ArentFox Schiff announced that Phillip Gharabegian and Cheyenne Rodriguez have joined the firm in its Sports Industry Group and Corporate & Securities practice. Phillip joins as a partner and Cheyenne joins as an associate, and both will reside in the firm’s Los Angeles Office. Their additions mark a strategic expansion of the firm’s nationally recognized Sports Industry Group and significantly increases the firm’s depth in media and related matters.
Phillip brings more than two decades of experience at the intersection of sports and media, having established deep and lasting relationships with business and legal executives at leagues, teams, and sports properties. Throughout his career, Phillip has led or played an integral part in the negotiation and drafting of some of the largest and most complex regional and national media rights agreements and partnerships involving major professional sports leagues and teams as well as collegiate conferences including the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, the Atlantic Coast Conference and FIFA. He most recently served as Deputy General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Business Affairs at FanDuel Sports Network, where he was a member of the executive leadership team and responsible for day-to-day operations and long-term strategic initiatives for the nation’s largest portfolio of regional sports networks (RSNs).
“Phillip’s depth of experience and strong relationships with top leagues, teams and networks across the country are simply unmatched in the sports media world,” said Richard Brand, San Francisco office managing partner and Sports Industry Group co-leader. “He and Cheyenne are trusted, business-minded advisors whose arrival significantly strengthens our coast-to-coast capabilities in the sports, media, and entertainment sectors.” Rich added that “the firm already had a significant media practice (including its work on some of the largest media rights deals in history), but adding industry leaders like Phillip and Cheyenne exponentially increases the firm’s depth and breadth of our practice and makes the Sports Industry Group a go-to destination for any and all media related transactions as well as other areas of practice.”
Phillip played a central role in the legal affairs related to the initial divestiture of the portfolio of regional sports networks and related assets by Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. to The Walt Disney Company and the subsequent sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group, and their stand-up and reorganization as FanDuel Sports Network following Chapter 11 reorganization. His areas of practice span league and team rights negotiations (exceeding 100 such agreements), rights exploitation strategy, intellectual property and data sharing matters, sponsorship, advertising, and marketing agreements, streaming platform product launches (including direct-to-consumer), and network naming rights, among others. He also has consulted with business executives regarding the implementation of media distribution strategies.
Cheyenne similarly brings deep industry knowledge from her experience advising on transactional and regulatory matters for major companies in the sports and entertainment industries. She previously served as Vice President of Business Affairs and Associate General Counsel at FanDuel Sports Network, where she often worked closely with Phillip and helped manage legal and commercial operations for a large portfolio of RSNs with linear programming services and digital platforms. Cheyenne also advised on more than 50 professional team and league media rights transactions, oversaw product and content distribution matters, created policies related to evolving sports wagering regulations, and advised on intellectual property, sponsorship, and advertising agreements.
“Phillip and Cheyenne bring an entrepreneurial spirit, in-house leadership experience, and a sophisticated understanding of the evolving sports media ecosystem that will be invaluable to our clients,” said David McHugh, partner and Corporate & Securities practice leader. “Their addition reinforces our deep bench of lawyers with backgrounds at the intersection of business strategy and legal counsel, and we’re excited to welcome them to the firm.”
The Sports Industry Group has key experience beyond the more-traditional practice areas in burgeoning new sectors of the sports industry such as fantasy sports, gaming, esports, and blockchain and artificial intelligence applications. The Sports Industry Group also represents some of the most well-known athletes, agencies, and artists, as well as advertising agencies and startup companies, on a broad array of sports-related engagements.