We help clients develop and implement strategic career and financial game plans.
Our rapidly expanding national Sports and Entertainment practice represents a diverse group of coaches and athletic directors at NCAA member institutions, professional franchise coaches, and other sports figures and entertainers. We collaborate with clients and their agents, accountants, and financial and other key advisors to create comprehensive career and financial plans. After identifying the strategies that can help clients achieve their goals, we work to ensure they are properly implemented.
These clients call on our multidisciplinary team of experienced lawyers for advice and assistance on the entire spectrum of sports- and entertainment-related challenges. We regularly counsel clients on issues involving contract and commercial law, immigration, civil litigation, labor and employment, deferred compensation and employee benefit plans, business organizations and transactions, real estate, federal and state taxation, public law, estate planning and probate, intellectual property, and charitable tax-exempt organizations. In addition, we advise education clients on Title IX issues, including those that touch on gender equity in athletics.
We also have extensive experience representing public and private owners of arena, ballpark, and theatre venues in matters such as taxable and tax-exempt financing, team leases of facilities, structuring of public-private joint ventures, federal and state tax issues, naming rights agreements, and public bidding issues.
Our Clients
- Professional athletes and other entertainers
- Football, basketball, hockey, and baseball head and assistant coaches in college programs nationwide
- Coaches of professional sports franchises
- College and university athletic directors
- Conference commissioners
- Conferences
- Educational institutions and athletic departments
- Public and private owners of arena, ballpark, and theater venues
Our Services
- Negotiation, drafting, and review of employment agreements
- Structuring current and deferred compensation packages, including value-added compensation strategies to reward key staff and assistant coaches
- Negotiation, drafting, and review of licensing, endorsement, marketing, and publishing agreements
- Advice on name, image, and likeness (NIL) matters
- Advice regarding legal aspects of the organization and operation of summer sports camps as well as other commercial and business endeavors
- Advice regarding rights of privacy and publicity
- Advice and protection related to branding and intangible assets, including the evaluation, registration, and maintenance of trademarks and copyrights and the enforcement and defense of related rights
- Personal and family estate and income tax planning
- Charitable/philanthropic activities, including formation and operation of private family foundations
- Due diligence and structuring in connection with our clients’ participation in outside business ventures and investments
- Advocacy and representation in disputes or investigations
- Title IX athletic compliance
- Comprehensive training programs, including diversity training, for coaches and administrators
- Defense of internal and external complaints, investigations, and other employment-related issues
- Immigrant and nonimmigrant visas for athletes, entertainers, and other industry professionals
- Assisting public and private owners of arena, ballpark, and theater venues with tax-exempt financing, team leases of facilities, structuring of public-private joint ventures, federal and state tax issues, naming rights agreements, and public bidding issues