Strong growth of the media, entertainment and sports sectors in the past year has brought a sense of optimism to lawyers specialising in this field and has resulted in several personnel movements in this niche practice. Veteran media and entertainment lawyer Allen Wang is one of the lawyers to have made a move – he has left Jincheng Tongda & Neal to join Yingke as the lead partner in the firm’s media and entertainment team.

Wang has represented a long list of individuals and businesses in film, television, music, and print and new media industries. His clients include industry leaders such as Hunan Radio & TV Media Holdings, Beijing Television, Shenzhen Vanke Movie & TV and Huayi Brothers Media Group. He is particularly recognised for his strengths in IP, compliance and dispute resolution.

According to Wang, the entertainment market, particularly the music, magazine and reality TV-type sectors, are set to boom. “Judging on the increasing number of PE investors and investments, the increasing number of channels, the new standard and quality of existing media companies, the number of performances down to the number of people who are watching movies, 2010 is beginning of the peak of the entertainment and media industry,” said Wang, who added that the type of legal advice related to entertainment work has also changed.

While only a year ago, most entertainment-related legal advice surrounded copyright and licensing issues, 2010 has seen an increasing appreciation for legal risk assessment and due diligence work by the entertainment industry. ALB

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