Evie Whiting

EVIE WHITING advises leading motion picture & television studios, production companies, investment funds, financial institutions, and buyers and sellers of professional sports teams, music catalogs and other specialized assets on complex, high-value transactions across the entertainment, sports, and media sectors.

Her practice spans film and television production facilities, slate and single-picture financings, and the production and distribution of film, television, and digital content. She regularly structures and negotiates sophisticated commercial arrangements, including joint ventures, and counsels clients on the acquisition and disposition of content-driven assets.

Evie also represents clients in music financing transactions, including warehouse facilities and securitizations. In the sports sector, she has extensive experience navigating league rules and approval processes in connection with financings, team acquisitions and sales, and stadium and arena development.

Evie frequently speaks on panels covering topics impacting the entertainment industry and has authored articles published by Bloomberg Law, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law.

Evie has been recognized by Chambers USA for California Media & Entertainment: Transactional (2024–2025), with clients remarking that she has “extremely deep knowledge of market practice and is very detail-oriented” and she is “always ahead of the curve. She thinks critically and works practically.” She was named to Law360’s 2025 “Rising Stars” list for Media & Entertainment and was also selected by the Los Angeles Business Journal for its 2024 “Women of Influence: Attorneys” list, which annually spotlights the region’s noteworthy women legal professionals. Evie was recognized by Variety in its “Legal Impact Report” (2023–2025) and its “Dealmakers” list (2025), and was listed as a “Rising Star of Media and Entertainment: Transactional” by Legal 500 United States (2021–2022).

Evie is the former Greater Los Angeles co-chair of SidleyWomen. She remains an active member of the committee. 

Motion Picture and Television

• Shamrock Capital Advisors and certain of its affiliates in various media and entertainment acquisitions and dispositions, including:
  
  • 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, including its senior secured revolving credit facility.
• HarbourView Equity Partners in a variety of entertainment transactions.
• Slate co-financier in a variety of slate transactions.
• Family office in connection with a variety of entertainment investments and related transactions.
• 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.
• Spyglass Media Group in various transactions, including the acquisition of theatrical motion picture rights, various interparty agreements for film co-productions, financing transactions, and other entertainment matters.
• Private credit lender in connection with second lien financing to support a slate co-financing arrangement.
• Imagine Entertainment in connection with certain transactions.
• Rightsholder in connection with the sale of motion picture and television rights relating to a major literary property.
• Animation studio in connection with a wide range of development and production arrangements.
• 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.
• Premium television network in connection with the licensing and production of various television series and miniseries.
• Non-profit organization in the development, production, and exploitation of its Peabody Award-nominated telecast.
• Major independent studio in the proposed securitization of a film library.
• Center for Investigative Reporting in connection with the development, production, and exploitation of feature films, television series, radio shows, podcasts, and documentaries.
• The Computer History Museum in connection with the development and production of its Audible podcast, Women’s Work.
• Production company in the upsize of its credit facility from US$80 million to US$150 million.
• Leading global media and entertainment company ViacomCBS in its acquisition of a 49% stake in MIRAMAX.
• CBS Corporation in its strategic partnership with PatMa Productions, a multiplatform independent production company aimed at amplifying diverse voices.
• Independent content company in its purchase of ownership in certain films.
• Independent content company in various interparty agreements for film co-productions. 
• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Dany Garcia in connection with Molson Coors Beverage Company’s acquisition of a majority ownership stake in ZOA Energy.

Sports

• Monumental Sports & Entertainment in connection with the financing for the transformation of Capital One Arena.
• An investor in the consortium led by Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore that acquired a controlling interest in the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA’s Lynx.
• Monumental Sports & Entertainment in all facets of the negotiations with multiple jurisdictions for a new or renovated arena and sports anchored development project.
• The City of Jacksonville in connection with Jacksonville Jaguars stadium negotiations as well as related ancillary development around the stadium.
• State of New York/Empire State Development as lead counsel in its high-profile public-private partnership with the NFL's Buffalo Bills to build a new US$1.54 billion state-of-the-art, 60,000-plus-seat stadium in Orchard Park, NY.
• 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.
• NWSL Angel City Football Club in its definitive agreement to sell a controlling interest to Willow Bay and Bob Iger in additional to general representation.
• Private credit lender as joint bookrunner, joint lead arranger and lender for a US$195 million senior secured credit facility for a leading sports media and marketing company.
• Lender on the financing of a Formula 1 event.
• David Tepper, founder and president of global hedge fund Appaloosa Management, in his US$2.275 billion acquisition of the NFL Carolina Panthers.
• Game1, a new, cutting-edge sports content studio, in connection with financing matters.

Music/Podcast

• 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.
• Podcaster in connection with deal with platform to create new podcast.
• 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 Half Men, Succession, and The White Lotus).
• Warner Music Group in the formation of a joint venture with Elliot Grainge’s label, 10K Projects, whereby 10K Projects became a standalone label within the WMG ecosystem and its roster of artists, including Trippie Redd and Ice Spice, joined the WMG family.
• Entertainment brand management group in its US$397 million securitization of sound recordings, musical compositions, trademarks, and other IP rights for music library assets.
• Music rights acquisition company in its US$180 million securitization of sound recordings, musical compositions, trademarks, and other IP rights for music library assets.
• Universal Music Group and its affiliates in various media and entertainment transactions.

Some of the above matters were handled prior to joining Sidley.

• FEME (Female Executives in Media and Entertainment)
• Princeton Arts Alumni (Board Member)