Marissa Román Griffith Profiled in Variety on Receipt of Beverly Hills Bar Association Award

Variety has profiled Akin Gump entertainment partner Marissa Román Griffith on the occasion of her receiving the Beverly Hills Bar Association’s 2019 Entertainment Lawyer of the Year award. (Click here to read more.) The publication describes Griffith as “one of America’s top transactional attorneys, with a practice that focuses on media finance and entertainment transactional matters.” She represents clients in numerous areas, including the financing and distribution of film, TV and digital content, and co-financing arrangements in various countries.

Griffith told Variety it was her mother who first got her interested in the law. “My mom was working full-time while going to law school,” she said. “Sometimes there wasn’t after-school care, so I would just go there with her. Sometimes I would sit in on her class and I would basically be reading or drawing, half-listening to what was going on.”

While at Princeton University, she worked for a landlord tenant attorney the summer after her freshman year. “I was going down to court with her, helping her fill out the complaints, answering phones, talking to clients — I really enjoyed it,” she said. By the time she entered law school at Stanford, she said she knew contractual law was going to be her area of focus. “I knew I didn’t want to be a litigator. It’s not my personality. I prefer to build bridges and reach compromises.”

After an initial stint as a transactional attorney at another large, international firm, Griffith moved to Akin Gump, where she has now been for nearly two decades. She currently leads the team representing Media Rights Capital (MRC) and its affiliates in conjunction with a JP Morgan credit facility backing MRC’s film and TV projects, working on such projects as “Baby Driver,” “Ted,” “Ted 2” and “The Dark Tower.” She also represented Endgame Entertainment in connection with the 2018 Netflix film “Come Sunday.”

If asked by a non-lawyer to describe her practice, Griffith gave the analogy that it is “very much like mortgage lending, but instead of a house or real property, we’re talking about IP [intellectual property], an entertainment project, or even a company that’s being financed.” She credits her fellow Akin Gump partner P. John Burke “for being a great mentor.”

Griffith said she is also passionate about her philanthropic endeavors, serving as a board member of several nonprofit organizations. “From when I was young, giving back has always been important,” she said. “My mother was a big role model for that. I’ve always volunteered, donated, even when it was only five bucks, because I didn’t have real money. It doesn’t matter what you give, just give. Our firm is extremely inclusive and everyone is open-minded, so celebrating diversity and different cultures is very important for people to see.”

“To me, that’s very meaningful,” Griffith told California Lawyer in a separate article. “Diversity is something I really cherish, and making strides in any way I can is something that’s been very important in my career.” She pointed out said she would be the third person of color to receive the award, and the first of Latin heritage.