Fordham Law alumna Melina Spadone ’95 is making a splash in the field of entertainment law and credits her success to the variety of interests she pursued while at Fordham and beyond.
Since law school, she’s never limited herself to one scope of work. “I intentionally expanded my focus and tried to take advantage of every single aspect of Fordham Law life,” said Spadone.
While at Fordham, Spadone was an active member of several student organizations at Fordham Law, including the International Law Journal, Moot Court, and the Fordham Follies.
She had a wide variety of experiences during her law school journey, including working as a research assistant for Professor Daniel Capra as he wrote his criminal textbook, Basic Criminal Procedure.
Throughout her career, Spadone has made herself into an indispensable jack of all trades—she has global experience in transactional law, finance, family office, real estate, non profit organizations, private foundations, and more. From acquisitions, divestitures, investments, and trusts to contract negotiation, governance, taxation, employment, and licensing, she’s touched on a myriad of legal issues.
Spadone began her career as a mergers and acquisitions associate at Hughes Hubbard & Reed in New York before going in-house at different companies, starting at Viacom, and then family offices over the span of 30 years. In 2019, she moved to California and began working for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, where she had the opportunity to practice in the entertainment space.
“The great part about being in-house is you get to do all of it,” said Spadone. “I oversee litigation, I appear in court on behalf of my clients, I’ve participated in high-level mediations, I’m going to an administrative hearing on tax matters in New Mexico tomorrow. … For me, being in-house is ideal because you get that specific industry knowledge and depth, but you also get a potpourri of legal matters, rarely doing the same thing every day. Some days you don’t know what you will need to become an expert in until needed.”
Her decades-long experience juggling a variety of responsibilities proved helpful for her new role working for a production company, with studios in Thomasville, Georgia and Natchez, Mississippi. Thomasville Pictures is an award-winning production company that financed films such as Trial of the Chicago Seven, the Pale Blue Eye, and the recent box office success, Flight Risk, starring Mark Wahlberg, and financed and produced Rust, Tiger Rising, and Bandit. As general counsel, Spadone works in several aspects of the production company—she’s involved in tax equity investment financing, production management, and the PR and distribution of films. She focuses on new strategic relationships and the upcoming launch of a film fund focused on international production, debt financing, and AI in the film industry.
Most recently, Spadone was involved with the legal crisis surrounding the movie Rust, starring Alec Baldwin, Josh Hopkins, and Patrick Scott McDermott, with Francis Fischer and Travis Fimmel. Tragically, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died after a prop gun on set accidentally discharged a live round. After interviewing several attorneys, Spadone was hired by the producers to manage the crisis, including the wrongful death and other lawsuits, the OSHA investigation, the press, and ultimately the structure and negotiation of the settlement that allowed the film to be completed in honor of Ms. Hutchins. The proceeds of the film, available on Amazon, go to Ms. Hutchins’ family. Spadone drew on the resources of Pillsbury’s practice specialties to assemble the team of practitioners to deliver a holistic solution.
In addition to her law degree, Spadone earned her masters of business administration from INSEAD, a global business school with a campus in Fontainebleau, France, and speaks four languages. “I get to practice law, employ my business skills, travel, and use my languages. I was just in Cannes in May for the film festival with the opportunity to speak French,” said Spadone of her current position. “I’ve also worked with clients where my Italian came in handy while working with talented local counsel. So I really feel like, at least at the moment, I’m doing everything that I ever wanted at the pinnacle of my career.”