Victoria L. Spencer

VICTORIA “TORI” SPENCER’s practice centers on complex corporate matters for clients in the entertainment, sports, and media industries. She serves as a trusted advisor on a wide range of strategic transactions and business matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and debt financing transactions, and complex commercial agreements. Tori also counsels clients on intellectual property matters, helping clients navigate the development, production, and exploitation of their content and brands.

With a practice deeply rooted in the dynamics of the entertainment, sports, and media landscape, Tori represents studios, production companies, sports teams, investors, financial institutions, and other industry participants in both marquee transactions and ongoing advisory matters.

While attending law school, Tori served on the UCLA Law Review and was a Masin Family Academic Excellence Award scholar. She also externed for The Honorable Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Prior to practicing law, Tori was a book editor in New York City, where she edited multiple New York Times best sellers.

Motion Picture and Television

• Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s independent production company Artists Equity, backed by Gerry Cardinale’s Red Bird Capital, in connection with its senior secured credit facility with JP Morgan and its production facility with East West Bank.
• Shamrock Capital Advisors and certain of its affiliates in its strategic investment in acquiring a participation in New Regency, a leading independent entertainment company.
• A24, in a wide range of financing, co-financing, and commercial transactions.
• The Gersh Agency (the only remaining major talent agency without outside investment) and the Gersh family members, in a strategic partnership with private equity firm Crestview Partners, to support the agency’s next phase of growth.
• ZMC , a leading private equity firm focused on media, entertainment, communications, and technology, in the sale of 9 Story Media Group to Scholastic, valued at US$186 million.
• Center for Investigative Reporting in connection with the development of a documentary film.

Music

• A sponsor consortium comprised of global asset manager DWS Group (as sponsor and investment advisor to an investor consortium) and specialist investor in and manager of media music rights Cutting Edge Group (as lead investor and manager) in the creation of a joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery that constitutes one of the largest and highest valued music rights deals ever executed covering almost a century’s worth of music copyrights (over 400,000 compositions and song cues – including the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, DC Comics movies, as well as TV shows such as Friends, Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Succession, and The White Lotus).

Sports and Live Events

• Monumental Sports & Entertainment in connection with the financing for the transformation of Capital One Arena.
• Live Nation Entertainment and its joint venture with Fenway Sports Group in connection with a US$45,000,000 construction financing for The Wylie, a new 4,000-seat music venue located adjacent to PPG Paints Arena, home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, in downtown Pittsburgh.
• NWSL Kansas City Current, Kansas City’s professional women’s soccer team, on its development of a new, 11,000-seat stadium, which will be the first stadium developed primarily for a women’s pro soccer team in the U.S.

Other Select Matters

• Castle Creek Capital in the following engagements:
  • as a selling shareholder in connection with Northpointe Bancshares, Inc.’s initial public offering.
  • its definitive securities purchase agreement with Blue Ridge Bankshares, Inc. (NYSE American: BARBS).