LOS ANGELES— The Los Angeles Times and The Envelope magazine named Covington lawyers Hardy Ehlers, David Lefebvre, and Neema Sahni to its Entertainment Business Visionaries list, which honors the top professionals providing essential advisory services to key players in the entertainment industry. This marks the third consecutive year that David and Neema have received the honor.
Hardy is based in Covington’s Los Angeles office and is an experienced and creative litigator who represents clients in their most sensitive, complex, and high-stakes litigation matters in state and federal court, with a particular expertise in entertainment and media disputes. He has shaped the core legal arguments in some of the industry’s most consequential cases, including precedent-setting matters involving copyright infringement, trademark disputes, intellectual property and contract claims, and consumer protection actions. Alongside an active litigation docket, he maintains a counseling and advisory practice, assisting media clients in assessing and mitigating their litigation risk in the context of high-stakes business transactions. Hardy has been named to Variety’s Legal Impact Report three times.
Based in Covington’s Los Angeles office, David is a senior commercial transactions lawyer widely recognized for his depth in media and entertainment transactions, with more than a decade of experience advising media, sports, technology, and consumer-facing companies on complex, high-stakes commercial arrangements, including the content, distribution, and platform dimensions of transformational transactions. His practice spans content licensing, distribution, platform, and monetization matters at the intersection of media, digital technology, and regulated industries. He also counsels leading companies in artificial intelligence, advertising technology, and digital platforms on complex commercial agreements involving emerging regulatory considerations. David has previously been named to Variety’s Dealmakers Impact Report, the Los Angeles Business Journal’s M&A Leaders of Influence and Minority Leaders of Influence, and as one of Law360’s Media & Entertainment Rising Stars.
Neema is based in Covington’s Los Angeles office and serves as co-chair of the firm’s Commercial Litigation and Entertainment & Media practices, as well as co-chair of the firm’s Music Industry Initiative and vice-chair of the Sports Industry Group. Drawing upon her experience at the firm and her prior experience in-house at The Walt Disney Company, she litigates complex disputes across the sports, media, technology, and entertainment industries and serves as go-to counsel for some of the industry’s biggest names. She has handled an array of complex commercial matters, ranging from royalty disputes to copyright and trademark infringement, defamation, consumer class actions, and licensing and distribution-related litigation. Alongside an active litigation docket, she maintains a robust counseling and advisory practice, assisting sports teams and leagues, television networks, music and tech companies, and film studios to assess and mitigate their litigation risk in the context of high-stakes business transactions. Neema has been recognized in Variety’s Legal Impact Report six times, as one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Lawyers, as one of Billboard’s Top Music Lawyers five times, and on Forbes’ America’s Top Lawyers list. She has also been named a finalist for The Recorder’s Entertainment Lawyer of the Year award three times, one of California’s Top Women Lawyers by the Daily Journal, and is ranked by Chambers and Partners in the Media & Entertainment: Litigation category.
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