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Leif Cervantes de Reinstein

Partner,
Sheppard Mullin
Mr. Reinstein is a leading entertainment attorney for all business transactions related to television, digital and feature films. He has a strong focus in all commercial and legal aspects of scripted TV and streamed programming. Having previously worked in corporate finance, been a partner at a talent boutique law firm, and led an in-house team at Fremantle, Mr. Reinstein is a "go-to" outside general counsel and business affairs lawyer who advises his clients from all sides of the table. He also represents writers, directors, actors, and production companies, especially those seeking to amplify their industry presence via financier relationships, studio-building, and digital & advertiser deals. New entrants to the television marketplace, in particular, hire Mr. Reinstein to help them ramp up their TV units and portfolios. He represents all categories of institutions looking to finance, produce and license or own content including media conglomerates, major television networks and premium subscription video on demand (SVOD) exhibitors, feature film and TV studios, advertisers, well-leveraged production companies, equity funds, foreign investors and high-net worth individuals. Mr. Reinstein adds value to his clients’ businesses by providing them with commercial dealmaking prowess, complicated rights and chain-of-title analysis, company structuring and operations advice, risk management, leveraging of his industry relationships, and general marketplace strategy.
Mr. Reinstein also leads media teams on mergers and acquisitions; handles entertainment-related investment agreements and joint ventures; and negotiates successful U.S. and overseas television and SVOD licenses, co-production and co-financing arrangements. He recently structured a venture between three networks to start a new SVOD platform for British content, Britbox. On the corporate media front, Mr. Reinstein advised Miramax on its sale to beIN Media, Fremantle in its purchase of Italian studio Wildside and a music publishing company on film/TV/live stage assets in its $600-million acquisition of a library.
Throughout his 20+ year career, Mr. Reinstein has been at the forefront of digital media. He has worked with new media companies since the Internet’s inception and, while in-house, led programming initiatives for Fremantle’s digital unit. He has since parlayed that experience into advising streaming exhibitors from their earliest stages of organization, helping them to build studio divisions, and assimilating them to the entertainment industry landscape and practices. Mr. Reinstein now represents some of the largest and most premium SVOD platforms, plus has helped or assists emerging new media market entrants like Britbox, SoulPancake and IMG.
Some of Mr. Reinstein’s recent small-screen projects include “The New Pope”, “Untitled M. Night Shyamalan Project”, "Yellowstone", "Our Lady, LTD", "Wu Assassins", "The I-Land", "America to Me", "The Rookie", "Twin Peaks", "The Young Pope", "UnREAL", and "Central Park Five". Mr. Reinstein has also worked on recent feature films like “Rocketman”, the "Halloween" reboot, the Coen Brothers' "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", "Under the Silver Lake", and "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile".
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mr. Reinstein is a Hollywood insider and authority on the film and TV business. He is also well-versed in corporate, finance and digital matters, all of which uniquely informs his advice to clients in an increasingly inter-disciplinary time for content creation. Mr. Reinstein offers bespoke solutions to the most complicated and high-level audiovisual issues, deals and projects. He prides himself on informed, holistic counsel at all stages of the pipeline - from creative inception and company capitalization, through to content development and production, and finally in helping with monetization strategies for programming, films and libraries. With this suite of services, Mr. Reinstein is a lawyer who helps to maximize creative companies’ and individuals’ brands and value. Mr. Reinstein is a member of the firm's
Out at Sheppard LGBTQ Group.