Entertainment & Sports
Jun. 21, 2002
Attorney Teams Up With World Cup Soccer Goalie
LOS ANGELES - Almost everyone from President Bush to your local barfly is claiming to be a soccer fan following the U.S. national team's 2-0 victory over Mexico on Monday - an upset that places the U.S. team in the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in 72 years.
But many fans who plan to watch tomorrow's game against powerhouse Germany actually have been following the U.S. soccer team and its players for many years.
One such fan is Arnold & Porter partner Daniel Grigsby, an attorney who has been mixing his love of the law and sports for more than two decades. And, as attorney to U.S. national team goalie Brad Friedel, he found Monday's game particularly sweet.
"I stayed up until about 1 [a.m.], when they scored that second goal," Grigsby said. "It was just great."
Grigsby negotiated Friedel's contracts with the U.S. national team and with the Blackburn Rovers, Friedel's team in the English Premiership league.
Friedel is not the only client of Grigsby's in the limelight. The Los Angeles Lakers, who just won their third straight NBA championship, also rely on Grigsby as outside general counsel.
Another ubiquitous client for which he serves as outside general counsel is Contemporary Services Corp., which provides security and ushering services for sporting events and concerts throughout the world, including the most recent Olympics.
Grigsby's client base may be unusually heavy on the sports, but he fits right in at Arnold & Porter.
In fact, because of its long list of sports clients - which include the Oakland Raiders, Baltimore Orioles, Anaheim Angels, Major League Baseball Properties and Professional Golfers Association - Arnold & Porter recently created an 18-attorney practice group to focus specifically on the industry.
"It's exciting," Jack Quinn, managing partner of Arnold & Porter's Los Angeles office, said of the firm's announcement of a new sports industry practice, made earlier this month.
"But the truth of the matter is that this isn't new to us because we've been doing this work for many, many years," Quinn said.
Grigsby, however, served as the impetus for the formation of a formal group, Quinn said.
Grigsby came to the firm in the summer of 2000 when Arnold & Porter acquired Century City intellectual property boutique Blanc Williams Johnston & Kronstadt, where Grigsby was a partner.
The combination of Blanc Williams clients, including the Lakers and team owner Jerry Buss, and long-standing Arnold & Porter clients, like Major League Baseball, created fertile ground for a sports industry practice, Grigsby and Quinn said.
In order to form the group, Grigsby spent more than a year "piecing together" all of the sports-related clients handled by Arnold & Porter's 700 attorneys, who are spread across seven offices.
Work for these clients previously was done under the banner of the firm's corporate, antitrust, litigation, intellectual property or other practices.
Grigsby and Quinn expect a formal group to draw more attention to the firm's level of expertise within the sports industry, making it the go-to firm for sports industry people and businesses with legal needs.
Although no formal titles have been handed out, Grigsby is serving as de facto chair of the group.
He said he has received more than 100 e-mails from Arnold & Porter attorneys expressing interest in either working with the group or providing helpful contacts. And that's not surprising; the group has a little something of interest for everybody.
Its diverse set of clients includes the Women's National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Sparks, the Association of Volleyball Professionals, the National Hot Rod Association, the West Coast Hockey League, Roller Hockey International, the Women's Professional Billiards Association and a host of arenas, stadium operators, promoters and media companies.
An equally important type of diversity, Grigsby indicated, is Arnold & Porter's full range of transactional and litigation services that the sports industry group can offer its clients.
"The hope is to grow the practice, thereby growing the group of attorneys involved in it," Grigsby said.
Grigsby's busy practice won't prevent him from catching the live telecast of the U.S. national team's game against Germany tomorrow, scheduled for 4:30 a.m. PST.
"I'll be up for it," said Grigsby, who believes another upset is possible. "The way they've been playing, you have to throw away the book. A lot of top teams have already been eliminated."
John Ryan
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