Launching a new league or team in the sports industry is a complex matter, and requires trusted counselors and partners to navigate through the various legal issues that arise. Our firm’s platform, depth of experience, and holistic view of the sports industry offers clients practical, efficient advice for new sports organizations.
Emerging teams and leagues turn to our global Sports Industry team as trusted advisors as they break into the market and establish themselves. Our lawyers have extensive experience and draw upon the multidisciplinary strength of our firm’s platform to guide new sports teams and leagues through all phases of growth in this rapidly expanding industry, from the initial stages of entity formation to assisting with the development of growth and expansion plans once the venture has been established. We have experience in organizing and structuring entities in both the single-entity and franchisee models and regularly counsel clients on the pros and cons of each approach.
Raising capital is one of the most important–and necessary–goals of a new team or league, and our lawyers can help with financing, capital offerings, shareholders agreements, convertible notes, and debt offerings. Another priority for newly established teams and leagues is reviewing real estate and facility ownership needs. Our lawyers harness a vast knowledge of opportunity zones and other tax incentives to help clients secure the best option financially for their facility or stadium.
We help emerging teams and leagues draft and negotiate a broad range of contractual agreements, including player and coach contracts, sponsorship and naming rights agreements, suite licenses, venue use agreements, apparel contracts, broadcast and media rights deals, and other strategic collaboration agreements.
We also help emerging leagues or teams with intellectual property, data privacy, immigration, and labor and employment matters–all critical issues that face new organizations.
Since returning to office in January 2025, President Trump has made broad assertions of executive authority, including the power to fire independent agency heads at will. For almost a century, these officials have been protected by law from such “without cause” removals, enjoying insulation from direct presidential control. That status quo—rooted in the Supreme Court’s 1935 decision in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States—is on the verge of transformation.
This edition of The Essentials coincides with the close of California’s 2025 legislative session and summarizes the most significant employment-related bills enacted this year. We have highlighted key provisions of the new laws taking effect in 2026 and one related to the use of artificial intelligence that took effect in October 2025.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes major changes to the Internal Revenue Code’s clean energy tax provisions, particularly to the provisions that were extended, expanded, and established as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Congress created a new framework around payment stablecoins but has done more than regulate a digital asset class—it has quietly set in motion a potential transformation of the regulation of core payment systems.
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