What are the most significant cases, projects, or transactions that you and your legal team have recently been involved in?

In the past few months our legal team has been driving impact across litigation, commercial partnerships, and risk management. On the litigation front, we secured key appellate relief in a high‑visibility employment matter, aligning our strategy with outside counsel and putting the case on a favorable briefing track, in a case that arose from an internal investigation a few months earlier. Commercially, we completed and/or renegotiated several premium partnership transactions, including a multi‑year renewal with a complex set of benefits and risk‑allocation terms, and closed an early‑stage strategic tech agreement that supports our content and fan‑engagement roadmap. We also tightened our privacy and data‑protection posture in connection with new security technology at our facilities, and we’ve been disciplined on revenue protection — resolving partner defaults, issuing formal demands where needed, and ensuring our contract economics are enforced. Last year, we also partnered closely with HR to design and implement a Voluntary Separation Program that supported organisational efficiency while providing enhanced benefits, compliance rigor, and robust transition resources for participating employees. More towards the start of last year, we also managed compliance and contracting issues as part of the search team in our hiring of a new Head Coach, General Manager, and their respective staffs. Together, these matters reflect a balanced portfolio: protecting the organisation in court, enabling growth with durable contracts, and reducing enterprise risk.

How do you approach managing legal aspects during periods of instability or crisis to ensure the organisation’s resilience?

In periods of instability or crisis, my approach is to ground the organisation in clarity, calm, and disciplined execution. First, by quickly assessing the legal, operational, and reputational risks, ensuring leadership has a clear picture of what’s at stake and where decisions are most time‑sensitive. From there, I establish a structured response framework consisting of tight issue tracking, defined decision‑makers, rapid‑response workstreams and clear escalation paths, so we can move at speed without sacrificing judgment. I also prioritise transparent communication, both internally and with external stakeholders, to maintain trust and minimise speculation. Ultimately, my goal is to help the organisation stay resilient by anticipating downstream impacts, preserving optionality, and ensuring every step we take protects both our long‑term interests and our core values.

General counsel often speak of the need to be strategic to reach the pinnacle of the profession. What does being strategic mean to you?

Being strategic means choosing the actions that move us closest to victory on the field and excellence off it. It starts with grounding legal advice in our purpose to win at everything we do and it is a continuing and long-term goal that cannot be defined be a single season or transaction.

In practice, strategy is about thinking long‑term, anticipating challenges, and positioning the organisation to win again and again. Strategic thinking is a core leadership expectation. It requires clarity of expectations, accountability, disciplined execution, and an unwavering commitment to strive for excellence.

Over the past year, that has meant shaping litigation strategy to support organisational resilience, designing contracting and privacy frameworks that allow football and business operations to operate confidently, and reinforcing standards through transparent communication and collaboration. Ultimately, strategic leadership is about elevating the team, enabling growth, reducing friction, and ensuring that every decision, big or small, helps us win.

What strategies do you employ to ensure the successful digital transformation of a legal department while maintaining compliance with your country’s data protection laws?

I approach digital transformation the way our culture prescribes: with discipline, optimism, and a commitment to daily productivity. For legal, that means modernising how we work while remaining accountable to the highest privacy and regulatory standards.

We’ve rebuilt our contracting and privacy workflows around effective communication, collaboration, and accountability. CLM and e‑signature implementation are structured for clarity and consistency, reducing gray areas so teams can execute with confidence.

On the compliance side, we’ve integrated league‑aligned privacy and AI standards into our processes. This is how Legal contributes to trust in the overall organization: by making sure our digital tools are safe, our data is protected, and our people understand the guardrails.

Most importantly, we lead transformation with humility and service. When every change is built with the mindset of helping teammates succeed, adoption follows naturally.

Have you had any experiences during your career as a lawyer that stand out as particularly unique or interesting?

The most memorable aspects of my career involve operating in environments where the stakes are high and public, timelines are tight, and teamwork is non‑negotiable. Those moments demand dedication and resilience, prioritization of the overall team, and enjoying the process (even, and especially, when it feels like an intense grind).

Whether coordinating a complex appellate strategy, navigating high‑visibility partnership issues, or guiding sensitive personnel‑related matters, the constant throughline has been relationships. Collaborating, listening intently, and treating everyone with dignity are critical. These are not just cultural buzzwords — they are the difference between friction and momentum.

These experiences reaffirm that you win not by going around adversity, but by going through it — together, with discipline and optimism.