Mark Easton
Partner
Mark Easton, the Regional Head of Corporate for Southern California, advises public and private corporations, private equity funds, boards of directors and financial advisors in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and other transactions, as well as corporate governance and securities law matters. Mark has been involved in more than 300 M&A transactions, ranging from multi-billion dollar mergers of public companies to sales of closely held family businesses. He has experience in a broad range of industries, including entertainment, sports and media, technology and telecommunications, REITs and real estate, health care and life sciences, aerospace and defense, construction and engineering, energy and infrastructure, and the Internet. Mark has been named one of the Top 100 Leading Lawyers in California by the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals and one of the leading M&A lawyers in California by Chambers USA.
Mark began his career at O’Melveny where he spent 17-plus years before Warner Bros Entertainment Inc. tapped him to become Deputy General Counsel. As the principal transactions lawyer for Warner’s 150-attorney global legal department, Mark completed a wide variety of transactions, including acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and financings in the television, videogame, and digital media sectors. In 2012, Mark rejoined O’Melveny and his clients benefit from the in-house perspective and breadth of experience Mark gained working at one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.
- Warner Bros. in numerous transactions, including acquisitions of television production companies such as Shed Media, Robert Gray and Blazhoffski (and numerous bids for other production companies, including Endemol), acquisitions of Alloy Entertainment, Flixster and Turbine, the formation of The CW network with CBS, licensing of Harry Potter theme parks, multiple bids to acquire MGM, the acquisition of film libraries and film rights, the negotiation of digital media joint ventures and acquisitions, and the disposition of domestic and international theater assets
- InterVest Capital Partners in numerous transactions, including its US$2.5 billion acquisition of Resurgent Capital, its US$1.5 billion acquisition of Foundation Finance, its US$1.5 billion sale of Anchor Loans, its US$500 million investment in Builders Capital and its sale of TSI Semiconductor
- Clearlake Capital in multiple acquisitions and dispositions, including the acquisition and disposition of Ashley Stewart
- Allomer Capital in numerous investments, including the acquisition of Innovation Associates and the sale of a controlling interest in iA to Walgreens Boots Alliance
- OMERS in its acquisition and dispositions of airport assets in North America, Europe and Central America
- RSI Equity Partners in numerous transactions, including the US$1 billion sale of RSI Home Products and the US$600 million sale of RSI Communities
- Maxar Technologies in numerous investments in satellite technology companies
- Mitsui in numerous investments, including its acquisition of Spaceflight
- Western Digital in numerous acquisitions, including its US$5 billion acquisition of Hitachi’s hard disk drive business
- Qwest in over US$5 billion of M&A transactions, including wireline, wireless & web hosting assets
- Verizon in over US$5 billion of dispositions of wireline assets
- Catellus in its US$5 billion merger with ProLogis
- Goodman Global in its US$3 billion sale to Hellman & Friedman
- The Los Angeles Dodgers in their sale to Fox
- Airborne in its US$1 billion sale to DHL
- The Macerich Company in its US$3.5 billion acquisition of Wilmorite and its US$1.5 billion acquisition of Wilcor
- Wendel Investissement in its US$1.1 billion acquisition of Deutsch
- Corporate Counsel: Guess?, Western Digital, The Macerich Company, Catellus & numerous other public companies
Admissions
Bar Admissions
- California
Education
- Harvard University, J.D., 1992: Board of Student Advisors; Harvard International Law Journal, Managing Editor
- Princeton University, M.P.A., 1989
- Swarthmore College, B.A., History and Economics, 1985
- Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Sanwa Bank Fellowship, Yokohama, 1992-93
Honors & Awards
- Recognized by Best Lawyers in America for Corporate Law in Los Angeles, CA (2026)
- Recognized by IFLR1000 as a “Notable Practitioner” in the practice areas of Capital Markets: Debt, Capital Markets: Equity, and Corporate M&A (California) (2019-2021)
- Ranked by Chambers USA - America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2009)
Corporate & Government Experience
- Warner Bros., Deputy General Counsel