Foley Bets On Sports Practice, Lands Ex-Jets GC
In hiring Andrew Lee, Foley is building a roster of lawyers who have in-house or management experience with pro teams or leagues.
March 10, 2020 at 05:00 AM
4 minute read
Foley & Lardner has brought on Andrew Lee, the former general counsel of the NFL's New York Jets who has run his own litigation and sports boutique, ALL Counsel, for the past decade.
Lee joined Foley this month as of counsel and a special adviser in its sports and entertainment practice in New York. Gregory Marino, another attorney at the boutique who specializes in media and entertainment, has joined Lee at Foley as special counsel.
In hiring Lee, Foley is building a roster of lawyers who have in-house or management experience with pro teams or leagues.
"My clients know that this is a place where I have infrastructure," Lee said in an interview. "If they have a big litigation coming down the pike, they know we have resources here."
After his work with the Jets, where he helped the organization's corporate move to Florham Park, New Jersey, he later partnered the Jets and the city's other NFL team, the Giants, where he lead the way as general counsel for the NY/NJ Super Bowl Host Committee. The committee eventually was able to secure the 2014 Super Bowl at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
In 2009, Lee founded ALL Counsel, a New York-based sports law boutique that handles notable clients such as the U.S. Rowing Association, the Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center, the Miami Dolphins and more, according to the boutique's profile.
Jon Israel, co-chairman of Foley's sports and entertainment group, called Lee "a natural fit" for Foley's sport and entertainment group, which he said is led by a team of business insiders who have held positions at major sports, entertainment and media organizations.
Foley has a stacked squad when it comes to hiring former general counsel, management executives and business managers in the sports world. Its team includes Bob DuPuy, from the MLB; Israel, from the NBA; Michael Wall, from the Boston Bruins; and Bobby Sharma, from the NBA and sports marketing giant IMG.
"We understand them because we have been them," Israel said in an interview. "We understand the pressures of being an in-house lawyer at a professional sports team or league. We can give them practical advice they may not find elsewhere in the market."
Israel said the in-house world in professional sports is pretty static and that relationships are cultivated over long periods of time working with the same personnel in the same organizations. Lee's 20-plus years of experience in the market dovetails nicely with what Foley is trying to accomplish with the practice, he said.
"Andy and many of us share friendships and business relationships," Israel said.
While most of Foley's sports work has been with what is called the "traditional" sports leagues and teams, Israel said the firm is expanding its work with more emerging sports markets, such as soccer and esports, as well as looking to offer a broader selection of services to its existing traditional sports clients. Israel and Lee noted that many of the primary investors in esports teams are the ownerships of various teams from the NFL, NBA and other leagues.
"Clearly there are big developments in the esports and sports gambling, which Foley has been all over," Lee said. "It's a good way to be positioned."
|Read More:
As Esports Take Off, Questions Abound Over Players' Rights of Publicity
Foley Deepens IP Litigation Bench, Taking Class Action Co-Leader From Winston & Strawn
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