Now Headlining in California When the Stakes Couldn’T Be Higher, These Lawyers Got the Stakes, High-Stress Matters Against Formidable Opponents

2012

Now Headlining in California When the stakes couldn’t be higher, these lawyers got the stakes, high-stress matters against formidable opponents. For call. many of the honorees, one blockbuster matter was hardly the only They handled market-moving deals and industry-shaping liti- thing on their plates. They juggled a number of challenging mat- gation. They achieved precedent-setting outcomes and secured ters at once, testing their skills in new ways. hard-fought wins that enriched their clients or kept them from For our fourth annual contest, we considered only California life prison terms. That’s why these 20 lawyers have been named lawyers litigating cases in California courts or handling deals for The Recorder’s 2012 Attorneys of the Year. California-based clients. Our winners did battle in courtrooms or boardrooms in high- What they all did, though, was deliver when it mattered most.

Matt Galsor dential, is unique because Ubisoft Greenberg Glusker retains some cre- ative control, Gal- In 1963, B-movie producer Roger Cor- sor says. Tradi- man gave Francis Ford Coppola his first tionally game- directing job. Corman would go on to take makers have chances on countless other soon-to-be nothing to do with household names, like James Cameron the film adapta- and Ron Howard. In the late ’90s, Corman tion, making the would also take a chance on a young law “Assassin’s Creed” student named Matt Galsor. deal particularly Galsor is now entertainment chair at novel for its col- Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & laborative nature, Machtinger in Los Angeles and counts Galsor says. The Cameron among his many famous cli- deal was also ents. unique because it A little more than a decade after he land- was packaged to ed a job with Corman, Galsor is brokering already include its deals between studios and actors, grabbing star and co-pro-

his share of splashy headlines from enter- ducer, Michael DOIY JASON tainment trade magazines for major deals Fassbender. between video game companies and mov- Why the novel approach? Video games Galsor hasn’t always been focused on ie studios. In 2012, Galsor negotiated a deal remade as movies usually struggle to con- working collaboratively, though. He ma- between Ubisoft Entertainment and New nect with the games’ audiences, Galsor jored in philosophy in college, a time in Regency Enterprises to make the wildly says. which he said he spent a lot of time alone popular “Assassin’s Creed” game into a “It seems that you need to somehow and thinking. He even contemplated pur- movie. The deal garnered so much atten- bring in the game people and their exper- suing a career in philosophy. tion Variety magazine named it the sixth tise and have their input on how this works “I was weighing it for a long time,” he most important of the year. to make sure the gamers adopt the movie,” said. “Homeless, or law school?” he says. The deal, whose terms are largely confi- — Cynthia Foster