Client industry · November 2026

Media & Entertainment: who advises the sector

Dated deals for media & entertainment clients over the last 12 months, the practices and firms behind them, and how lawyers with this focus moved.

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01 The numbers

The last 12 months: November 2025 to October 2026

972
Dated deals, 12 monthsNovember 2025 to October 2026
+4.2%
Year on yearSettled 12-month windows
$753m
Median disclosed value
529
Distinct clients
02 Reading the data

What the data show

From November 2025 to October 2026, Sartori & Partners recorded 972 dated deals for Media & Entertainment clients. Year on year the deal count held level (931 to 970 on settled windows, +4.2%). The deal market as a whole moved +10.6% over the same windows.

Media & Entertainment deals by year

2026 runs to October.

By practice, Corporate & M&A is involved in 33.5% of these deals and Intellectual Property in 26.3%. By deal type, Disputes & investigations is involved in 39.8% of these deals and M&A in 28.0%.

Share of deals involving each practice

Deal value was disclosed on 10.3% of them; where disclosed, the median was $753 million. 529 distinct clients appear across the window.

Where the work is done: share of the sector's deals handled with lawyers in each city

Latham & Watkins ranks first among advising firms, in the 61-100 band; the full top 10 follows as ranks and bands.

Lateral moves by lawyers with this focus, by year

2026 runs to October.

Lawyers whose work centers on Media & Entertainment changed firm 171 times in the same window. Partners were 54.4% of those moves, against 27.7% across the lateral market. Year on year those moves changed +30.7%.

For a company in Media & Entertainment, the adviser table shows where sector experience sits, which is where an in-house hire is most likely to come from.

03 Firms

Firms by rank and band

Each firm appears as a rank and a band, never an exact count, and only with at least 10 moves in the window.

Advising firms ranked by deals, 12 months
RankFirmDeals (band)
1Latham & Watkins61-100
2Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher21-40
3Kirkland & Ellis21-40
4Greenberg Traurig21-40
5Loeb & Loeb21-40
6ArentFox Schiff11-20
7King & Spalding11-20
8Fox Rothschild11-20
9Willkie Farr & Gallagher11-20
10Cravath, Swaine & Moore11-20
04 Explore

Related monitors and reports

Reports

  • Entertainment Lawyers Stay Local: Only 8.6% Switch Cities

    Media and entertainment lawyers rarely leave their city when they change firms, and Los Angeles draws them at an index of 463 against the market. For a company hiring in-house, the bench is the one already in town, and its partner moves rose 65.0% year on year.

    November 11, 2026 · November 2026
  • Media and Entertainment Counsel: Its Own Firm List, Los Angeles Work

    Only two of the ten firms most active on media and entertainment deals also rank in the market's top 10, and the first stands two bands clear of the rest. Disputes are the largest type at 39.8%, and lawyers in Los Angeles worked on media deals 1.9 times as often as on technology deals.

    November 11, 2026 · November 2026

Edition November 2026. Window: November 2025 to October 2026. Source: Sartori & Partners, from public law-firm announcements, firm websites and professional profiles, checked monthly. Methodology. Spot an error? [email protected].

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