Players On the Move

Antonious Porch is stepping down as general counsel of the music-streaming and -sharing platform SoundCloud, one of the high-profile successes in a media landscape rife with challenges, to take the legal reins of magazine publisher Condé Nast. Porch succeeds William Bowes, who stepped down this summer after serving as Condé Nast general counsel for four years. Puck News reported that Bowes, along with Chief Diversity Officer Yashica Olden and Chief Revenue Officer Pam Drucker Mann, departed after learning that the bonus portion of their compensation would drop sharply because of continued declines in the privately held company’s valuation. New York-based Condé Nast, whose publications include Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, Architectural Digest and GQ, announced that Porch will start in February. The news came a week after the company laid off an unspecified number of workers, including 22 represented by the NewsGuild of New York. TheWrap reported that at least 14 executives were among those cut, including the chief business officer, the vice president of sales and the global vice president of events. In the news release announcing Porch’s hiring, Condé Nast highlighted his seven-year tenure at Berlin-based SoundCloud, where from his New York City perch he served as general counsel and chief diversity officer. In those roles, he helped the company achieve profitability for the first time “by driving double-digit revenue growth in creator and artist services, consumer subscriptions, and advertising.” Before SoundCloud, Porch spent two years as general counsel of the music-recognition app Shazam, a tenure that culminated in 2018 with the company’s sale to Apple for about $400 million. Porch worked at Latham & Watkins and Morrison & Foerster before spending nearly 12 years at Viacom, rising to senior vice president and deputy general counsel of its Nickelodeon unit. Porch is a board member of the LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD, and the International Radio and Television Society Foundation. He also serves as pro bono legal counsel of the Ma-Yi Theater Co. in New York City. … Tamera H. Bennett joins the Dallas, TX, firm Harper & Bates LLP as a partner. The Dallas firm’s “skill and experience in business litigation and intellectual property are a perfect complement to my trademark, copyright, content licensing and music law practice,” Bennett said. “With our combined legal insight and experiences, we can help more people as we empower businesses, brands, inventors, entertainers, athletes, authors and musicians. ... I will continue to advise established businesses in content licensing, brand management, and analyzing and crafting plans for music estates and their heirs.” Bennett is the longtime co-host of the Entertainment Law Update podcast. She has also served four terms on the Board of Governors for the Texas Chapter of the Recording Academy, multiple times as a member of the Planning Committee for the Annual Texas Entertainment Law Institute (currently presented by the University of Texas School of Law), and as past Chair of the State Bar of Texas Entertainment & Sports Law Section. … Marking a first for the National Football League (NFL), the Miami Dolphins announced that private-equity firm Ares Management will purchase a stake in the team, with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz helping close the deal. The NFL voted in August to allow deals between private equity firms and their teams. The NFL was one of the last major American sports leagues to not allow for private equity ownership stakes. With that hurdle removed, the deal between the Dolphins and Ares Management, along with a separate investment by another NFL pre-approved private-equity firm Arctos in the Buffalo Bills, marks the first time any private equity entity has been allowed to invest in an NFL franchise. Wachtell executive committee co-chairman Edward Herlihy and corporate partner Eric Feinstein led a team of four other attorneys to assist the Miami Dolphins and its controlling owner Stephen Ross with the deal. That team also included corporate compensation partner Jeannemarie O’Brien, tax partner Joshua Holmes, as well as corporate associates Claire Yang and Khori Davis. In addition to Ares Management’s part in the deal, Brooklyn Nets owners Joe Tsai and Oliver Weisberg will acquire a stake in the team as well. In total, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is giving up 13% of his stake in the team. Ares Management is claiming 10%, while the other 3% goes to Tsai and Weisberg. The deal also includes equity in the Hard Rock Stadium, which is where the Dolphins play on top of acting as a major entertainment venue, and a stake in the F1 Miami Grand Prix. Ares Management holds about $464 billion in managed assets. The firm already has existing stakes in sports teams like Miami CF, McLaren Racing and Atlético de Madrid. … Boies Schiller Flexner has added James Keyte, a litigator focused on antitrust and sports, in New York. Keyte joins the firm after serving as director of global development for economic consulting firm Brattle Group. He was previously a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom for over two decades. His clientele includes major sports leagues such as the National Basketball Association, National Hockey and the NFL. He also represents the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. On the business side, Keyte has represented or worked for Anheuser-Busch InBev, Coca-Cola and SanDisk. While at Boies Schiller, Keyte will be tapped to advise on antitrust, intellectual property licensing, artificial intelligence and sports law matters. He is also the director of the Fordham Competition Law Institute and teaches comparative antitrust law at the university. In addition, Keyte is a past chair of the American Bar Association’s Trade, Sports and Professional Associations Committee.