Top movie lawyer quits after landmark victory

The executive vice-president and general counsel of United InternationalPictures (UIP),

the worldwide movie distributor, is standing down afterachieving a landmark ruling from

the European Commission (EC).US lawyer Brian Reilly, who has been with UIP for eight and

a half years,is taking the unusual step of moving to Costa Rica.He will become general

counsel of Nueva Costa Rica, an internationalmanufacturer of construction materials and

food, which is moving itscorporate headquarters from Zurich to Costa Rica.The in-house

team at UIP, which will remain in London, will now be headedby UK lawyer Philip Solomons

who has been promoted from vice-president oflegal.Prior to joining UIP Solomans was

international counsel for Revlon.The team of four lawyers and one paralegal will

continue to outsource alllitigation and most regulatory and property work.This goes

predominantly to Denton Hall with which UIP worked closely inits six-year battle with

the EC.This was successfully concluded last Tuesday when the EC published anotice

permitting UIP to continue marketing films in Europe for its threeHollywood parent

studios, Paramount, Metro Goldwyn-Mayer and Universal.Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

in Brussels and Rome, and Simpson Thacher& Bartlett in New York were also involved in

the case, which Reillydescribes as the pinnacle of his legal career."It's great to be

taking over the helm just as we're about to be reachinga successful conclusion," says

Solomons.UIP, which has subsidiaries in 40 countries, has distributed films such asTop

Gun, Mission: Impossible, the new Bond film and The Mummy.