Sports
Our sports practice has been servicing the legal needs of individuals and businesses involved in the sports sector for over 20 years.
We have advised on some of the biggest deals and disputes, involving many of the key operators and stakeholders in the sector relating to some of the world’s leading sports events, personalities and properties. We have worked on high profile matters involving every major American sports league, as well as the Premier League, the Olympic Games, WWE, FIFA World Cup, Formula 1, and various eSports properties.
We have a market-leading international team of sport and entertainment lawyers throughout the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. We offer the benefits of a global business law firm, with a network of experience extending throughout the United States and across the world. Leveraging our global platform, our sports law practice is equipped to provide assistance to clients swiftly and on an informed basis from our offices around the world, utilizing not only our legal skills and local market knowledge, but also our extensive networks and lobbying capabilities.
Our team has deep collective experience representing clients in the sports industry, particularly around:
- Media rights (ownership, protection, exploitation, strategic joint ventures, and traditional and over-the-top methods of distribution)
- Stadium related real estate finance and tax incentives in connection therewith
- League expansion
- Acquisition and disposition matters
- Strategic value-add partnerships between various stakeholders in the sports sector
- General corporate and financing matters
- Government relations
- Sponsorship, naming rights and endorsement deals
- Event bidding, staging, hosting, participation arrangements, and venue and stadium hire agreements
- Intellectual property protection
- Ticketing and hospitality
- Merchandising
- Concessionaire agreements
- Antitrust law
- Domestic and international regulation
- Sports integrity (anti-doping, corruption, and investigations)
- Sports-related litigation
Thought Leadership
On 1 March 2024, the US District Court for the Northern District of Alabama issued an opinion holding, on summary judgment, the Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutional.
On Wednesday, 6 March 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved its highly anticipated final rules on “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors” by a vote of 3-2, with Republican Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda dissenting.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released its compliance and enforcement priorities for 2024-25, with ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb expanding on the Commission's key areas of focus in her address to the Committee for Economic Development.
On 30 January 2024, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published a final rule (Final Rule) increasing the premium processing fee from US$2,500 to US$2,805, increasing filing fees for I-129 and I-140 employment-based petitions, and imposing a new Asylum Program Fee for each Form I-129 and I-140 filed by employers.