Of Counsel
Areas of Practice:
- Business and Corporate Law
- Securities and Corporate Governance
- Intellectual Property
- Entertainment Law
Steve Papkin advises clients in a wide range of business, entertainment and intellectual property matters. His clients have included some the largest and most-sophisticated companies in the world to start-up ventures and independent producers. His experience at top-notch international law firms gives him the ability to advise on not only day-to-day business matters but also to structure mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance arrangements, secured transactions, securities offerings and employee equity incentive plans. He can prepare documents for all types of business, commercial and investment relationships including LLC agreements, incorporation documents, credit documents, securities materials, entertainment agreements and intellectual property licenses.
His securities experience includes Regulation D and Regulation S offerings as well as PIPE (private investment/public equity) transactions. He has also advised on Rule 144 and Rule 701 transactions.
He has served as corporate counsel to numerous entertainment ventures. He has helped his entertainment clients acquire scripts and motion-picture rights to best-selling books. He has also assisted with fundraising by drafting private placement memorandums (PPMs), LLC agreements and other arrangements between producers and investors. He has advised on feature motion pictures, documentaries, and both scripted and unscripted (reality) television programs. Mr. Papkin has also represented writers and other talent in negotiations and contract drafting. Mr. Papkin has also advised on obtaining, protecting and licensing trademarks and copyrights.
Mr. Papkin obtained his J.D. from Harvard Law School and obtained his A.B. in Social Studies from Harvard. He served for one year as a foreign law clerk for the Japanese law firm of Yanagida, Nomura and Akai in Tokyo.
He began his legal career at the firm of Rogers & Wells (1995-1996, now Clifford Chance) in New York where his work included securities and municipal finance. He was then recruited to the New York office Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (1996-1999) where his work focused on securities and large, syndicated secured loans. Next, he relocated to Los Angeles where he worked for Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy, LLP (1999-2005), where he represented large private equity funds, public companies and large commercial banks in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance matters, complex restructurings and intercreditor agreements and secured lending. Since 2005, Mr. Papkin has been, at various times, a solo practitioner and affiliated with smaller Southern California firms, and he began working with clients in the areas of entertainment and intellectual property. In 2010, Mr. Papkin proudly became Of Counsel to Carico Johnson & Toomey, LLP.