Baker McKenzie associate Ena Patel is now the highest-ranking female executive in a technical role in Major League Soccer.

On Jan. 23, the league's Colorado Rapids announced that Patel would become its new director of player personnel, a role that will see her oversee player contracts, salary budgets, regulatory compliance and soccer operations protocols for the Denver-based club.

Patel, who specializes in international tax planning on cross-border transactions, will report in her new role to Colorado Rapids executive vice president and general manager Pádraig Smith.

“Bringing in a sharp, legal mind who can oversee our contractual processes and complex league mechanisms is a really important part of ensuring that we're fielding the best possible team,” said Smith in a statement. “We can't wait for her to get started.”

The Rapids, which have undergone a front office overhaul in recent months, are owned by E. Stanley Kroenke, a real estate billionaire married to the daughter of Walmart Inc. co-founder James Walton. Kroenke's son, Josh, serves as an alternate governor for the Rapids. The team is merely one of Kroenke's professional sports holdings.

Kroenke's sports portfolio includes the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets, the National Football League's Los Angeles Rams, the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth, the Los Angeles Gladiators e-sports team and English Premier League franchise Arsenal F.C. Picking up those assets required the assistance of legions of lawyers from Big Law.

A Dentons predecessor advised Kroenke on his $750 million purchase of what were then the St. Louis Rams in 2010. Six years later, Dentons represented Kroenke on his successful effort to move the football franchise to Los Angeles. (Dentons and Irell & Manella also advised Kroenke on his ultimately unsuccessful $1.5 billion bid to buy Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers out of bankruptcy in 2012.) Clifford Chance counseled Kroenke on his $1.2 billion acquisition of Arsenal in 2011.

As for Patel, who was not immediately available to discuss her new role in pro soccer Thursday, she received her LL.M. in taxation from the Northwestern University School of Law in 2012 and joined Kirkland & Ellis as an associate in Chicago. Patel spent two years at the firm before lateraling in 2014 to DLA Piper in the Bay Area. She left the following year to join rival global legal giant Baker McKenzie, where she spent nearly three years, leaving the firm around Thanksgiving.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for me both personally and professionally,” Patel said in a statement. “I've been interested in making the jump to professional sports for some time and very much appreciate the support shown by everyone. The opportunity to be a part of a club with an ambitious vision for the future is very exciting, and I can't wait to get started. It's easy to see that this is a club with a very bright future.”

The Rapids were founded in 1996 as part of the original 10 teams in MLS, which has expanded rapidly in recent years, adding an expansion team in Nashville last month with another announcement expected Monday for a new David Beckham-owned club in Miami. Los Angeles F.C., another new MLS team co-owned by O'Melveny & Myers sports industry co-chair Irwin Raij, will take the pitch this year.

The face of pro soccer in the U.S., the subject of a recent court battle, will become clearer next month after the election of a new president for the U.S. Soccer Federation. Two lawyers, Steven Gans of Boston's Prince Lobel Tye and Michael Winograd of Ropes & Gray in New York, are among eight individuals competing for the role.