Holland & Hart LLP is expanding its sports law expertise with the addition of sports lawyer, Matthew Barnett who has joined the firm’s Intellectual Property Group last month.
Barnett brings more than 15 years of experience in advising professional and amateur sports entities on a broad range of issues including: intellectual property, sponsorship and media rights, litigation and arbitration, commercial transactions, corporate governance, internal investigations and disciplinary actions, crisis communication and lobbying; and ethical training and related issues.
“We are extremely excited to have Matt join our Colorado Springs office,” said Holland & Hart Partner Wendy Pifher, “His broad sports law experience will be a nice complement to the sponsorship and naming rights work that our intellectual property group is already handling for major corporate sports sponsors.”
Barnett began his career in the Sports group at Skadden Arps in New York, where he represented the NFL, NBA and NHL, as well as a number of professional sports teams and organizations on a wide variety of issues.
He has worked extensively in the area of anti-doping regulation representing the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in a number of high-profile anti-doping cases such as the arbitration against Tour de France winner Floyd Landis. Barnett also represented the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in an arbitration brought by the teammates of Marion Jones related to the loss of Olympic medals.
His experience with legal issues related to sports also includes advising numerous Olympic national governing bodies on a range of matters including membership disputes, team selection, athlete eligibility issues and commercial contract matters.
Barnett also has a deep understanding of the business side of sports having served as the Deputy Commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and as President of 54 West Group, a sports agency, where he advised sponsors and sports organizations on sponsorship and media activations. While with the PRCA, Barnett renegotiated the PRCA’s network television deals resulting in savings of over $1 million per year while establishing new ratings records for the organization’s broadcasts.
Pifher said the announcement “signifies the firm’s increased emphasis on growing our sports law work. We have a number of attorneys who already spend a majority of their time on sports sponsorship and naming rights issue for our clients. We also have a very active entertainment and media intellectual property practice where we handle a wide variety of licensing deals and rights negotiations for entertainment and sports clients.
“We saw the opportunity to bring Matt in as a perfect fit, as it gives us an excellent attorney to lead the sports portion of our Entertainment, Sports and Media practice group,” she added. “In addition to being a top notch lawyer, we were really drawn to the fact that Matt has spent his entire career working in sports law on a daily basis and has the breadth of practice experience to help us significantly expand the sport law related advice that we can provide to our clients.”
