At Davis Wright Tremaine, as on Broadway, the show goes on. Months removed from being named Media & Entertainment “Practice Group of the Year” by Law360 for the fourth year running, the firm has made a major addition to its dominant team with the arrival of Carolyn (“Carrie”) Casselman from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Casselman, a transactional lawyer in New York City who joins DWT as a partner, brings extensive experience across the media, sports and entertainment landscape, with a distinctive background advising on live stage productions.
At Paul Weiss, Casselman spent 14 years assisting leading media and entertainment clients on a wide range of deals. She is one of a handful of lawyers nationwide with deep experience in live stage and other performing arts, and also has experience with the intellectual property issues raised in the production and distribution of creative content, whether in television, film, video games, online platforms, and other experiential entertainment.
“The proliferation of new platforms, and the world’s intensifying appetite for entertainment, have expanded opportunities for rights holders of all kinds,” said Alexandra (“Allie”) Nicholson, chair of the media, entertainment & intellectual property practice at DWT. “Carrie’s deep expertise with the content side of M&A, licensing, financing and other strategic transactions significantly expands our capacity to support clients in these areas and perfectly complements our nationally recognized leadership in content review and litigation.”
“Carrie seeks solutions that protect value and manage risk for her clients, whether she’s licensing rights, negotiating production or distribution agreements, or reviewing chain of title,” said Gray Coleman, a longtime DWT partner who helped establish the firm’s entertainment transactions practice in New York two decades ago. “She has been a colleague for years and I’m thrilled to welcome her to our team.”
Over the past year, DWT has dramatically grown its entertainment practice, expanding its team and client base in Los Angeles, New York and Seattle, and strengthening its work in areas such as esports, gaming, metaverse projects and experiential entertainment.
“Davis Wright’s entrepreneurial energy is extremely compelling for a practitioner with my background and range of clients,” said Casselman. “Both in expertise and outlook, the firm is wonderfully positioned to help clients thrive in the continually evolving entertainment landscape. I’m delighted to join this celebrated group and look forward to the synergy of a highly integrated and dynamic team.”
Casselman’s practice covers multiple facets of the media and entertainment business, including producers, financiers, underlying rightsholders, authors, publishers and celebrity personalities. Her experience in the performing arts includes representation of institutional nonprofit theaters as well as producers and financiers of commercial productions. Her background in mergers, acquisitions, and financing includes over a decade as a content specialist in transactions involving film and television libraries, music catalogs, sports teams, video games, and media and sponsorship rights.
Casselman is an adjunct professor in the MFA program at Columbia University School of the Arts, where she received a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Management and Producing. She also guest lectures at Columbia Law School, where she received her law degree, and at Brooklyn College. She received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University.
