Leo Haidar

Leo Haidar is Counsel in the Intellectual Property and Technology group in the Paris office, with a particular focus on the film and television sectors. He has extensive international experience, particularly with industry players in the US and the UK. Leo is at ease working across the French system of droit d’auteur and droit moral and the Anglo-American system of copyright and work-made-for-hire.

He is particularly active in media regulation, streaming platform content quotas, the qualification of European and British films, the development, financing, production and exhibition of feature films and high-end television series, and derivative rights for both traditional and new media. Leo regularly advises on tax credit eligibility and production incentives as well as complex cross-jurisdictional chain of title matters and treaty coproductions.

In a career spanning more than 20 years, Leo has worked on numerous films and television series for both independent producers and the Hollywood majors. He has extensive experience of production and distribution agreements. His work with financiers and investors in the sector extends to banks and equity funds, generally involving multi-party and cross-border financing agreements.

He has also acted as Production Counsel on numerous projects in France and other territories (general assistance to producers during physical production, negotiation and drafting of above-the-line and cast and crew agreements, also dealing with immigration, tax, and social security).

With respect to corporate and commercial law, Leo has worked on major transactions in the media sector, including acquisitions of companies in the film industry.