Chris Brearton

Brearton, formerly chief operating officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), joined the company in February 2018 and oversees MGM’s global business operations as well as the legendary studio’s business development and strategic growth initiatives.
Brearton comes to MGM from the entertainment powerhouse law firm, Latham & Watkins, where he was the managing partner of the firm’s Century City office. His tenure there saw Brearton build an internationally acclaimed entertainment, sports and media practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, strategic joint ventures, complex financing transactions, media rights licensing, and overall business and operational counseling.
For nearly twenty years, Brearton has represented MGM in several critical capacities as a lawyer and counsel to the MGM executive team, including all of MGM’s transformative activities over the last eight years, such as: MGM’s acquisition of United Artists Media Group; MGM’s acquisition of EPIX, which added a premier pay television network and distribution platform for MGM’s growing slate of new film and television content and robust library; the recent enhancement of MGM’s debt capital structure to $2.1 billion; and MGM’s joint venture with Annapurna Pictures, through which MGM will once again release its own films under the MGM banner theatrically in the U.S.
Brearton has been recognized for his work with many accolades over his career, such as The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Players, Sports Business Journal’s Elite list as well as their Forty Under Forty award, and has been recognized as one of Variety’s Hollywood’s Top Dealmakers, and on their Game Changing Entertainment Attorneys list.