major media companies – including BMG Rights Management, INGrooves, BOOM! Entertainment and DIRECTV – Manatt Digital Media is chaired by one of the nation's most prominent digital media attorneys, T. Hale Boggs. A partner in Manatt's capital markets, corporate/finance and venture capital practice areas, Boggs opened the firm's Silicon Valley office in 1998 and later helped establish its San Francisco office in 2007. Now based in Los Angeles, Boggs' experience extends across the entire company life cycle, from entrepreneurial startups to established digital media leaders.

"We have ambitious goals for Manatt Digital Media. We aim to disrupt the traditional legal model by offering a unique range of services, depth of relationships, remarkable access to artists, and unsurpassed commitment to the needs of our clients," said Boggs. "We are in a period of exciting and transformative content distribution and customer engagement that demands a re-imagined, more holistic approach to client service."

As part of the firm's innovative approach, Manatt Digital Media Ventures, a unit of Manatt Digital Media, will provide non-legal business advisory and consulting services for digital media companies, as well as venture capital. Manatt Digital Media Ventures will be led by Peter Csathy, a respected serial digital media entrepreneur, operator, industry executive and thought leader. His 25 years of diverse, successful industry experience include leading several innovative digital media companies to successful exits. Most recently, Csathy served as CEO of online video innovator Sorenson Media, where he remains a board member. Today Manatt published an additional press release about Csathy joining the firm, which can be viewed at http://manattdigitalmedia.com/single-news.aspx?id=271.

"I am excited to play this role in helping build Manatt Digital Media, the only practice created for digital media entrepreneurs, by digital media entrepreneurs," said Csathy. "Our aim is to break the mold and create bold new business consulting approaches to benefit our clients. As a longtime industry operator, that ambition attracted me to Manatt. I am an absolute believer in the power of technology to bring significantly more opportunity and enjoyment for content creators and consumers alike. In this context, traditional approaches – in the delivery of legal services or any other kind of professional services – simply do not work in this lightning-paced and interconnected digital media world."

Manatt Digital Media also receives key leadership from Linda Goldstein, one of the nation's leading advertising attorneys and chair of Manatt's advertising, marketing and media practice based in New York. Clients of Manatt Digital Media will benefit from her extensive knowledge and influence in a broad range of focus areas, including digital media, consumer protection and multi-platform advertising campaigns. Goldstein has a long track record of innovation in marketing, advertising and social media law.

"The explosion of digital media demands new solutions as well as deep experience in the ever-increasing complexity of government oversight," Goldstein said. "It is critical that global brands and emerging companies alike be attuned to what can make or break an otherwise brilliant strategy. The new opportunities are boundless, so long as the murky waters are navigated carefully."

Manatt Digital Media will make new digital media investments via Manatt Venture Fund, an early-stage venture fund that has invested in more than 90 innovative companies, including Pinterest, Etsy and Idealab. The fund deploys capital through direct investments in companies, co-investments with other investors, especially venture capital and private equity firms, or by purchasing limited partnership interests in VC or PE funds. Since its inception in 2000, Manatt Venture Fund has made dozens of investments in a wide array of digital media businesses.

"Where others see fear, we see great opportunity," Boggs added. "With our success in media, entertainment and advertising, and the proliferation of digital media companies, which now include companies previously thought of as being pure technology plays, the creation of Manatt Digital Media is a natural next step in our firm's evolution as an innovative market leader."

About Manatt Digital Media
Manatt Digital Media is a full-service digital media platform created by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, whatever the size or stage of the company, from startup to growth-stage to mature public companies. Manatt Digital Media uniquely offers a one-stop shop of professional services that is grounded in the legal and business experience of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, one of the world's most respected law firms in the media, entertainment and advertising industries. Manatt Digital Media offers its clients differentiated value and impact in multiple forms and across the life span of their companies – from venture capital to strategic relationship-building and artist access to business consulting and creative deal-making, including content licensing, distribution and M&A. For more information, visit www.manattdigitalmedia.com.

About Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, is one of the nation's leading law firms, with offices strategically located in California (Los Angeles, Orange County, Palo Alto, San Francisco and Sacramento), New York (New York City and Albany) and Washington, D.C. The firm represents a sophisticated client base — including Fortune 500, middle-market and emerging companies — across a range of practice areas and industry sectors. For more information, visit www.manatt.com.

CONTACT:

Jacob Moon, 801-461-9797, [email protected]
Method Communications

SOURCE Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP