Launching a new league or team in the sports industry is a complex matter, and requires trusted counselors and partners to navigate through the various legal issues that arise. Our firm’s platform, depth of experience, and holistic view of the sports industry offers clients practical, efficient advice for new sports organizations.
Emerging teams and leagues turn to our global Sports Industry team as trusted advisors as they break into the market and establish themselves. Our lawyers have extensive experience and draw upon the multidisciplinary strength of our firm’s platform to guide new sports teams and leagues through all phases of growth in this rapidly expanding industry, from the initial stages of entity formation to assisting with the development of growth and expansion plans once the venture has been established. We have experience in organizing and structuring entities in both the single-entity and franchisee models and regularly counsel clients on the pros and cons of each approach.
Raising capital is one of the most important–and necessary–goals of a new team or league, and our lawyers can help with financing, capital offerings, shareholders agreements, convertible notes, and debt offerings. Another priority for newly established teams and leagues is reviewing real estate and facility ownership needs. Our lawyers harness a vast knowledge of opportunity zones and other tax incentives to help clients secure the best option financially for their facility or stadium.
We help emerging teams and leagues draft and negotiate a broad range of contractual agreements, including player and coach contracts, sponsorship and naming rights agreements, suite licenses, venue use agreements, apparel contracts, broadcast and media rights deals, and other strategic collaboration agreements.
We also help emerging leagues or teams with intellectual property, data privacy, immigration, and labor and employment matters–all critical issues that face new organizations.
In the October edition of The Essentials, we summarize key provisions of California employment laws that took effect in 2024 and those that will take effect in 2025.
To help you assess the 2024 election, we have prepared a comprehensive guide that summarizes the results and their impact on the 119th Congress, which will convene in January 2025. The Election Guide lists all new members elected to Congress, updates the congressional delegations for each state, and provides a starting point for analyzing the coming changes to the House and Senate committees.
While most of the attention surrounding the Supreme Court’s (the Court) decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo (Loper), overturning the longstanding Chevron doctrine, has focused on the increased potential for successful challenges against agency actions, the decision will impact all stages of the public policy lifecycle—legislation, regulation, and only then litigation.
On 22 December 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted amendments (the final rule) to Rule 206(4)-1 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the Advisers Act) to modernize the regulation of investment adviser advertising and solicitation practices.
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