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Sorenson Media's Csathy Departs To New Digital Media Effort From Manatt

Peter Csathy, the CEO of San Diego's Sorenson Media, and digital media veteran, has departed the company, and will head up a new legal and investment group formed by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. According to Manatt, Csathy will head up a new effort called Manatt Digital Media Ventures, which will both make new digital media investments in companies, as well as provide professional services to the high tech industry. Manatt said the funding will come from the Manatt Venture Fund, an early stage venture fund which has already invested in more than 90 companies, including Pinterest, Etsy, and Idealab.

The new digital media venture from Manatt was created by Los Angeles partner T. Hale Boggs, who is well known to local entrepreneurs as one of the digital media- and tech-focused attorneys here. Boggs helped open up Manatt's Silicon Valley office in 1998 and San Francisco offices in 2007.

The new focus on digital media--and providing services to the growing Los Angeles technology sector--comes after similar moves by other law fims, including Cooley LLP, which created its own investment fund in January after setting up an office in Santa Monica; and Stubbs, Alderton & Markiles, which opened up a Santa Monica office last October and booted up its own incubator program. There are dozens of legal firms servicing the high tech industry here, based on our tracking of those companies and their clients. (Disclaimer: socalTECH has multiple sponsorship and advertising relationships with legal firms focused on high tech in Southern California, as well as many individual members of our service from those firms.).