National Sports Law Group

The National Sports Law Group at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP (JMBM) represents owners, teams, leagues and sponsors – not athletes or agents.

Our lawyers have experience with every major professional sport, as well as many action sports. The range of our legal advice and assistance to team owners, leagues, and sponsors encompasses football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, motocross, boxing, surfing, skiing, snowboarding, and skateboarding, volleyball, paintball, roller hockey and others. 

We help prospective owners to acquire a franchise and help current owners sell. We have years of experience that can help you acquire a major or minor league team. Our experience includes:

• Representing the owners of an NFL team in the sale of the team 
• Representing the owners of an MLB team in the sale of the team 
• Representing a percentage owner of an NFL team in sale of ownership 
• Representing potential buyers of an NBA team
• Representing potential buyers of an NBA team in building of a potential new stadium
• Representing buyers of minor league baseball teams and minor league hockey teams 

Securing and enforcing intellectual property rights is a key component to an organization's success, and JMBM's lawyers are actively involved in identifying, protecting, defending, maximizing and enforcing the intellectual property rights of our sports clients. We handle patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, domain names, and related licensing and litigation.

JMBM's national sports practice involves sponsorships and the intellectual property rights involved in sponsorships and endorsement agreements. We have represented a number of companies in these contracts, including stadium naming rights deals, as well as numerous teams and leagues in negotiation of their sponsorship agreements. We have also advised corporate sponsors and their affiliates in events like motocross, surfing, snowboarding, skiing and skateboarding.

Our lawyers are experienced  in negotiating stadium and arena naming rights. We have represented both stadium officials and corporate sponsors in facility naming rights deals.

Our attorneys have many years of expertise in all aspects of facilities management – from developing or leasing a stadium or arena, real estate issues, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance and defense, to luxury box and season seat licenses and sales, concessions licensing agreements, and selling licensing of naming rights for stadiums and arenas or specific portions of a facility. JMBM was involved in numerous aspects of the development, construction, and leasing – as well as the management agreement – for the Staples Center in Los Angeles. 

Owners, leagues, and sponsors can be directly affected by governmental regulations, particularly when seeking to locate and develop new sites, relocate, or expand operations. JMBM's government and land use lawyers bring considerable negotiation and lobbying experience as well as land use entitlement expertise to your project, particularly when it relates to permitting new sites. 

Our lawyers regularly represent clients before city councils and planning commissions in hearings, rulemaking proceedings and compliance disputes. In the event litigation becomes necessary either to defend against a challenge to a project approval, or to prosecute a case against an agency that refused to approve the project, our land use lawyers have handled hundreds of such cases all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Please call us to discuss your needs and how we can help.