SmithDehn LLP Expands Hollywood Film and TV Practice; Adds LA Entertainment Attorney Jeff Holmes

In a significant expansion of SmithDehn LLP's entertainment law practice, involving for the first time a year-round, physical presence of our firm in Los Angeles, acclaimed LA media and entertainment attorney Jeff Holmes has joined us. The addition of Jeff complements our work for an already growing Hollywood clientele, which has included Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Media Rights Capital, and HBO, as well as top-notch talent such as Sacha Baron Cohen, for whom we have been production and claims counsel in relation to "Ali G," "Borat," and "Bruno."

Jeff has vast experience in every aspect of legal work for television and film production companies and projects. As Executive Vice President of MGM Worldwide Television, Vice President for Business Affairs at Twentieth Century Fox, and COO and Executive Vice President of Skouras Pictures, and in the course of his later private practice, Jeff has become a leading expert in his field.

At MGM, where the Chairman of the Board publicly described Jeff as the company’s “superstar," Jeff reported directly to the President and was responsible for all legal aspects of the company's television division. In particular, Jeff negotiated and oversaw the administration of TV output and volume licensing agreements (including such deals as the renewal of the MGM/Showtime pay-TV output agreement in the United States — one of the largest deals in MGM’s history). Jeff also helped establish and supervise the administration of MGM's interests in basic and pay TV channels in Latin America (CineCanal, Telecine, and MGM Networks Latin America), Portugal (Telecine Portugal), Japan (Star Channel), Australia (Optus), Israel (TelAd), India (Zee), and Turkey (Digiturk). Jeff also negotiated co-production and acquisition agreements for films and TV series, supervised and resolved the day-to-day issues of MGM's TV and advertising sales offices in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, London, Sydney, and Hong Kong, and handled issues involving MGM’s Technical Services, Rights Clearance, and Contract Administration departments.

At Twentieth Century Fox, Jeff created and implemented a program to acquire distribution rights to independent feature films, negotiated and drafted TV output agreements throughout the world, negotiated and drafted co-production and format agreements, administered acquisition of third party libraries (involving a wide variety of contract, collection, and agency issues), and supervised in-house counsel.

At Skouras Pictures, the distributor of acclaimed films such as "The Comfort of Strangers," “My Life As A Dog” and "Blood Simple," Jeff reported directly to the CEO, and managed all aspects of production, acquisition, distribution, financial planning, business affairs, and legal functions. Jeff also was a member of the Board of Directors, participated in taking the company public, and negotiated and implemented a wide variety of agreements, including pay, pay-per-view, syndication, and basic television agreements, international subdistribution licenses, an acquisition and distribution agreement with Paramount Pictures (under which about 30 first-run films were acquired and distributed), a series of joint venture acquisition and distribution agreements, financing agreements, and an asset purchase agreement for the sale of the company's film library. Jeff also oversaw motion picture production (including the negotiation of interparty agreements, talent negotiations, and budget review), and prepared and implemented significant overhead reductions, while liaising with outside counsel, auditors, producers, subdistributors, and lenders.

In his personal life, Jeff has many interests, especially involving world travel and adventure. He is a Director of the Adventurer's Club of Los Angeles, a group of explorers, travelers, journalists, authors and scientists who have gone, for example, to the rough country of Baja California, to the summit of Mount Ararat and the Matterhorn, to the Amazon jungles and over the Humac Mountains into Brazil from French Guiana, to Antarctica and the length of the Mackenzie River to the Artic, to rivers of the Nile and Congo, river runs of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and El Sumidero Canyon of Mexico, to the "Lost World in Venezuela," the jungles of New Guinea, the outback in Australia, on small craft to numerous islands of the Pacific, and to many other places.