Matthew Syrkin is a partner and chair of Hughes Hubbard’s Media, Technology and Commercial Transactions Group.
He provides strategic business counsel and commercial/corporate transactional support for clients in the technology, media, consulting and financial services, consumer retail, advertising, entertainment, health care, gaming and hospitality industries.
Named by Variety Magazine as one of the top 50 impact deal makers in the media and entertainment industry, Matthew frequently advises industry-leading businesses on structuring and negotiating cutting-edge and complex transactions, including matters for AMC Networks, Ernst & Young, The Madison Square Garden Company (NY Knicks, Rangers and Liberty), CBS, the Mark Cuban Companies, John Varvatos Enterprises, Bumble, Microsemi Corporation, Viacom/MTV, News Corporation, KPMG, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Grab Taxi, Millarworld Comics (Kingsman, Kick-Ass), Brambles, Sequential Brands Group (And1, Avia, Jessica Simpson), Banco Davivienda, Mattel and HBO Latin America.
Matthew also specializes in cross-border transactions and speaks Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Spanish. He spent several years living abroad in Japan, China and the Republic of Panama and studied at Keio University in Tokyo and Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Before joining Hughes Hubbard, Matthew worked in the legal departments at Major League Baseball, Fox Cable Networks and TiVo, Inc.
While at Hughes Hubbard, he was assigned to Viacom/MTV Networks to serve as lead counsel for the “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” franchise developers. In that role, he negotiated strategic partnerships in the interactive entertainment space with Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony Electronics, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and The Beatles.
Matthew is a frequent speaker, lecturer and author on the business and legal aspects of disruptive technologies, new media platforms and complex commercial transactions and has been a member of the planning committee for the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. since 2007.