Loeb & Loeb Attorneys Recognized as WIN Outstanding Women for 2006

LOS ANGELES - Loeb & Loeb LLP announced today that Ivy Kagan Bierman and Susan Zuckerman Williams, both partners in the Entertainment Department in the Los Angeles office, have been honored by the Women’s Image Network as WIN’s Outstanding Women (WOW!) for 2006. The attorneys will be recognized at the WIN Awards gala on November 1 at the Freud Playhouse at University of California, Los Angeles. The WIN Awards 2006 Co-Chairs are Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda and Martha Luttrell. The event will be hosted by actor/comedian Harry Shearer.

Founded in 1987 as a not-for-profit corporation, Women's Image Network was formed to encourage positive portrayals of women in theater, television and film to alter limited perceptions of women in all walks of life. To implement its goals, WIN produces projects and hosts seminars, screenings and special events.

This year marks the first time that WIN will celebrate the WOW! List of outstanding women, who have demonstrated superior achievement in their respective fields. The WIN Awards are also presented in 10 competing film, television and advertising categories and will be produced before an audience of 1000 entertainment, media and advertising leaders.

“It comes as no surprise that Ivy and Susan have been selected for WIN’s award, and they are very deserving honorees” said John Frankenheimer, Co-Chair of Loeb & Loeb. “Both are recognized leaders in their respective fields of practice and admirable and engaged role models for the women of Loeb & Loeb.”

Ivy Kagan Bierman is one of a select few of entertainment labor lawyers looked to by producers, distributors, national advertisers and advertising agencies for representation in guild and union matters. She regularly counsels entertainment and advertising companies about the SAG, AFTRA, DGA, WGA, AFM, Teamsters and IATSE agreements and handles claims arising out of such agreements.

Ms. Bierman strategized with major entertainment companies with respect to the WGA and SAG negotiations and potential strikes. She advised several national advertisers in connection with the SAG Commercial strike. She was also one of the first attorneys to negotiate interactive and multimedia agreements with SAG, the WGA and the DGA.

Ms. Bierman currently advises clients with respect to the guilds' and unions' evolving positions regarding reality television, brand integration and the development and exhibition of content over the Internet and mobile devices. She currently represents several entertainment companies in connection with a series of entertainment industry-wide action lawsuits. Ms. Bierman also regularly provides sexual harassment, discrimination and non-fraternization training tailored to entertainment industry companies with "edgy" programming content.

Susan Zuckerman Williams is considered one of the leading experts in the area of film financing with vast experience in the legal and business aspects of complex debt and equity transactions providing capital to produce and distribute films. Recently, she represented Montecito Pictures led by Tom Pollock and Ivan Reitman, in the $200 million capitalization of Cold Spring Pictures, a new company formed to co-finance motion pictures under a first look deal with DreamWorks. She represents numerous domestic and international commercial lenders, hedge funds and other financial institutions in their film and media related transactions. 

She is an expert in the structuring of co-production, tax incentivized and other so-called soft money transactions, both for film production in the United States and throughout the world as well as securitization transactions involving unique entertainment assets and multiple picture slate financing deals involving the major motion picture studios. 

She is a frequent speaker and in June, 2006 was a featured panelist at the Los Angeles Film Festival’s annual Film Financing Conference held at UCLA.

About WIN Awards: Since 1993, Women's Image Network, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, has produced The WIN Awards to honor outstanding film, television and advertising artists, executives and individuals whose tenacity and creativity enable accurate, powerful images of women to reach the broadest audiences and to shape public opinion. Our proceeds will allow WIN to design a new program called A DAY IN A LIFE that provides mentorship to at-risk girls and girls in foster care, by supplying them with the tools (and cameras) to help them create their own images of their too-often hidden lives. In 1996, WIN produced the ABC primetime special, “FIFTY YEARS OF FUNNY FEMALES,” a project advancing WIN’s mission, to “Foster a World Where Everyone WINs.”