In what has to be the largest industry merger of the year, Disney picked up 5000 new cartoon characters from Marvel Entertainment today. Peter Parker will head up a new urban justice practice group for Disney, while Professor Xavier will help Disney develop new talent.

In all seriousness, there is legal news to report here. Two familiar firms were involved in Disney’s purchase of Marvel. Disney was represented by outside counsel Dewey and LeBoeuf who have been involved in several other big deals for the Entertainment mega company. Dewey played a secondary role in the purchase of Pixar Animation Studios and also advised the company in the acquisitions of Capital Cities/ABC and Fox Family Worldwide (renamed now to ABC Family). Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, who previously represented Marvel in litigation involving intellectual property, was tapped by Marvel again to ensure the transferability of IP rights of all characters included in the deal.