Larry Silverman, one of the Pittsburgh region’s most prominent attorneys, has announced he is opening his own private law practice.
Silverman’s decision follows two stints, one at Dickie McCamey & Chilcote, and nearly 10 years as Senior VP & General Counsel for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh, where he has taught a class on the “Law of Professional Sports” for the past eight years.
In his new practice (www.lsilvermanlaw.com), Silverman will focus on representing small businesses and nonprofits, as well as companies in the Sports & Entertainment industry. His primary practice areas will include Contracts and other Transactions, Digital, Marketing and Advertising issues and Employment Law.
A native of Pittsburgh, Silverman received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh and his law degree from Duquesne University’s School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review. He then had the privilege of serving as a judicial law clerk for the Hon. Donald Ziegler of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Following this 2-year clerkship, he joined the Pittsburgh law firm of Dickie McCamey & Chilcote, where his practice focused on commercial litigation, appellate practice and corporate law. He became a Shareholder at Dickie in 1986.
“My career took an exciting twist early in 2002 when I was hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates to become its first general counsel,” he said. “For the next 10 years, I served as the only in-house counsel for the Pirates, handling all of the legal affairs for the organization, including its player contract negotiations, all contracts with vendors, sponsors, suite holders and other stakeholders of the team, all employee-related issues, all intellectual property matters and a host of other subjects. Additionally, I served as general counsel to the organization’s charitable foundation, Pirates Charities.”
After leaving the Pirates in late 2011, Silverman served as senior legal counsel on a part-time basis to Aerotech, Inc., a Pittsburgh-based high technology manufacturing company. In January 2013, Silverman re-joined Dickie McCamey as of counsel, where, as now, his practice focused on the representation of small businesses and nonprofits.
In describing his practice to Sports Litigation Alert, Silverman said he has “worked with a number of sports-related tech start-ups, companies looking to enter the fantasy sports industry and a number of fitness/health club facilities. I have also worked with a number of college athletic departments. In addition, I have worked with sports and entertainment agencies on a variety of IP issues involving their clients, including talent endorsement issues, right of publicity issues, etc.”
