Sports

Mayer Brown has broad expertise in sports-related cases at every level, including professional, Olympic, collegiate and local. We represent national governing bodies, sports federations, professional teams, team owners, colleges, municipal and private corporations, lenders and investors, sports agents and prominent athletes. We have litigated sports cases before the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland, and before CAS' ad hoc division for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. We have also tried cases before the arbitral tribunals of Olympic federations in the U.S. and abroad, and in courts throughout the United States and Europe. We regularly represent USA Track & Field (USATF) and the United States Golf Association (USGA), the national governing bodies for their respective sports in the U.S. Our representation of clients in sports matters has encompassed a wide range of issues, including federation rule-making powers and governance issues; questions of athlete eligibility; drug-testing programs; sale of broadcasting rights; development of arenas and sports venues; trademark licensing, endorsement and sponsorship; and legal questions relating to sports equipment, among many other matters.

Our lawyers have been at the center of some of the most prominent and cutting-edge sports litigations and arbitrations in recent years. Among Mayer Brown's recent victories are the successful defense of USATF in a highly publicized proceeding initiated by the International Association of Athletics Federations regarding the confidentiality of U.S. drug-testing results, and the successful defense of three top-ranked professional tennis players against doping charges. Mayer Brown's vigorous defense of the players led to the discovery and correction of a nandrolone contamination problem in products distributed to players by the Association of Tennis Professionals, the governing body for the men's tour.

The Mayer Brown Sports Law Group has the distinct advantage of including several lawyers who recently served as in-house counsel for major professional sports teams, including as general counsel for the Indianapolis Colts football team, general counsel of the Houston Rockets basketball team, and in-house counsel for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.

Entertainment

Mayer Brown represents television networks and studios, motion picture production companies, record companies, a Broadway theatre production company, actors, authors and artists in a variety of matters, including disputes over contractual rights and obligations, royalty calculations, copyright and trademark rights, merchandising questions, and antitrust and unfair competition claims. Among other matters, we have represented a movie studio in defending against an idea misappropriation claim by a purported screenwriter, a record company in establishing New York common-law copyright protection for pre-1972 sound recordings which are not protected by the federal copyright statute, a music company in a challenge to its calculation of royalties over a multi-year period, and a famous actress in fraud and breach of fiduciary duty claims against her former agent. We also represented the underwriters of the "Bowie Bonds" in the groundbreaking transaction which securitized the future royalty stream from David Bowie's portfolio of music.

Media

Mayer Brown has wide-ranging experience in media-related matters at every level. We represent a national media company and various trade journal publishers regarding a variety of issues unique to the media industry. We have also represented a number of clients in defamation and invasion of privacy claims. We have litigated media-related issues in the state and federal courts, at both the trial and appellate levels.

To view our litigation and transactional experience, use the navigation menu on the right.