Profile

Until recently the Vice President for Legal Affairs at Discovery Communications, Inc., Laura Farina is acclaimed throughout the television and media industries for her skills and experience as a media/entertainment/sports lawyer. She excels in transactional drafting and negotiations, defense litigation, media/event insurance and risk management, intellectual property advice, and content review. During her 12 years as in-house counsel for the world's #1 nonfiction media company and all of its networks and business units (including The Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science and Investigation Discovery, and many others), with over 1.8 billion viewers in 209 countries, Laura was Vice President in charge of global litigation, supervised transactional work and content review for hundreds of programs and films, handled the company's insurance matters (playing a key role in negotiating and drafting its media insurance policy), and generally served as a problem solver, risk manager and advisor to all of its networks and business units.

As a member of SmithDehn LLP and head of our Washington, D.C. office, Laura brings her stellar array of expertise to the table for independent and other television and film production companies, studios, broadcasters, distributors, and insurance companies, as well as sports entities and players. On the subject of her move to SmithDehn, Laura says: "I'm happy to be working with such accomplished lawyers and serving clients in the media and sports industries across the globe. I'm also proud to have served at Discovery and to have played a part during its time of tremendous growth and success. I cherish the many friends and colleagues I met there. As the television and entertainment landscape continues to evolve, and as independent production companies flourish in particular, I'm eager to increase my direct involvement with filmmakers, production companies and content developers and provide them with the benefit of the huge range of experience I've gained over the years. SmithDehn LLP, as an innovative and rising leader in the field, is the perfect match for my continuing legal career."