Tom Ara > DLA Piper LLP (US) > Los Angeles (Century City), United States > Lawyer Profile

Tom Ara

+1 310-595-3110 tom.ara@dlapiper.com View profile

Work Department

Intellectual Property and Technology; Trademark and Copyright; Finance; Corporate; Media, Sport and Entertainment; Financial Services

Position

Partner; Co-Chair, Entertainment Transactions Practice; Co-Chair Entertainment Finance Practice

Career

Tom K. Ara focuses his practice on entertainment and media industry transactions, both domestic and international. He represents banks, private equity groups, hedge funds, investors and borrowers in financing and strategic industry transactions. In addition, he advises feature film studios, television networks, production companies, Internet and mobile-based content producers and distributors in corporate transactions as well as in the development, production and distribution of feature films, television programs and digital content. Tom’s clients also include entertainment, media and technology companies employing new methods and technologies to produce and distribute content and content experiences, including through augmented and virtual reality platforms, as well as financiers and investors active in these areas.

Tom has been involved in a multitude of transactions throughout the world in both traditional media and emerging technologies, representing media companies, financiers and industry participants of all types in financing and strategic industry transactions. Tom has successfully counseled his clients in connection with billions of dollars of complex financing, corporate and M&A transactions involving some of the most successful feature film and television franchises, as well as iconic comic book properties. As one of the early legal pioneers from the West to serve the Asian media and entertainment market, Tom offers valuable insights to his clients, both as a lawyer and as a trustee of the prestigious Washington, DC-based US-Asia Institute. He has also been involved in numerous complex industry transactions involving Europe and the Middle East.

Memberships

Member, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences; Advisory Board Member, The Blackhouse Foundation; Member of Law360’s 2021 Media & Entertainment Editorial Board; Board Member, Planning Committee, UCLA Entertainment Law Symposium

Education

J.D., Loyola Law School Los Angeles; B.S., San Jose State University