As the Los Angeles area has strengthened its standing as a global sports hub, other industries have taken note and adjusted accordingly.
Take, for example, Ivie McNeill Wyatt Purcell & Diggs. The longtime downtown law firm recently hired Jerome Stanley, a fixture in the sports agency world who has also built a reputation in sports law. The firm has tasked Stanley with developing and growing a sports-oriented practice within its entertainment umbrella.
Rodney Diggs, a director at Ivie McNeill Wyatt, and a former athlete from a family of athletes, said sports have always been near and dear to him. Getting to know Stanley and working for months to bring him to the firm was a case of “chance meets opportunity,” he said.
“I always wanted the firm to have a sports entertainment section and always wanted to incorporate that into our firm, especially with the oncoming NILs and things of that nature,” Diggs said, referring to name, image and likeness deals for athletes. “Now we’re trying to go ahead and capitalize on it. We have a niche with Jerome that we intend to use and capitalize on that can put us in an area of law and representation that other people don’t focus on.”
Meanwhile, the local offices for Sidley Austin are up and running with their entertainment, sports and media practice – ESM in the industry vernacular – and are already taking advantage of Los Angeles as the new sports capital.
“We are a destination practice for sports, full stop. We are one of the firms that does this in a meaningful way, and I would argue there is no other firm in L.A. that does sports in the depth that we do,” said Century City-based Matt Thompson, co-leader of Sidley Austin’s firmwide ESM group.
“If you’re going to have an ESM practice, you’ve got to have sports. Sports is consumed by everybody. It’s economically driven. There are huge opportunities there to deploy capital and it touches on all the ancillaries we do in entertainment and media.”
Sports town
The Dodgers and Lakers have of course long been part of the city’s identity on a national level, with stardom and championships propelling them to high esteem. For more than a decade, however, the landscape has been significantly changing..
The Clippers have remained competitive enough to develop a distinct brand identity here and will soon play in their own arena, the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. The return of the Rams – who were joined a year later by the Chargers – in 2016 brought the NFL back to the city, punctuated by the state-of-the-art SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. In addition, the WNBA’s Sparks have developed a strong following in recent years. In professional soccer, Los Angeles FC and Angel City FC, formed in 2018 and last year, respectively, have joined the LA Galaxy and are successfully carving out niches in the sports scene. The Kings retain a strong fan base among hockey fans, while UCLA and USC are as relevant as ever in college sports. Despite being in Anaheim, the Ducks and Angels remain popular in L.A.’s sports landscape.
Oh yeah, and the FIFA World Cup is coming in 2026, followed by the Olympics in 2028.
“There’s obviously a lot of big markets to go around, but L.A. is pretty unique,” said Eric Geffner, a partner at Sidley Austin’s Century City office in the ESM group. “I think it’s kind of a mecca for team sports.”
This is what motivated Sidley Austin to begin building out the “S” in its ESM group. This has included bringing people like Geffner into the fold. The firm’s work includes representing Santa Monica private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group in its joint acquisition of England’s Chelsea F.C., as well as representing the XFL in bringing it out of bankruptcy.
This is a space Ivie McNeill Wyatt – and other firms – want to break into.
Stanley, who before attending law school was an assistant to late Lakers owner Jerry Buss, said law firms can find plenty of work with sports teams, particularly as outside counsel handling contractual, litigation and intellectual property matters. There are also real estate and transactional matters to consider. Although Ivie McNeill Wyatt won’t be entering this space, individual athletes certainly have plenty of endeavors requiring legal work.
Stanley was careful to not tip his hand regarding specific plans, but he did say he’d like to take advantage of his new firm’s existing strengths and apply them to the sports world.
“There’s a lot of legal stuff that is being done and can be offered to enhance the effectiveness of these entities,” he said.
Big investments
Similarly, Sidley Austin has made hay by adapting one of its existing strengths: private equity. Sports teams historically have been owned by one person or a small group of people, but leagues have gradually allowed private equity firms to begin taking noncontrolling stakes in teams. Relatedly, Geffner represents the Monarch Collective, a venture capital firm focusing on women’s sports co-founded this year by Angel City FC co-founder Kara Nortman.
“We’re seeing the players that are involved in making sports investments and transactions are changing,” he said. “A lot of new players in private equity all of a sudden were looking in sports, for the opportunity to invest in a space they couldn’t before.”
And it’s just as well, considering how rising team valuations have resulted in more blockbuster deals. The firm represented the investors who recently acquired the Washington Commanders for more than $6 billion, as well as the two investors who purchased a controlling stake in the Charlotte Hornets for $3 billion.
“The men’s valuations have been going up. Some years we’re doing mostly minority investments, but we’re seeing a lot of those control deals and those are astronomical numbers we’re seeing,” Geffner said. “You’re seeing women’s sports boom right now and investors looking at that. There’s a lot of folks thinking that there’s a lot of money to be made there.”
Athletes themselves tend to have their own brands outside of their teams, brands that include sponsorships, acting and content producing. As individuals and teams diversify how they’re involved in entertainment, they’ll need lawyers to keep things moving.
“Sports figures have become true stars. When you think of actors from the ’50s and ’60s, that’s what’s happened with sports figures. They see themselves as something much broader than just a sports figure,” said Thompson. “There’s a reason LeBron’s here. There’s a lot of folks looking to do different things. Being here makes a big, big difference for those folks who are stars of their sport who also want to be stars of whatever else they’re doing.”
At Ivie McNeill Wyatt, Diggs said this is an arena he wants his firm to become a leading force in.
“What we want to do is revolutionize the sports area from what law firms typically do,” he said. “Some people say ‘sports and entertainment’ because they’ve repped an athlete or done one deal. What we want to do is get involved in this niche area and get involved in content, something that other firms are not necessarily doing.”
Not alone
Law firms are just one part of the ecosystem involved in sports, and the other pieces are taking notice in L.A. as well.
Broadcasting is vital for sports, and it means big business for related technology companies. Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment, a Valley Glen-based company that manufactures and leases dollies and other filming equipment, said its operations have been almost entirely carried by live sports since the Hollywood strikes halted filming.
Social media and streaming platforms are competing with traditional cable to carry games, and Sidley Austin’s Thompson pointed out that Los Angeles is the nation’s second largest TV market. Ivie McNeill Wyatt’s Stanley described live sports as “the last original content” on TV.
“The ability to deliver sports through different technological means will drive the industry,” he added. “I think that Los Angeles will be one of the epicenters in the world for sports for the next few decades for sure. I think Las Vegas” – where Ivie McNeill Wyatt has another office – “will continue coming on strong. I think there will be a strong synergy between the two.”
Stanley – who worked as an agent after finishing law school, representing names including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Todd Haley and Brian Shaw – said there are more sports agencies than ever in the L.A. region. And Thompson said with private equity’s new appetite for investments in teams, any law firm with a meaningful private equity practice will want to get familiar with the sports world ASAP.
“It’s a marquee practice, just the idea of being involved in sports deals. People love that,” he added. “It’s one thing to put Procter & Gamble on your deal sheet. It’s another thing entirely to put the Commanders or Chelsea or the Dodgers on your deal sheet. Any firm that cares about profitability and realization in Big Law will be interested in this.”
