Accomplished sports industry attorneys Charles Baker and Irwin Raij helped to co-teach and participate with students in the hypothetical purchase of a baseball team in Professor Peter Carfagna’s short course, “Negotiating and Drafting Sports Venue Agreements.”
“The students are very, very lucky to have exposure to them live, in real time, and up-close,” Carfagna said.
Baker and Raij are Co-Chairs of the Sports Industry Group at O’Melveny & Myers, one of the most selective and prestigious law firms in America according to Vault.com. Raij is also a member of the University of Miami School of Law’s Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law board of advisors and Baker is on the Sports Track committee.
Carfagna’s course saw Sports Law LL.M. students learn about complicated sports-venue-related deal documents and master skills relating to analyzing, drafting, and negotiating the various “moving parts” of such agreements.
The guest speakers play-acted in a hypothetical purchase of a $30 million Charlotte Knights Minor League Baseball team, with Baker acting as counsel representing the buyer and Raij the seller. Students were tasked with drafting certain clauses of the agreement in subgroups. The deal entailed representations and warranties, conditions prior to closing, and a number of other facets.
Baker’s practice encompasses mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture capital transactions, with a particular focus in sports. With years of experience, Baker has advised on a number of important deals including the $850 million sale of the National Basketball Association’s Atlanta Hawks in 2015 and the kit sponsorship deal between Manchester City FC and Nike in 2013 worth over $100 million.
Raij also has extensive experience in the sports law field, having handled new stadium development projects, financing and construction agreements, sports technology counseling/ventures, ticketing arrangements, stadium service agreements, and much more. He has been nationally recognized in sports law in the 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 editions of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.
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