THR's Women in Entertainment 2011: Power 100

Paramount's top lawyer helped close a particularly complex deal this year, ending Marvel's distribution arrangement with the studio in the wake of Disney's purchase of the company. "Disney got what it wanted, which was to take over distribution early, Marvel got to reorganize with its new partner, and we got a very nice financial deal," says Prentice, 58, a former Shearman & Sterling partner who has been with the studio since 1996 and is working on a total reorganization of its legal department.

PHOTOS: THR's 2011 Women in Entertainment Power 100

Considered one of Hollywood's sharpest negotiators, Prentice, a graduate of Cornell Law School who was licensed to practice law in 1982, this year received the Los Angeles County Bar Association's outstanding corporate counsel award. She oversees a 60-member team that's helped her to negotiate some of the studio's most important and innovative deals, including one that gave Netflix rights to stream thousands of Paramount movies, and assists her in protecting the studio from digital theft.

When away from the office, Prentice and her "semiretired" husband also are ardent mountain climbers, taking frequent trips to Yosemite to tackle Half Dome and other challenges. "We're fun climbers," she says. "I work so hard I don't have time to get truly serious."