The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Legal Department collection spans the years 1917-1982 (bulk 1930s-1940s; 1980s) and encompasses 14 linear feet. The collection contains scripts, story material, production files, contracts, subject files, and final cast credit sheets. Most of the story material and scripts are from 1940s MGM films, including ACT OF VIOLENCE (1949), APACHE TRAIL (1942), DU BARRY WAS A LADY (1943), GASLIGHT (1944), THE HARVEY GIRLS (1946), HIGH BARBAREE (1947), KEEPER OF THE FLAME (1942), KISMET (1944), MY BROTHER TALKS TO HORSES (1947), THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (1944), WHISTLING IN BROOKLYN (1943), and ZIEGFELD FOLLIES (1946). There is a large body of unproduced story material, also primarily from the 1940s. Scripts and production material from 1980s MGM films include ...ALL THE MARBLES (1981); CANNERY ROW (1982); DINER (1982); MY FAVORITE YEAR (1982); RICH AND FAMOUS (1981); TARZAN, THE APE MAN (1981); VICTOR/VICTORIA (1982); and WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY? (1981). The subject files contain contracts and correspondence for a wide range of topics relating to the making of MGM films in the 1930s and 1940s, including airplane and boat agreements; location contracts; chimpanzee and horse agreements; contracts for studio lot improvements, alterations, and additions; publicity and main title billing; and salary reduction correspondence. Other material includes two files on the ED SULLIVAN SHOW, one radio script for "The Whistler," and a small number of biography files. Lastly, final cast credit sheets are compiled by production number for 1937 to 1974. There is story material for several films that were not produced by MGM or MGM/UA: BILLY ROSE'S DIAMOND HORSESHOE (1945), GASLIGHT (1940), JOAN OF ARC (1948), KISMET (1930), ROBERTA (1935), and TOYS IN THE ATTIC (1963). The collection does not contain the complete records of the Legal Department. It does contain a diverse range of material retained by the department for legal reasons (copyright, contractual requirements for main title billing and advertising, contracts, and so forth).

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924 when the theater circuit Loew's Inc., owner of Metro Pictures Corporation, acquired Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures and subsequently merged the three companies. The Culver City studio soon became one of the strongest and most prestigious of the major production companies, superior both in profits and in critical acclaim throughout most of the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1950s changes brought about by the Paramount consent decree eventually rendered the studio system obsolete, and MGM, which had once dominated that system, suffered a slow decline. The studio was purchased in 1970 by Kirk Kerkorian, who sold off most of its assets and, in 1973, shut down the distribution arm of the company. Ted Turner purchased MGM in 1986, then immediately sold the studio to Lorimar Pictures while retaining the film library and script material (see Turner/MGM scripts). Acquired by a consortium of investors in 2005, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. continues to function as a film production and distribution company out of its Century City, California headquarters.