Evie Whiting

EVIE WHITING is a trusted adviser to motion picture studios, television studios, production companies, investment funds, team owners and acquirers of professional sports teams, owners and acquirers of music catalogs, and financial institutions, blending complex, highly technical deal work with a deep entertainment, sports, and media knowledge base. She regularly counsels clients in a variety of matters related to the entertainment, sports and media industries, including film and television production facilities, film slate financing, single picture financing, production and distribution of motion pictures, television, and digital content, complex commercial arrangements in the entertainment sports and media space (including joint ventures), buying and selling of content-related assets, as well as a variety of financing-related issues in the sports and music businesses.

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 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 and multi-project production facility.
• 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.

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 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

Sports

• 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.
• 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

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

• FEME (Female Executives in Media and Entertainment)