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Sheppard

Sheppard

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United States • Industry focus

4

Sport

Sheppard fields a multidisciplinary sports practice capable of advising an array of teams, financial institutions, and governing bodies. Representative work for the group spans strategic investments in teams, employment disputes, and negotiating media rights agreements. The team is jointly led David Sunkin, in Century City, who acts for a range of major league franchise owners, and Brian Anderson, based in San Francisco, who has considerable experience handling capital raises, commercial partnerships, and technology agreements. Also based in Century City are Robert Darwell, who leads the practice’s sports media offering, and experienced trial attorney Adam Streisand.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The team represented a municipal sports stadium in complex event staging agreements and are cutting edge in the understanding of the context of sports business and the nuts and bolts of event management. Tough negotiators but they understand what is commercially reasonable and how far each issue can and should be pushed and when to give ground.’

  • ‘David Sunkin is one of the three best lawyers I have ever worked with. Humble and an incredibly creative, critical thinker.’

  • ‘The team has unique capabilities, expertise and experience in the sports rights sector. They are fully aware of the processes to be followed and the optimum preparation of the required documentation. They are fully available and their response is efficient, on time and technically excellent.’

  • ‘We have worked with Nicolas Urdinola, partner based in L.A., who has exceptional skills for drafting, negotiating and communicating. He has been fully available to work on the project, has delivered work in a timely manner and has provided business alternatives when needed. He has extraordinary communication skills both in English and Spanish.’

  • ‘Awareness of global best practices and different approaches and applying them to the matter at hand with due regard to local practices and context.’

  • ‘The team are extremely humble despite their wealth of knowledge, responsive despite different time zones, agile, attentive to details, politically aware and correct.’

  • ‘The team as knowledgeable and experienced lawyers who have successfully negotiated a number of complicated venue use agreements with venue owners and universities, the Olympics, and professional teams. They are responsive to client needs and timing, and add enormous value to the not just the legal documentation, but direct negotiations, including problem solving.’

  • ‘David Sunkin and his team are definitely subject matter experts, are very creative, listen to the needs of the client, provide advice and ideas, differentiate between legal and business terms, while very effective at advising on business terms, as well as helping the client understand what risks or opportunities may exist that the client may not have been thinking about.’

  • ‘Brian Anderson leads an exceptional sports, entertainment, and technology practice. Brian and his team have broad subject expertise across leagues, teams, and media and technology enterprises making him exceptionally effective as not only as a senior lawyer but also as a business advisor.'

  • 'Brian Anderson is a highly skilled attorney who can handle everything from financings, to corporate and governance, to complex transactions as well as support both mature enterprises as well as start-ups.’

Key clients

  • Dea Spanos Berberian
  • City of Pasadena, California
  • Rose Bowl Operating Company
  • Swansea City AFC
  • QVC
  • SGP USA LLC
  • UCLA
  • USC
  • WPSL PRO
  • Cole Brauer
  • Arena Club
  • Amazon MGM Studios
  • Meta
  • Anthem Sports & Entertainment
  • Peloton
  • Hidden Breath

Work highlights

Represented Dea Spanos Berberian in five years of litigation and settlement negotiations that resulted in successful closing of the sale of her 24% interest in the Los Angeles Chargers to Tom Gores, the owner of the Detroit Pistons.
Represented the City of Pasadena, California, in its agreement with the organizers of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games for the city’s Rose Bowl Stadium to host Olympic soccer matches in Los Angeles in the summer of 2028.
Advised TJX Companies, Inc. owner of the TJ Maxx brand, in a groundbreaking, multi-year partnership with the National Women’s Soccer League’s Boston Legacy FC.
Practice head

David Sunkin; Brian Anderson

Other key lawyers

Robert Darwell; Adam Streisand; Nicolas Urdinola