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Marilyn Haft joined Duval & Stachenfeld as a partner in 2004 to establish and now co-chair the Entertainment and Media Practice Group of the Firm. She specializes in the business and legal affairs of the multimedia and communication industries, including the film, television and publishing sectors. She represents film and television production and distribution companies as well as individuals in those businesses, with a specialty in structuring financing for those enterprises. In addition, she maintains impressive credentials and diverse contacts in the entertainment and political fields. Ms. Haft has been a law partner at a number of firms and was a test case constitutional law litigator at the national level for six years when she litigated in the State and Federal courts across the country including the U.S. Supreme Court. Ms. Haft has served as General Counsel and Managing Director of a financial services company that provided short-term funding requirements for major film studios, independent film producers/distributors, cable and record companies. She was responsible for co- creating the financing structure of the transactions, and conducted due diligence on all contractual and cash flow related matters. Ms. Haft was also General Counsel to a publicly traded multimedia acquisitions company, where she was responsible for all aspects relating to acquisitions, including intellectual property issues involving patent, copyright, trademark and trade secrets. Ms. Haft is an award-winning independent film producer and has worked at NBC News and ABC News on content and production and as a producer on Peter Jennings’ specials. She was Executive Producer of an American Playhouse feature film, as well as an Emmy award-winning documentary on Preston Sturges for American Masters on National Public Television. She acted as a co-producer of Grace is Gone, the John Cusack movie that won the Audience Award and Best Screenplay Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Most recently she acted as a co-producer on two films chosen for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Diminished Capacity, starring Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen and Alan Alda, and Birds of America, starring and co-produced by Hillary Swank. Ms. Haft served the Carter Administration as Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison in the White House, Deputy Counsel to Vice President Walter Mondale in the White House and as a U.S. Representative to the United Nations. She was the head of the New York City primary campaign for Carter/Mondale in 1980. Ms. Haft was an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film and TV, where she taught entertainment law and business to third year graduate students. She is an author of general non-fiction books, including legal works. Ms. Haft is a graduate of the New York University School of Law where she taught as an adjunct professor, and she is a member of the Bars of New York State, the District of Columbia and the US Supreme Court. | 