London, England, United Kingdom
Specialties: Film, television and other audiovisual rights, finance, production and exploitation. Sam's practice covers all areas of film and TV rights, finance, production and exploitation work and includes: • Advising film and TV producers on production, financing, licensing and distribution arrangements on feature films, children’s TV properties, ITV dramas and entertainment shows, advising on production contracts, financing arrangements with banks and other financiers, distribution and other forms of exploitation (merchandising, licencing and format transactions). • Acting for film financiers on the provision of equity investments into films. • Acting for various UK based banks on their film and television financing activities, in relation to single picture film financing transactions (gap finance, pre-sale finance and lending against the UK Film Tax Credit) and television financing arrangements. Establishing the documentation pursuant to which banks lend against the BBC, C4 and Sky commissioning contracts.
Whilst Sam’s practice is primarily focused on finance, he also acts for producers (film, TV and animation) and completion guarantors. On the finance side he acts for a wide range of financiers: banks, other senior debt and gap financiers, mezzanine and equity financiers, and financiers based a variety of jurisdictions: in the UK, Europe and the US. He is particularly active in advising US based financiers in lending against various European audiovisual rebates (Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, Georgia and The Netherlands) and advising lenders funding against SVOD licence payments.
Sam's practice at Davenport Lyons covered all areas of film and TV rights, finance, production and exploitation work and included: • Advising film and TV producers on production, financing, licensing and distribution arrangements on feature films, children’s TV properties, ITV dramas and entertainment shows, advising on production contracts, financing arrangements with banks and other financiers, distribution and other forms of exploitation (merchandising, licencing and format transactions). • Principal adviser to Royal Bank of Scotland on their film and TV financing activities - Sam advised RBS on over 70 film and TV financing transactions between 2000 and 2007. • Advising UK Banks on numerous ITV financing transactions including various seasons of Poirot, Trial and Retribution, Above Suspicion, Midsomer Murders, Wild At Heart and Skins. • Acting for film financiers on the provision of equity investments into films.
On qualification Sam was interested to explore the legal side of capital markets, so joined on of the debt capital markets teams at Clifford Chance where he worked in stand alone bonds and MTN programmes.
Sam completed his training at Frere Cholmeley Bischoff, doing a variety of seats including an IP litigation seat and (best of all) an international law seat in Paris.
Office Assistant at the Koebler Clinic, an AIDS clinic at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital. Duties were tracking down patients notes and collating them in advance of clinics. Earning money for trip to Guatemala before law school.