The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Kendall Johnson, a Los Angeles partner, works at the intersection of sports and entertainment, drawing on unique crossover experience to handle complex transactions spanning the industry. She works with a mix of global clients, including professional teams, governing bodies, and other major sports rights holders; networks, studios, streaming platforms, and independent production companies; digital and new media content creators and distributors; private capital and strategic investors; and high-level individual talent.
Kendall previously worked in the Stanford University athletic department as the primary public relations contact for various teams, collaborating closely with television networks and coordinating media efforts for NCAA Championship events.
Sam Lehman, a Los Angeles associate, represents studios, media companies, and other entertainment, media, and technology clients in transactions involving the acquisition, financing, exploitation, and licensing of intellectual property (IP) and media-related assets. Sam’s experience includes advising on M&A and negotiating personal services, sponsorship, and IP licensing agreements in the entertainment, sports, media, and advertising industries.
Sam also has an active pro bono practice focused on finalizing adoptions for Los Angeles area foster families and M&A for pro bono organizations.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
Kendall: I split my practice roughly equally between sports and entertainment, spanning M&A, debt and equity financing transactions, joint ventures, and complex commercial arrangements. On the entertainment side, my practice covers traditional mediums like film and TV, alongside emerging areas such as AI, gaming, and audio content. On the sports side, I handle investments in teams and commercial assets, as well as high-value media and sponsorship deals. For both sports and entertainment clients, I serve as a trusted advisor for aspects of their business, including employment, tax, regulatory, and corporate considerations, and help them structure, negotiate, and execute on larger deals.
Sam: I practice in entertainment, sports, and media (ESM) on the transactional side and have grown into what I consider a Swiss army knife. I work on M&A, financings, initial public offerings (IPOs), and other capital markets transactions; a range of commercial agreements (e.g., licensing, sponsorships, and talent deals); and IP matters involving copyright, trademark, and name/image/likeness (NIL) considerations. I also provide general advice to clients navigating campaigns and activations.
What types of clients do you represent?
Kendall: I represent networks, studios, production companies, sports organizations, governing bodies, high-level individual talent, and investors across the entertainment and sports landscape. I also collaborate with global corporate clients and investors pursuing broader industry assets. Our cross-disciplinary practice operates globally, so I frequently partner with in-house teams and counterparties across geographies and roles.
Sam: I represent a mix of financial institutions, strategics, and operating companies. On the financial side, I represent a number of leading asset managers for music catalog trans-actions and related securitizations. I also handle commercial work for companies native to the entertainment sector and guide clients through everything from podcast acquisitions to naming rights agreements for professional sports venues. In the capital markets space, I’ve been part of teams representing underwriters in offerings with significant content risk, as well as on entertainment spin-offs.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
Kendall: Given the size and scope of the Latham platform, I am lucky to be involved in everything from the largest public company M&A transactions in the industry to bespoke commercial transactions. Some of my recent work includes advising the Pac-12 on its rebuild and media deals, supporting Blumhouse on its acquisition of the Saw franchise, guiding MGM’s sale to Amazon, and working with the International Olympic Committee on the licensing of its media rights. I also frequently advise on talent-driven joint ventures, film financing and distribution transactions, and IP licensing.
Sam: In the past few years, I have built my practice to focus on music corporate and finance transactions, and I was part of the team that advised Skydance on its merger with Paramount, where I had the opportunity to lead on industry diligence and related work. I’ve handled music licensing for Amazon, SoundCloud, and iHeart and represented the underwriters in fitness IPOs, focusing on music licensing risks and disclosures.
How did you choose this practice area?
Kendall: I worked in college sports for three years before law school, and that experience inspired me to pursue a career in sports and entertainment. Practicing in this space lets me participate in high-profile, industry-shaping transactions while staying close to the business. As outside counsel, I handle these deals on a serial basis, rather than once or twice over a career. This combination led me to choose the ESM practice and keep building my career here.
Sam: I took six years between college and law school, moved to Los Angeles, and started dating my now wife, who worked (and still works) in music. My friends all worked or were involved in the industry, which convinced me that I, too, wanted to work around music, sports, film, and art. This was my reason for going to law school. I chose UCLA because it offered strong entertainment coursework, and I focused my job search on finding the right practice area first. Joining Latham’s ESM group was a perfect match, letting me do high-end transactional work inside the industries I care about.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
Kendall: My day centers on conversations with clients, counterparties, and my Latham colleagues to identify issues, creatively solve problems, think through deal architecture, and align stakeholders to get deals done. A practice in our industry requires a lot of relationship-building and bringing people together across geographies and disciplines, so a significant portion of my day-to-day involves working closely with the full scope of the deal team.
Sam: My common tasks blend client communication, drafting, and diligence. As I’ve progressed in my career, I find myself more often on calls, kicking off matters, and walking clients through revised agreements or giving practical guidance on deals and operational matters. I draft and negotiate everything from short releases to 150-page merger agreements, and I read a lot to evaluate contracts for diligence or advise on existing relationships. Roughly half my current workload is M&A, so deal management and coordinating timelines across large document sets are frequent responsibilities.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Kendall: Develop industry fluency and learn to speak the language, then pair that with building a wide base of legal skills that touch entertainment deals, including tax, employment and benefits, debt and equity financing, and IP. Master the fundamentals—clear writing, disciplined drafting, client communication, and project management—which will position you well in a practice that moves as fast and requires as much versatility and curiosity as ESM.
Sam: Entertainment-focused coursework helps you understand the industry’s legal infrastructure, but clinics are even better for practical skills. Equally important, immerse yourself in the business: read the trades, subscribe to newsletters, and follow industry journalists so you know the players, deals, and trends. Non-legal roles at labels, agencies, or production companies, even grassroots roles, demonstrate genuine interest and give you context that translates directly to practice.
What do you like best about your practice area?
Kendall: I love the breadth of people and the collaboration. I work closely with lawyers and clients across geographies, practice groups, and roles, including in-house lawyers at big companies, in-house lawyers at small companies, talent lawyers, studio business affairs and production lawyers, and other BigLaw lawyers. At Latham, we try to always build an A-team of attorneys across the firm to provide the client with the perfect combination of expertise for the deal, so I constantly partner with colleagues. Externally, our counterparties and clients vary widely, which keeps the work interesting and dynamic.
Sam: I enjoy the variety in every aspect: the variety of deal types, clients, and industries. In a single week, I can touch music, sports, film and TV, and talent matters, shifting from a complex merger agreement to a short talent agreement or advising on a campaign. Playing a part in the creation of culture and the arenas where people spend their time and attention energizes me. I also genuinely enjoy our clients and colleagues, who are smart, kind, and eclectic people who see the world in intriguing ways.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
Sam: Junior lawyers focus on high-impact fundamentals, particularly in deal management and due diligence. My own path included drafting starting early, through ancillary documents, short agreements, diligence memos, and analyses, then build-ing toward heavier contract drafting and negotiation. Junior associates frequently join client calls to take notes, learn the dynamics, and begin building relationships. On smaller matters, a junior associate is often one of two or three people on a matter, which means significant client exposure from the start. That setup allows the junior to hone their judgment and leadership early, graduating to building larger relationships and running teams over time.
How do you see this practice area evolving in the future?
Kendall: The industry changes constantly, driven by technology, consumer behavior, consolidation, and shifting investor interest. The deals we do today look totally different than the deals we did 5 or 10 years ago. I expect tech to keep reshaping content creation and consumption, which will continue to influence deal structures and strategy across entertainment. The college sports landscape is truly a new frontier: NIL, conference realignment, and evolving governance have created unique investor opportunities. These changes require us to innovate alongside our clients to adapt and execute in real time.
Sam: I see two powerful trends reshaping ESM. First, finance is now deeply embedded in entertainment, especially in music. Investors and strategics have become highly sophisticated, and structures like asset-backed securitizations have moved from rare to routine. Second, AI continues to accelerate change across content creation and distribution, introducing novel legal issues and new market players. For us and our clients, this means rethinking deal terms, IP frameworks, and risk allocation.
What are some typical career paths for lawyers in this practice area?
Kendall: Practicing in sports and entertainment creates a uniquely valuable skill set, as you combine BigLaw rigor with deep industry fluency. Our alumni often move in-house to studios, tech companies, and sports organizations, where the blend of transactional and commercial experience proves immediately useful. Some attorneys also move into talent-side work.
Many choose to stay and grow at Latham, where the outside-counsel model offers a seat at the table on high-profile, industry-shaping deals—repeatedly. Whatever path you choose, the blend of industry fluency and transactional rigor gained by building a practice in ESM will translate into strong opportunities.