Sports Group Of The Year: Covington & Burling

Law360 selected Covington’s Sports practice as a “Practice Group of the Year,” profiling the team’s successful representation of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) in an antitrust challenge over its advertising restrictions, involvement in significant deals, and continued representation of the National Football League. 

Derek Ludwin, commenting on the USOC case, says, “Regulations that support that responsibility and that licensing and that effort by USOC to generate the funds that it needs from the Olympic brand for the sport of Team USA is part of what Congress had in mind and what the USOC is authorized to do.” He continues, “The court recognized that.”

Highlighting the firm’s work on behalf of the Race Team Alliance which resulted in a nine-year ownership structure and finance deal with NASCAR, Peter Zern says, “That is a very narrow-margin business, so for them to have some ability to create some equity-type component to their business was very important.”

“Our practice is very robust and we expect that growth to continue in the coming years,” says Gregg Levy. “As the sports leagues and the sports entities move into new fields, new technologies and new financial arrangements, we’re optimistic that we will be right there along with them.”