Sheppard Mullin

Sheppard Mullin's Sports Industry Team is uniquely positioned to address the complex and dynamic needs of our sports industry clientele. Our sports practice offers the expertise necessary to provide full service legal counsel to owners, teams, leagues, governing bodies, facility operators, key rights holders, advertising companies, sponsors and others involved in sports-related transactions or disputes. 

Sheppard Mullin attorneys have led the way in handling complex sports-related transactions, including sports marketing agreements with MLB, NFL and NHL teams; sponsorship agreements with top NASCAR racing teams, FIFA, the AVP and various media and communications companies; naming rights agreements; ambush marketing initiatives affiliated with marquee professional and collegiate sporting events; athlete endorsement agreements and franchise acquisitions. We have also led development, financing and land use projects for NFL stadiums and MLB parks.

Our team also works with clients who design, manufacture, distribute and sell sporting gear of every type. Our clients clothe and equip consumers across the spectrum of sporting activity: from the country club sports (golf, tennis) to action sports (BMX, motocross, surfing, skate boarding); from serious team sports (football, hockey, baseball) to seriously individual sports (running, cycling, swimming). Our clients also include retailers that range from small, locally-owned stores to national chains. The sports equipment and apparel market has sales in excess of $70 billion per year. The growth of the industry continues to outpace the growth rate of the gross domestic product. Rapid industry growth brings about opportunities and challenges. Our team excels at helping clients manage through both.

Today's consumer is always looking for improved performance features in their equipment and apparel. Technological innovation and constant design improvement are essential for success in this industry and must be exploited to realize their full commercial value. Patents, trademarks, service marks, trade names, trade secrets, copyrights and trade dress must be carefully protected as it may be a business's most valuable asset in an increasingly competitive marketplace. In our global economy, protection outside of the U.S. is key to maintaining a brand. The counterfeiting epidemic requires that companies pay close attention to their manufacturing, licensing, purchasing, outsourcing and OEM agreements for the successful protection and commercialization of intellectual property rights. Sheppard Mullin helps individuals, start-up companies and Fortune 500 corporations protect their intellectual property.

Consumers are also going "green" and are increasingly conscious of how manufacturers are addressing the sustainability of the earth's natural resources. In response, many outdoor apparel brands and equipment manufacturers have tapped a rich vein by finding performance-based reasons to use such natural materials as bamboo, coconut and seaweed. Sheppard Mullin's "Green Team" can assist clients in developing internal and external "sustainability" programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Our attorneys immerse themselves in the sports industry enabling us to be not only counselors but also part of the culture of the sports industry. For example, we serve as counsel to the International Surfing Association (ISA), the International Olympic Committee-recognized governing body for the sport of surfing. One of our founding partners was a member of the U.S. Ski Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed by the United States Ski and Snowboard Association. The firm is also a founding sponsor of Action & Sport Innovators, a trade organization representing the action sports and sports equipment industry, and is a member of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

Our team can assist your company in the following areas that affect the Sports Industry:

• Advertising and promotions
• Antitrust
• Corporate finance and secured transactions
• Creditors' rights & bankruptcy
• E-Commerce
• Employee benefits
• Factoring and financing
• Franchise protection
• Import, export and customs matters
• Intellectual property
• Joint ventures and other strategic business relationships, transactions and alliances
• Labor and employment
• Litigation and dispute resolution
• Licensing and distribution
• Merchandising
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Real estate development and leasing
• Stock and equity transactions
• Tax

"As Sheppard Mullin continues to grow, it is important that we not lose sight of the need to recruit women, attorneys of color and others of diverse backgrounds."
-Guy Halgren, Chairman of the Executive Committee

At Sheppard Mullin, we make every effort to recruit the finest lawyers and nurture their talents. The firm recognizes the importance of diversity and the need to create a workplace of inclusion. We need ¿ and our clients demand ¿ a team of attorneys that is as diverse as our increasingly global client base. Achieving and maintaining diversity is key to great client service ¿ a core value of our firm. What distinguishes good intentions from results is a commitment by senior management to find the best attorneys possible coupled with the sincere belief that people with diverse backgrounds bring valuable attributes to the firm. At Sheppard Mullin, the Executive Committee, Diversity Committee, and the lawyers in each of our offices work hard to ensure that all attorneys who join our firm fit in seamlessly and are encouraged to succeed.

Members of our Diversity Committee include ethnically diverse attorneys and a representative from the firm's Executive Committee. Diversity Committee members have served on the Boards of the Anti-Defamation League, the Black Women Lawyers Foundation (Los Angeles), and the Charles Houston Bar Association (northern California). Women and minority attorneys participate on key committees of the Firm (Executive Committee; Compensation Committee; Diversity Committee; Recruiting Committee; Professional Personnel Committee; Associate Issues Committee). Four of the Firm's nine Office Administrative Partners are women, one of whom is African-American and another is multi-racial.

"Serving on the firm's Diversity Committee is one of the most important things I do. I firmly believe that we must be vigilant in our efforts to recruit talented women attorneys and attorneys of color. Our success in this area has a positive effect our firm's culture, practice and client relationships."
-Joan Story, Member Executive Committee and Diversity Committee

Below is a description of just some of our outreach efforts.

• The firm participates in and financially supports the California Minority Counsel Program and the ABA Minority Counsel Program, as well as several minority bar associations. These groups are dedicated to increasing access for and promoting and retaining minorities in the legal profession.
• The firm actively recruits law students of color, e.g., we participated in the National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) of the Western Region job fair held at UCLA School of Law.
• Sheppard Mullin contributes to the Minority Corporate Counsel Association; California Women Lawyers; Queen's Bench; Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles; and the National Black Law Students Association, among others.
• We actively participate with other major Los Angeles law firms in the Diversity Directors Roundtable, a group that is committed to promoting diversity in the legal profession and in our firms.
• The firm received the Law Firm Award from the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Foundation for its strong commitment to the promotion of community and pro bono activities.
• Multicultural Law magazine named Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP as one of "The 2011 Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity."
• Sheppard Mullin helped underwrite the production of a motion picture project entitled "Soul of Justice: The Life and Times of Thelton Henderson." The film chronicles the life of respected African-American jurist Thelton Henderson, a crusading civil rights litigator and role model.
• The firm signed the Bar Association of San Francisco's "No Glass Ceiling Initiative," BASF's "Minority Goals and Timetables," the New York County Lawyers' Association Diversity Statement, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Diversity Statement.

Much of our pro bono work relates to the diversity of the communities in which we practice; sample clients include:

• Constitutional Rights Foundation
• Domestic Violence Project, Los Angeles Bar Association
• Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
• Task Force for the Women's Resource Fair, City of San Diego
• Tolerance Through Education Program, Beverly Hills Barristers Associations
• Violence Against Women Act Program, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

Awareness of diversity enables us to understand the value of differences. At Sheppard Mullin, we are committed to hiring top tier attorneys, without regard to race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.