By Margaret Kelly
The Pre-Game Basics
For those who missed it, the annual American Bar Association (ABA) Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries was held this past weekend in our nation’s capitol. The Forum’s over-arching mission is to highlight and explore the year’s vital developments in the overlapping spheres of sports and entertainment law. To that end, the weekend featured a veritable smorgasbord of panels, round-table discussions and networking events, each centered on different and expertly-identified industry inflection-points – from copyright revision and net neutrality to data breaches and the new wild west of fantasy sports. There was something to satisfy every appetite. For those hungry for a taste of the real life and trials of attorneys in professional sports, “Inside Sports: The Business of Being Team Counsel” had the best seats in the house.
The panel’s introductory literature likened the ‘business of team counsel’ to a game of whac-a-mole. We were hosted by Casey Schwab (Manager, Media Administration & Development, National Football League) and after just ten minutes, the parallels became clear. On any given Monday in the life of team counsel, logistical challenges, contractual wrinkles and often out-and-out legal novelties pop up, with at least the frequency of those irritating electronic gophers; and to hear them tell it, general counsels are often armed with even less than that ridiculous foam and canvas club. Still, they clobber on.
The Highlight Reel
DANNA HAYDAR — Associate General Counsel, Tampa Bay Lightning, Amalie Arena and Tampa Bay Storm (Tampa, FL)
When Danna Haydar, associate counsel for the Tampa Bay Lightning, goes to the office in the morning, she could find herself dealing with anything from working out the nuts and bolts of player endorsement deals, to fielding complaints related to drunken fan slip-n-falls, to negotiating venue terms and conditions for circus elephants and boy-bands. Haydar handles the legal affairs of the Lightning, and also the Tampa Bay Storm and Tampa Bay Times Forum. Representing not just her teams, but also the facility that hosts both, Danna tackles the litigation challenges she encounters daily with a near-herculean tenacity. Her responsibilities run the gamut from negotiating licensing deals and soliciting sponsorship contracts to leaping administrative hurdles involving liquor licensing permits and responding to dubious personal injury complaints.
Another demanding aspect of Haydar’s job centers on branding. In addition to working to build the brand locally and nationally, Danna’s between the pipes, so to speak, doing her daily best to shield her teams brand value from shots from all angles. Not long into the panel discussion, Danna recounted an incident recently where a former Lightning player had signed an endorsement deal with a local gentlemen’s club; he was making appearances in team uniform and even absent that detail, the association between him and the Lightning was transparent.
Danna, then, found herself in the unconventional position of having to call the management of the establishment in question and figure out how to extricate the Lightning from any suggestion that it was endorsing exotic dancers. As if that were not challenging enough in its own right, the former player proceeded to get on talk radio and open the entire matter up for public discussion, complaining that his former team was affirmatively interfering with his livelihood after hockey. As Danna told it, hilarity ensued. And then there was the time she got in a trademark-infringement tussle with Pearl Jam over the rights to a marketing slogan…
In addition to serving up several such colorful vignettes, Danna fielded more direct questions from the moderator as well, describing, for one, her less than conventional career path and some defining moments along the way. Born in Toronto, Danna knew from an early age that she wanted to be involved in professional sports when she grew up, particularly hockey. She joked that a love for the ice is a prerequisite for a Canadian passport. Years later, she became inspired to merge her mutual loves of sports and the law after just her first year of law school, when she took a year off to work full-time at a professional sports agency. When she headed back to law school, this time it was at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles where she felt she could finish her J.D. from the University of Florida in closer proximity to the beating heart of the sports/entertainment industry in L.A. She didn’t know exactly where she was headed, she said, but she knew she wanted a scoreboard in the mix. Her front office gig with the Lightning certainly checks that box.
DAMON JONES — Senior VP & General Counsel, Washington Nationals (Washington, DC)
Seated next to Danna on the panel was Damon Jones, who hailed from a more traditional firm background before getting involved in the professional sports industry. Today, Jones is Vice President & General Counsel of the Washington Nationals Baseball Club. He is responsible for all legal affairs of the Club, handling everything from major corporate sponsorship agreements to contracts with merchandisers and stadium concession providers.
Fielding Casey’s first, direct question — “how did you get your start?” — Jones explained that the Nats is hardly the first team he’s been to bat for. Having graduated from honors from UC Santa Barbra, followed by Harvard Law, Jones surely fit right in as an associate at Williams & Connolly, where his practice included representing high-profile MLB, NBA and WNBA players in and out of the court room; he was involved in a wide array of related transactional work as well as complex litigation. Prior to joining Williams & Connoly, Jones clerked for the Honorable Roger L. Gregory of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; practiced law at the Los Angeles based entertainment firm Greenberg Glusker; and served as in-house counsel to a Los Angeles-based sports agency where he represented dozens of Major League players.
As General Counsel for the Nats, Jones takes the lead on all the Club’s legal matters. Canvassing his duties quickly and humbly, Jones discussed his role as lead counsel in the team’s salary arbitration cases, and other labor issues arising out of the MLB’s collective bargaining agreement. His transactional lineup, like Danna’s, is wide-ranging and encapsulates everything from endorsement and broadcasting agreements to facilities management, sky-box licensing deals, and concert bookings. He, too, is responsible for legal matters involving his team’s facilities, in addition to those that directly touch and concern the players and the franchise.
As if Jones’s plate isn’t full enough already, he also referenced with pride his work representing the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation, which has included helping to build, operate and maintain a Youth Baseball Academy promoting academic and athletic excellence among inner city youth.
ERIC SCHAFFER — VP of Football Administration/General Counsel, Washington Redskins (Washington, DC)
Our final introduction was to Eric Schaffer, General Counsel and VP of Football Administration for the Washington Redskins. Entering his 13th season with the Redskins, Schaffer’s primary role, predictably, is as the Club’s chief contract negotiatior. That’s what lawyer’s do, he reminded us. They negotiate. More specifically, Schaffer focused on his management responsibilities related to planning, managing and forecasting the Redskin’s salary caps and cash allowances. He has an extensive background researching and analyzing NFL player contracts, and his expertise extends beyond just the Redskin’s rosters — he has firsthand experience evaluating the roster composition of each and every club in the league.
Asked what a normal week leading up to a contract negotiation might entail, Schaffer described a process that included drafting and compiling pages and pages of player statistics, free agency targets, performance forecasts and of course dollar figures. And then, he told us, the real fun starts – the negotiations begin. Schaffer let on that even after thirteen years, he was not above pulling college-style all-nighters to help get and keep the right guys on the Redskins roster. Winning seasons, Schaffer made clear, are their own reward. His heart is in the game. And he leaves it all on the field.
In addition to player contract negotiations and collective bargaining interactions, Schaffer’s duties, like his co-panelists’, extend far and wide. Dealing with FBI agents brought into crack down on gear counterfeiters, for instance, is not out of the question. Apparently bootleggers abound, and during seasons when the team is hot, merchandise can be even hotter.
Our Post Game Wrap-up
When a conversation among legal professionals moves organically from discussions of the upsides of managing NFL, NHL and MLB divas, to the downsides of hosting wild turkeys on the sidelines, to golden tricks of the trade re: handling disgruntled rock stars, gentlemen’s clubs and overworked federal law enforcement, boiling the interaction down to a nutshell becomes challenging to say the least. One might be tempted to say, you had to be there. If you walk away with just one thought about the business of being team counsel, though, let’s make it this one: the game’s not boring.
Margaret Kelly is a first year associate in the Government Division at Venable LLP. She is a recent graduate of Virginia Law, where she developed a strong interest in sports law as well as US regulatory law and policy. She graduated with honors from Princeton University in 2010, with a major in Political Theory.
