Daily Journal Names Christopher Spicer to 40 Under 40 List

April 12, 2017

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Jacinta O'Shea-Ramdeholl

Director of Communications

Sarah Richmond

Senior Communications Manager

(Los Angeles) – Daily Journal has named Akin Gump entertainment partner Christopher Spicer to its “40 Under 40” list, which honors the top young lawyers in California.

Mr. Spicer was lauded for helping to put together several multimillion dollar deals between financial institutions and independent filmmakers in 2016 and 2017, which he said ranged from “cross-border ventures with Chinese companies to financing deals for Netflix, Amazon, and everything in between.”

Some of Mr. Spicer’s largest recent deals included representing banks, such as East West Bank, as lender to finance projects such as Marshall, which received a $5 million loan, and The Discovery, which received a $17 million loan. As counsel for Comerica Bank, he secured a $51 million loan for the film John Wick 2 and a $21 million loan for the Netflix television series Dear White People.

Mr. Spicer observed that the entertainment finance landscape is changing, which is “definitely making for interesting negotiations and investments for the film industry.” Increased regulations on cross-border transactions implemented by the Chinese government are the latest challenge, though he said cross-border deals will continue to keep him busy.

“We just need to understand that everything is going to be a lot more closely scrutinized, for deals both coming in and going out of China. Our administration is going to do what it needs to do, but the deals that make sense are ideally going to still happen,” Mr. Spicer said. “It’s definitely something to keep an eye on.”

Earlier this month, Variety included Mr. Spicer and four others at Akin Gump in its Legal Impact Report, a list of the top lawyers working in Hollywood. (Click here to read more about that.)

Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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