Overview
For a period spanning over four decades, our Arts, Sports & Culture Group has provided counsel and advocacy to the world’s top professional sports teams, athletes, artists and venues.
In the 1980’s, the Firm began providing guidance to the ownership of an entity that would become the Miami Heat, helping guide that nascent organization through the maze of NBA expansion, and ultimately to three NBA World Championships and a role as one of the world’s elite professional sports franchises. The Firm’s continuing relationship with the Heat has led to other collaborations and relationships. Throughout the years, we have litigated the rights of teams, coaches and players under players’ and coaches’ contracts, as well as duties of parties to a national broadcasting contract. We have represented teams in disputes with other teams, and have handled internal investigations. We have negotiated and prepared agreements for the licensing of broadcast rights, advertising agreements for print and electronic media, premium seating, as well as some of the largest player contracts in the history of sports. We have negotiated disputes among and between sports franchise owners. We are also familiar with the issues involved in the acquisition of sports franchises and the financing and construction of major sports venues.
Our group has advised and represented young tennis professionals, including one of the world’s top players, in matters that allowed them to maximize marketing and sponsorship opportunities, including emancipation proceedings in Florida courts.
We have represented motion picture studios and record companies seeking to enforce intellectual property rights against video and audio pirates. For over twenty years, we have provided counsel to one of the world’s great dance companies, Miami City Ballet, to one of the nation’s most prolific producers of new theatrical work, Miami’s City Theatre, and the nation’s foremost training orchestra, the New World Symphony.
We have also acted as general counsel to some of the world’s greatest performing arts venues, including the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Our representation has encompassed a variety of issues, including corporate governance, labor and employment, immigration, agreements with artists and resident companies, sponsorship and advertising agreements and complex real estate negotiations.
In addition, we have negotiated agreements for the purchase of motion picture rights, as well as motion picture producer’s agreements.
- Art Litigation, Dispute Resolution & Acquisition/Sale Services
- Advertising Agreements
- Cable/Broadcast Rights Agreements
- Collective Bargaining/Labor & Employment
- Corporate Sponsorship Agreements
- Corporate & Securities
- Golf Courses & Golf Course Communities
- Government Affairs – Legislative & Executive/Cabinet & Agency
- Government Investigations & Audits
- Internal Investigations
- Intellectual Property (Copyright Enforcement, Trade Secrets, Trademark Registration & Litigation)
- Player & Coaching Contracts
- Sales & Use Tax Audits & Disputes
- State & Local Taxation
- Securities
- Sports Business Restructuring Issues
- Sports Litigation
- Stadium & Arena Construction Contracts & Litigation
- Sunshine Law & Open Government Laws
- Talent Agreements
- Ticketing & Revocable Licenses
- Venue Agreements
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In the Media:
Heat’s general counsel shares excitement over team’s playoff success
Islander News|September 2020
Firm Announcements:
Litigator Sharon Carlstedt Britton Joins Stearns Weaver Miller in Tampa
April 2020
Events:
Miami Arts Marketing Project 2018
Arts & Business Council of Miami |January 2018|Jennifer Stearns Buttrick
In the Media:
Launch of SLAM Radio Signals Radio History in the Making
Radio Facts|December 2017
In the Media:
The Miami Foundation Asked "What's Your Story?"
The Miami Foundation|November 2017
In the Media:
Pitbull's SLAM Academy opening in Tampa
FOX 13 News |August 2017
In the Media:
Project Baltimore goes inside Pitbull’s charter school
Fox News|June 2017
In the Media:
South Florida Seen: 2017 Broward College Speaker Series hosted award-winning journalist Ted Koppel
South Florida Business Journal|March 2017