There are plenty of major law firms that could create a sports law practice group, but choose not. They don’t recognize the value to the clients. Or in some cases, the powers that be are reluctant to bestow power to other attorneys.
Then there’s Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
With 1,200 lawyers and 18 offices — in Beijing, Brussels, Century City, Dallas, Denver, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, and Washington, D.C. — Gibson Dunn knew it had something that merited a separate practice group for the sports industry. And, more importantly, the firm acted on it, announcing the formation of the group earlier this month.
The group is led by Washington, D.C. partner Andrew Tulumello, Los Angeles partner Maurice Suh, New York partner Richard Birns and Dallas Senior Of Counsel Ronald Kirk.
“The firm has significant experience in the sports industry, and forming a practice group will allow us to coordinate the efforts of our lawyers into a single, multidisciplinary practice group across our offices and to better communicate our experience and capability to the market,” said Ken Doran, Chairman and Managing Partner of Gibson Dunn.
Lawyers in the group represent a broad range of clients, including teams, individual athletes, sports facilities, athletic associations, financial institutions, television networks, sponsors and municipalities, in a broad range of sports law matters, relating to professional and amateur sports.
“Formalizing the practice group will allow us to collaborate more closely to advise our clients on a variety of legal challenges that, given the nature of the industry, are often high-profile in nature,” said Suh. “Although the practice is newly formed, the firm’s attorneys are industry veterans who’ve handled numerous, significant matters for athletes, teams and corporations.”
Suh went on to elaborate to Sports Litigation Alert on the word “variety,” noting that the firm already works with sports-related clients in the area of civil litigation as well as labor and management issues, to name a couple.
A press release put out by the firm identified the following areas of expertise:
–Acquisitions and dispositions of professional franchises and venues
–Venue development (including public/private partnerships)
–Media rights representations, including regional sports network launches
–Sponsorship transactions, including naming rights
–Arbitrations before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other Olympic movement international and U.S. governing bodies
–Arbitrations arising pursuant to dispute resolution provisions in professional sports contracts
–Litigation of sports disputes in U.S. federal and state courts
–Collective bargaining and other labor matters
–Crisis management
–Development, negotiation and enforcement of association rules and regulations
–Intellectual property and licensing
Suh added that the firm also does extensive work in the entertainment industry, where there is “overlap.”
Where there is typically a challenge for firms of Gibson Dunn’s size is in the area of client conflict. Suh said the firm is “extremely careful with regard to conflicts.” He further noted that as “a litigation firm with a broad range of clients,” Gibson Dunn is adept at meeting that challenge.
The breadth of that client base is exemplified in the representative matters section of the Webpage for the group.
Suh reiterated that the firm is committed and will be a fixture in the sports industry.
“Gibson Dunn makes decisions like forming a Sports Law Practice Group as a group,” he said. “Firm management at the highest levels was involved, as well as the four leaders. We needed a commitment from everyone to make this a success. This is exactly where we need to be.”
