September 21, 2016
BeLabor The Point Blog
Overview
For over four decades, we have provided counsel and advocacy to professional sports teams, athletes, artists, venues, performing arts organizations, and a leading orchestral academy.
Range of Services
Administrative & Regulatory
- Advice regarding Sunshine Law and Open Government Laws
- Ticketing and revocable licenses
Corporate
- Facilitate acquisitions of sports franchises
- Advise on corporate governance
- Negotiate and prepare player and coaching contracts
- Negotiate and prepare motion picture producer’s agreements
- Negotiate and prepare agreements for the licensing of broadcast rights, corporate sponsorship and advertising agreements for print and electronic media and premium seating
- Negotiate and prepare talent agreements
Intellectual Property
- Copyright enforcement
- Trade secrets
- Trademark registration and litigation
- Name Image Likeness (NIL)
- Represent motion picture studios and record companies seeking to enforce intellectual property rights against video and audio pirates
- Negotiate agreements for the purchase of motion picture rights
Labor & Employment
- Investigate and respond to EEOC Charges
- Draft independent contractor, restrictive covenant, and executive employment agreements
- Employee benefits and compensation
- Develop and update employee handbooks, policies, and procedures for compliance with federal and state law
- General employment counselling on employee-related issues such as terminations/separations, performance management, internal complaints, leaves of absence, and accommodations.
- Advise on labor relations and collective bargaining issues
- Conduct employment law compliance training (e.g., harassment prevention, wage and hour, EEO, FMLA, and ADA)
- Draft general releases and other employment-related documents
Immigration
- Assist musicians and dancers in obtaining O-1 visas and achieving permanent residence as aliens of extraordinary ability
- Help professional athletes obtain P-1 visas
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
- Litigate and negotiate disputes involving art, including dispute resolution & acquisition/sale services
- Internal investigations
- Government investigations and audits
- Litigate the rights of teams, coaches and players under players’ and coaches’ contracts
- Litigate duties of parties to national broadcasting contracts
- Represent teams in disputes with other teams
- Negotiate disputes among and between sports franchise owners
Real Estate
- Advise, negotiate and prepare complex real estate and venue agreements
- Financing and construction of major sports venues
- Advise in securing grant funding for significant construction projects
- Prepare stadium, arena, and performing arts venue construction contracts
Tax
- Advice regarding sales and use tax audits & disputes
- Advice regarding state and local taxation
Advice regarding Sports Business Restructuring Issues
Notable Experience
- In the 1980’s, Alan Fein began providing guidance to the ownership of an entity that would become the Miami Heat Limited Partnership, helping guide that nascent organization with an original staff of three through the maze of NBA expansion, and ultimately to three NBA World Championships and recognition as one of the world’s elite professional sports franchises. Over the years, the firm represented the Heat in the negotiation of its key original business agreements and the lion’s share of its major litigation, including an arbitration against the New York Knicks over the Heat’s hiring of Pat Riley, litigation involving broadcast agreements, sponsorship disputes, labor and employment issues, and complex litigation regarding the design and construction of the Heat’s arena. We have made ourselves available to the Heat for day-to-day advice and counsel on a myriad of issues that meet at the intersection of business, law and sport.
- Ingrid Ponce is outside employment counsel for an American professional baseball team and provides advice and counsel on all employment related issues, while also handling employment related litigation. She also has worked with Major League Baseball (the governing body of all major league baseball teams in the United States) on Florida related employment issues.
- For over a decade, Eric Gabrielle has served as outside counsel for the Miami Dolphins and affiliated organizations regarding issues of labor and employment law, including compliance with federal and state law regarding employment relationships, federal and state leave laws, employment policies and procedures, employee compensation matters, and policies and procedures applicable to the entire workforce. Eric works closely with the Club’s internal legal and HR staff.
- We have 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, litigation, agreements with artists and resident companies, sponsorship and advertising agreements and complex real estate negotiations.
- Advised and represented world-ranked tennis professionals, including some of the world’s top players, in matters that allowed them to maximize marketing and sponsorship opportunities, including emancipation proceedings in Florida courts.
- For over thirty 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 nationally recognized City Theatre, and the nation’s foremost training orchestra, the New World Symphony.
