K&L Gates

K&L Gates’ sports practice has been servicing the legal needs of individuals and businesses involved in the sports sector for over 20 years. We have a market-leading international team of sport and entertainment lawyers throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.

Our team of specialist lawyers have advised on some of the biggest deals and disputes, involving many of the key operators and stakeholders in the sector relating to some of the world’s leading sports events, personalities and properties. We have worked on high profile matters involving many of the major sports leagues across the world, including NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLS, NHL, Premier League, Olympic Games, WWE, FIFA World Cup, Formula 1, and various esports properties.  Our Australian practice is ranked Band 1 for sport by Chambers and is one of only 3 firms to achieve that ranking.

Leveraging our global platform, our sports law practice is equipped to provide assistance to clients swiftly and on an informed basis from our offices around the world, utilising not only our legal skills and local market knowledge, but also our extensive networks and lobbying capabilities.

Our team has experience in:

• Intellectual property protection
• Media rights (ownership, protection, exploitation, strategic joint ventures, and traditional and over-the-top methods of distribution)
• Sports integrity (anti-doping, corruption, and investigations)
• Sports-related litigation
• Stadium related real estate finance and tax incentives
• Sponsorship, naming rights and endorsement deals
• League expansion
• Acquisition and disposition matters
• Strategic value-add partnerships between various stakeholders in the sports sector
• General corporate and financing matters
• Government relations
• Event bidding, staging, hosting, participation arrangements, and venue and stadium hire agreements
• Ticketing and hospitality
• Merchandising
• Concessionaire agreements
• Antitrust law
• Domestic and international regulation