Matthew Valentinas is an entertainment lawyer and literary manager. He has worked in creative and business roles in the entertainment industry in New York and Los Angeles since 1995 — with talent agents and producers, covering acquisitions for an independent film distributor, and in business affairs for international sales agents and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
He returned to his native Boston in 2009, founded the Law Office of Matthew Valentinas, and established Mom's Basement Management to manage writers, directors, and producers. His focus is sourcing and exploiting life rights, nonfiction stories (including true crime), and undervalued intellectual property with commercial upside — then positioning that material with publishers, production companies, networks, and studios, and packaging and producing motion pictures, television, documentaries, and podcasts with independent financing.
As a producer, he conceived and produced the documentary An Open Secret (2014, dir. Amy Berg). He speaks regularly at colleges, film festivals, and law schools, and has been interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, NPR, and The Boston Globe.
- EducationBFA, Film & Television, NYU Tisch School of the Arts (1996)
- LawJD, Suffolk University Law School (2000) — corporate finance & IP
- AdmittedCommonwealth of Massachusetts; U.S. District Court, D. Mass.
- AlsoOf Counsel, Sennott Williams & Rogers LLP; formerly affiliated agent, Kneerim & Williams
Management clients get a manager who can also read the deal. Legal clients get counsel who knows how the material actually gets sold.