Sabrina Silverberg is Counsel in Hughes Hubbard & Reed’s Corporate and Mergers & Acquisitions practice group and Chair of the Firm’s Media & Entertainment practice group. Her practice focuses on representing clients – including publicly-traded companies – in the media and entertainment industry on a variety of matters, including strategic partnerships, content development and production, talent deals, endorsement deals, brand licensing, marketing and sponsorship relationships, music rights strategy and labor and employment, as well as strategic advice on a wide range of industry-relevant matters. These include complex cross border transactions, digital media production, distribution and acquisition, intellectual property, advertising and marketing compliance, corporate governance and data privacy. Sabrina also advises a wide variety of clients on complex technology transactions. She has extensive experience with first impression deals and matters in areas of complex rights and emerging technology, including advising on matters involving artificial intelligence.
Since joining Hughes Hubbard in early 2023, Sabrina has advised on several significant deals related to esports, cryptocurrency and other aspects of media, entertainment and technology, representing industry leaders like The Madison Square Garden Company, Advance Publications, Inc. and Gemini Trust Company.
Prior to joining Hughes Hubbard, Sabrina was global Deputy General Counsel at Condé Nast, where she helped build Condé Nast’s first globally integrated Legal & Policy department. Prior to that, Sabrina built up a notable technology startup’s legal functions, including data protection and other compliance programs. Sabrina has also headed the business affairs function for a publicly traded leading publisher of interactive entertainment.
Sabrina began her career at Weil, Gotshal & Manges as an Associate in the Trade Practices & Regulatory Law Department, specializing in intellectual property and First Amendment litigation. She later worked at NBC and at MTV Networks (now Paramount Media Networks), where she served in a variety of different roles, including as Executive Vice President, MTVN Music Strategy & Relations and as General Counsel & Senior Vice President, Business Affairs for VH1 and CMT.
Over the course of her career, Sabrina has also served as General Counsel of Heed, LLC, a start-up social Internet of Things platform whose shareholders included Endeavor, SoftBank and AGT International, and as Senior Vice President, Head of Business Affairs & Associate General Counsel for Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., a publicly traded interactive entertainment company.
Sabrina serves on the Board for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, a legal aid and education organization dedicated to protecting New York’s artists and its arts and cultural organizations by providing access to free or low-fee legal services. She received her J.D. from New York University Law School and her B.A. in Political Science from Hunter College.
Experience
Provide strategic advice on legal matters relating to entertainment, licensing, digital products, platforms and services, corporate, advertising revenue, consumer revenue, consumer regulations, events, advertising and marketing compliance and policies, data privacy, technology and procurement.
Devise deal terms / parameters, playbooks and policies related to the development, production, distribution and acquisition of domestic and international film, television, digital video and podcast content.
Provide strategic advice regarding talent agreements, literary option and purchase agreements, life rights agreements, development agreements, attachment/collaboration agreements, financing agreements, producer agreements, writer agreements, co-production agreements and production services agreements. Advise on union/guild-related matters.
Provide advice related to intellectual property strategy and protection.
Provide strategic advice regarding complex technology transactions.
Provide advice related to ad tech compliance and compliance with consumer protection statutes and regulations.
Highlighted Matters
Representation of Cyclerion Therapeutics, Inc. in the sale of the rights to two drugs to a company newly-formed by certain existing Cyclerion shareholders and venture capital firms in exchange for cash and shares of stock in the new company.
Representation of MSG Sports in connection with the combination of Counter Logic Gaming, of which MSG Sports previously owned a controlling interest, with NRG, a professional gaming and entertainment company. As a result of the transaction, MSG Sports now owns a noncontrolling equity interest in the larger, combined NRG/CLG company.
Representation of The Madison Square Garden Company and TAO Group Hospitality in the sale of TAO Group Hospitality to global investment company Mohari Hospitality
Representation of media company Advance Publications Inc. and its portfolio company 1010data, a leading provider of enterprise analytics, in the sale of 1010data to SymphonyAI
Representation of Gemini Trust Company in connection with bankruptcies resulting from 2022 “crypto winter” to position itself as a top crypto exchange
Representing Indian hotel OYO on its acquisition of G6 Hospitality, the parent company of U.S. hospitality brand Motel 6
