Big Law and Big Sports: More Money, Law Firms and Work

The American Lawyer included Andrew Nightingale’s commentary in an article about how a flurry of newer rules in team ownership and increased sports litigation and investment will lead to more legal work, including firms that were not previously players in the sports legal field.

Covington was cited in the article as a firm that is a longtime stalwart in sports law, such as those that have “handled the big negotiations, the league issues, the sale of teams and the like.”

Andrew noted that the involvement of more firms in sports deals is expected, given the changes in who is investing in teams and to what degree. “The area that has probably facilitated the involvement of non-traditional Big Law firms has been the involvement of institutional investors in the sports space. At this point, all the major leagues, other than the NFL, allow for private equity investment in their leagues. And those investors have brought non-traditional (for the sports space) firms into the fray.”