LevatoLaw

Although you rarely hear it in his voice today, Eric Reid was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, before landing in Los Angeles by way of Washington D.C. and New York.  He is one of the entertainment and media sector’s highly-regarded veterans with over 25 years of corporate and transactional practice and operational experience.  Eric’s practice covers a broad range, from general corporate, finance and transactional matters, to production, financing and distribution of feature film, television productions and digital media.  He also provides strategic and operational advice to investors and companies in numerous sectors including both traditional and new media.

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Eric is the former General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of the Lakeshore Entertainment Group, which Eric joined as a start-up in 1996.  From 1996 to 2019, Eric was pivotal in growing Lakeshore Entertainment into a leading film production, sales and distribution company.  He eventually led the company’s sale as Co-Chief Executive Officer in late 2019.  During his tenure, Eric oversaw all aspects of the company’s business, legal, and administrative operations, all corporate and finance transactions, as well as all motion picture development, production, and distribution businesses and operations.

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Previously, Eric was a member of the Corporate and Transactional Practice at O’Melveny & Myers in New York, representing clients engaged in finance/banking transactions and mergers and acquisitions.  He later joined the firm’s Entertainment and Media Practice in O’Melveny & Myers’ Century City office, and represented banks, studios and production companies in entertainment finance and corporate transactions, motion picture production and intellectual property licensing.  

 

Key Areas of Experience/Practice

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• General Corporate and Transactional.  Determining and implementing corporate structures, including the formation, maintenance and dissolution of corporate entities in multiple jurisdictions.  Corporate transactions, including purchase and sale of equity and/or corporate assets.  General counsel services.

 

• Capital Structuring and Capital Raises.  From single-purpose loan financings to sophisticated syndicated credit facilities.  Structured asset-based lending, including film and television libraries, motion picture production credits, sales forecast credits, tax credit financing, and theatrical print and advertising financing. 

 

• Corporate Mezzanine Finance and Equity Transactions.  Complex mezzanine and second lien debt facilities and corporate level equity sale/buyout transactions.  Structuring third-party corporate and motion picture equity investments (individual films to multi-film slate transactions).

 

• Studio Production, Financing and Distribution Arrangements.  Major or mini-major film studio partnership arrangements, including single picture worldwide distribution agreements, as well as multi-film slate partnerships and distribution arrangements. 

 

• Motion Picture Production.  Business and legal for theatrical motion picture productions – from rights acquisitions, to talent agreements, crew and location agreements, union agreements, visual effects work, through delivery of the final film in all media. 

 

• Worldwide Film and Television Licensing.  Worldwide film and television licensing, including distribution output arrangements.  Multi-territorial licensing arrangements for new theatrical films and for library film and television content.

 

• Film and Television Library.  Overseeing valuation work for motion picture and television libraries and intellectual property targeted for acquisition or for potential equity and/or debt partnerships. 

 

• Distressed Asset Management.  Business, legal and operational experience in the distressed asset sector.  Extracting maximized value from compromised companies and transactions.  Strategic advising as well as process oversight and management of operations.