Variety Names Eight O’Melveny Partners to its 2026 Legal Impact Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CENTURY CITY—April 9, 2026— Variety has named eight O’Melveny partners to its 2026 “Legal Impact Report,” which recognizes entertainment’s top dealmakers and litigators. The annual special report honored a four-partner team from O’Melveny’s Entertainment and Media Litigation Group and a four-partner team from O’Melveny’s Entertainment and Media Transactions Group. 

The Litigation Team’s profile featured Trial Practice chair and firm vice chair Daniel Petrocelli, Entertainment and Media Group co-chair Molly Lens, partner Matt Kline, and partner Cassandra Seto. Variety lauded the team for their work on several headline-making matters.

Recognized among the nation’s most esteemed trial lawyers and strategic advisors, Petrocelli has a national trial practice counseling and representing clients in major litigation in a wide variety of areas, including entertainment, sports, media, antitrust, competition, business torts, insurance, securities, employment law, and criminal defense.

Lens is a versatile and accomplished lawyer with a broad litigation practice that spans copyright, employment, and other disputes in the entertainment and media space. Clients routinely turn to Lens to represent them not only in high-profile litigation, but also to advise them on sensitive internal matters, including allegations of misconduct and discrimination.

Kline is a seasoned, nationally recognized first-chair trial and appellate lawyer with a broad litigation practice. He is also a leading copyright and trademark practitioner who handles high-profile, precedent-setting cases for major entertainment studio clients.

Seto is an experienced and accomplished litigator with expertise in copyright and trademark issues, First Amendment law, complex contract disputes, and business torts. Her clients include leaders in the entertainment, media, music, and technology spaces.

The Transactions Team’s profile featured Entertainment and Media Group co-chair Amy Siegel, MediaTech Group co-chair Matthew Syrkin, partner Silvia Vannini, and partner Leif Cervantes de Reinstein. Variety recognized their work on numerous industry-shaping deals.

Siegel focuses her practice primarily on complex commercial licensing arrangements, with deep experience in the use of intellectual property rights in connection with film and television content exploitation, theme parks and other location-based entertainment venues, sports and other live events, as well as marketing campaigns and unique branding initiatives. She also has broad experience advising US and international clients on industry-specific mergers and acquisitions, the creation of strategic alliances, and the launch of innovative products and services.

Syrkin specializes in delivering business and strategic legal counsel across a wide variety of commercial and corporate transactions. He is known for his pioneering work in structuring deals that are at the cutting-edge of technology, advertising, media, entertainment, sports, retail products, and financial services. Syrkin’s practice is at the forefront of convergence, whether it’s helping define the future of interactive arena technologies or launching global streaming services.

Vannini advises public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions, securities, and general corporate matters, including corporate governance, both in and out of the entertainment industry. She regularly represents private equity funds, domestic and foreign companies, motion picture studios, television networks, as well as entrepreneurial clients, on a wide range of corporate transactions, including company formation and structuring, acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, strategic alliances, financings, and dispositions.

Cervantes de Reinstein is a distinguished deal lawyer and strategist in the media sector. He leverages his nearly 30 years as an M&A and finance attorney, talent lawyer, and studio executive to holistically counsel major studios, streamers, banks, financiers, and rightsholders on elite corporate and intellectual property transactions. He also acts as an outside business operations analyst and general counsel to his clients in structuring and negotiating equity, financing, licensing, content, and rights deals.

Variety’s full report can be viewed here.

O’Melveny has been synonymous with entertainment law since Hollywood’s Golden Age of the 1930s. The firm has repeatedly helped major players in film, television, digital media, production and distribution, technology, gaming, music, and finance forge groundbreaking deals and resolve high-profile disputes. As shifting financial models and technological advances transform today’s entertainment and media business, O’Melveny remains a firm of choice for industry leaders.

About O’Melveny

It’s more than what you do: it’s how you do it. Across sectors and borders, in board rooms and courtrooms, we measure our success by yours. And in our interactions, we commit to making your O’Melveny experience as satisfying as the outcomes we help you achieve. Our greatest accomplishment is ensuring that you never have to choose between premier lawyering and exceptional service. So, tell us. What do you want to achieve? Visit us at www.omm.com; learn more in our firm at-a-glance; and find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Contact:

Brandon Jacobsen
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
+1 213 430 8024
bjacobsen@omm.com

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