On April 9, 2025, Variety spotlighted Lee Brenner, Paul Bernstein, Nick Jacobus, Sam Djahanbani, and Justin Behnam in its 2025 Legal Impact Report. The report profiles individuals who are making a significant impact on the legal industry, featuring litigators and transactional attorneys who focus their practices on film, television, music, theater, and digital media.
“When it comes to AI and deep fakes, it’s new technology, but it’s not new law,” Brenner told Variety. “These are legal issues that we and the courts have dealt with for decades. We have right of publicity laws [and] misappropriation of likeness laws. We and the courts can handle this.” Mr. Brenner, chair of Venable's Entertainment and Media Litigation Group and a member of the firm’s board of directors, is a trial attorney and high-stakes business litigator.
“The Venable quartet facilitated three major management company deals involving private equity firms, advising Entertainment 360 in a strategic investment from Carlyle and Untitled Entertainment and Grandview Entertainment in their respective sales to TPG,” Variety wrote of Bernstein, Jacobus, Djahanbani, and Behnam. “But what really sets them apart is their tax expertise, particularly their deep knowledge of entertainment-specific rules.”
Mr. Bernstein, chair of Venable’s Entertainment Transactions practice, advises clients on complex corporate matters. Mr. Jacobus has a broad range of experience drafting and negotiating business transaction documents, including operating agreements and governing documents, purchase agreements, equity incentive awards, and services agreements. Mr. Djahanbani advises companies and individuals on a broad range of partnership, corporate, and individual taxation matters, with a specific focus on the entertainment industry. Mr. Behnam is a corporate attorney who focuses his practice on the entertainment and media industry.
Click here to learn more about the recognition.