Damon Jones, new partner at Covington & Burling.

As baseball and most U.S. sports sit dormant, Covington & Burling has decided to make its own action. The Washington, D.C.-founded Am Law 50 firm has hired former Washington Nationals senior vice president and general counsel Damon Jones as of counsel.

Jones, who is joining the firm's sports practice, will be based out of the firm's Washington, D.C., office and Monday was his first official day with the firm.

"Damon's in-house experience, handling of a wide spectrum of legal and business issues, will bring significant value to our clients," Jeremy Spector, co-chair of Covington's sports practice, said in a statement. "Over the past decade, he's helped build the Nationals into one of the industry's premiere franchises, and his combination of legal expertise, practical problem solving skills and knowledge of how leagues and clubs work will be beneficial to our sports industry clients."

The Nationals came to D.C. in 2005 as the reincarnation of the Montreal Expos. In 2007, when Jones joined the club, the team was coming off of a 71-91 season that saw them finish 26 games back of the East Division champion New York Mets, with not a lot of hope for the future.

Games in RFK Stadium and then Nationals Park in Southwest D.C. were routinely packed with fans wearing Phillies, Yankees, Cardinals and Red Sox gear. Home games weren't really home games in the transient D.C. area, as residents brought their teams with them when they moved there. Building a winner, and a following, would prove difficult.

"When I arrived, which was about the same time the Lerner family took over the club, we were an expansion franchise," Jones said in an interview. "More than that, we were like a startup."

But now, the Nationals are the reigning World Series Champions, knocking off highly favored Houston in seven games in October 2019. Depending on how long COVID-19 restrictions stay in place, they might keep that label for a while.

While part of the Nationals organization, Jones represented the team in a variety of matters, including media rights, sponsorships and merchandising, technology transfers, IP arrangements and stadium and venue development, Covington said.

Covington's sports practice works with all the major U.S. sports leagues and many of the individual teams, as well as the United States Tennis Association and the Olympic Committee.

"I have a network that expands across the sports industry," Jones said, when asked if he plans to bring clients to the firm. "Leagues, media companies … I intend to work hard and bring value to all these folks. Even now, sports organizations are facing issues they need expertise on."

Spector, the sports practice co-chair at Covington, said it is too early to determine what effect the delay in various professional sports seasons will have on the firm's sports practice. But, he noted, although some of the work has changed, there is still work to be done.

"There are still litigation, tax planning and commercial arrangements to be made," Spector said in an interview. As to if or when the various sports leagues will reopen and what that will look like, he said all options are on the table.

"It depends on what you mean by reopening," Spector said. "They are looking at partially filled stadiums, opening some locations but not others. I give a lot of credit to the league commissioners, as they are running through every permutation to figure out how to get people back safely. But nothing will happen immediately, and nothing will happen with the flip of a switch."

This is not Jones' first stint at a Big Law firm. Before joining the Nats, he was an associate at Williams & Connolly in D.C. for six years. Before that, he was a clerk in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Covington has done well for itself the past decade. The firm has roughly doubled its revenue since 2010. And its focus on sports has clearly been important to that growth, as the firm's new chairperson, Douglas Gibson, elected in November 2019, was part of the sports practice.

Jones said he has a close relationship with the Nationals, and worked through a transition plan with the team.

Representatives for the Nationals did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Jones' departure. It is currently unclear if the NL East champions have found a replacement.

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