The Washington Football Team (WFT) has promoted Mali Friedman, previously deputy general counsel with the team, to Chief Legal Officer.
Friedman joined the team last year after the folding of the XFL, where she was the league’s Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs.
Prior to that, she was Assistant General Counsel of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and, before that, Senior Counsel at the National Hockey League.
As Warriors Assistant General Counsel since 2017, Friedman managed a wide range of legal matters and business affairs – helping the organization transform from a basketball team to a diversified sports and entertainment company; negotiating multi-million-dollar corporate sponsorship agreements; supervising the leasing process for retail spaces at the new Chase Center; and providing day-to-day counsel to the team’s marketing, digital, technology, and game operations business units, and the Warriors Community Foundation
Friedman was Senior Counsel at the NHL from 2014 to 2017, where she focused on media partnerships, international business, and technology initiatives.
Friedman was an associate at Covington & Burling LLP. She earned her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2006, and an A.B. from Princeton University in 2002, graduating summa cum laude with a concentration in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and played on the tennis team. Friedman serves on the U.S. Board of Directors for Right to Play, an international organization dedicated to protecting, educating, and empowering children to rise above adversity using the power of sport and play
As for the WFT, she “will oversee the team’s legal and business affairs function and provide organization-wide legal and strategic support,” according to team spokeswoman Ashley Whitlock.
She replaces Damon Jones, who took a position with the Los Angeles Dangers, which can be viewed on Sportslawexpert.com
