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A Noble pursuit – DLA Piper launches corp fin boutique to build TMT profile

DLA Piper has made its first foray into the consultancy business, launching corporate finance advisory arm Noble Street to focus on media and sports ventures that have been neglected by traditional banks.

Targeting the shortage of capital within the media, entertainment, technology and sports industries, Noble Street will advise clients on opportunities available to fast-growing companies in these areas. The business will be based in London, though is expected to target clients in the Middle East and Asia alongside the UK.

The creation of Noble Street follows a string of consultancy openings by law firms, including Bird & Bird’s IT projects business Baseline and Eversheds’ procurement and compliance arm Eversheds Consulting. But while there has been a series of finance advisory boutiques launched in the City by investment bankers since the credit crunch, this is the first corporate finance house set up by a top 50 law firm in recent years.

Other comparable ventures have seen media law boutique Wiggin launch Wiggin Executive Producing Group to source finance and distribution opportunities for film, TV and computer games. Olswang backed the independent boutique LongAcre Partners in June 2000, selling its stake in the business seven year later.

Noble Street will be led by Anthony Mosawi, a film financier recruited by the 4,000-lawyer firm to launch the new venture. Mosawi, who began his career in the late 1990s as a lawyer at Paramount Pictures before founding California boutique Mayhew Entertainment in 2005. The company has raised nearly $500m in financing for opportunities since 2010 and Noble Street will look to use that knowledge to pair investors with clients in the media, tech and sports industries.

Mosawi will work alongside DLA Piper global co-chairman Sir Nigel Knowles and the firm’s head of media and entertainment, Chris Hanson, to run the venture. Knowles commented: ‘We are delighted to have Anthony on board. He is an entrepreneur with substantial US media financing experience. Noble Street is a hugely exciting venture, marrying the specialist media and tech sector knowledge that many bulge-bracket investment banks lack, and the global footprint that the niche media advisory firms do not have.’

Mosawi said: ‘The scale and size of [DLA Piper’s] client base and wider network are tremendous assets, supporting the new group to add value to the most ambitious ventures.’

At the start of the year DLA Piper’s US subsidiary, Blue Edge Lab, launched cyber security tool CyberTrak in 23 countries.

tom.moore@legalease.co.uk

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