Players On the Move

The new general counsel of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) brings a different perspective on the meaning of “compliance.” Francisco Arias II is one of the few GCs in the world with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a form of martial arts born out of street fighting. Just for fun, opposing counsel may want to look up “guillotine choke” before squaring off against Arias on legal matters. Las Vegas-based UFC has hired Arias from Fifth Season, a Los Angeles-based film and TV production company, where he’d been legal chief since 2022. Fifth Season’s productions include the Apple TV+ science fiction series Severance and the Hulu drama series Nine Perfect Strangers. At UFC, Arias succeeds Riche McKnight, who in January became chief legal officer of New York-based TKO, whose holdings also include World Wrestling Entertainment and bull-riding circuit PBR. McKnight had been UFC’s general counsel since May 2019. Arias is a longtime media industry attorney. Before joining Fifth Season in 2018, he spent 14 years at CBS Television Studios, including as senior vice president of business affairs. From 2000 to 2005, he was director of business affairs at The Walt Disney Co., Touchstone and ABC Television Studios. Earlier in his career, he had stints at Telemundo and Holland & Knight. UFC launched in 1993, incorporating several full-contact martial arts that include jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and wrestling. UFC touts itself as the world’s largest pay-per-view event provider, with about 40 events annually in 165 countries that draw 1.1 billion TV households. … Legal consultant and former Showtime Networks legal chief Robert Rosenberg returns to law firm life for the first time in 24 years. Rosenberg has joined Moses & Singer in New York City as a partner in its intellectual property, entertainment/media and technology, and AI and data law practice groups. He’ll also serve as managing director of the firm’s MS Strategic Solutions, which provides strategic advice in areas including business development and artificial intelligence. Rosenberg spent 22 years at New York-based Showtime and in 2021 was promoted to executive vice president and general counsel. But in 2023 he was among five top executives of about 120 Showtime employees let go as part of parent Paramount Global’s plan to merge Showtime with streaming subsidiary Paramount +. After leaving Showtime, Rosenberg launched Hartsdale, NY-based Telluride Legal Strategies, where he’s advised companies in issues ranging from app development to content development for TV and film. Since February he’s also been a senior adviser for New York investment bank Oaklins DeSilva + Phillips. Rosenberg has advised on issues posed by artificial intelligence in business and is a frequent speaker on threats the technology poses to Hollywood, such as infringement of IP. Before joining Showtime, Rosenberg was an associate at Willkie Farr & Gallagher. … Tamika Tremaglio — an attorney who was executive director of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) when it negotiated a groundbreaking, seven-year collective bargaining agreement with the basketball league two years ago — has joined the fast-growing litigation consulting firm Secretariat as leader of its global sports consulting practice. Tremaglio, who was the second Black woman to lead the NBPA, brings more than three decades of experience in forensic accounting, internal investigations and complex-dispute resolution to Atlanta-based Secretariat. She most recently has been running her own consulting firm TA Sports Ventures, which she founded after leading the NBPA from January 2021 to December 2023. Earlier, she spent 11 years at Deloitte, where she rose to managing principal for Washington, D.C., its largest U.S. office. Her work at the NBPA included overseeing negotiations for the new player contract, efforts that culminated in April 2023 with a deal that will pay players $50 billion through the 2029-30 season. The agreement revamped the salary cap, set higher luxury tax thresholds and added new player benefits. Tremaglio was the player union’s highest-paid employee, earning $3.1 million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2023, according to the NBPA’s annual report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. Meanwhile, Secretariat has grown rapidly since construction industry executive Don Harvey founded it in 2008 as a consultancy focused on dispute resolution in that industry. It now bills itself as the top provider of expert witnesses and advisory services to law firms and companies facing high-stakes legal, risk and regulatory matters. It employs more than 600 professionals spread across five continents. Tremaglio said she was drawn to the Secretariat role because of the opportunity to expand its sports practice at a time the field is undergoing transformative change, from the negotiation of rich NIL deals for athletes to the arrival of private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds as major investors. In just the last two years, private equity and sovereign wealth fund investments in sports have reportedly totaled $50 billion. ResearchAndMarkets projects the global sports market industry has years of robust growth ahead. It forecasts that the market will swell from $485 billion in 2023 to $651 billion by 2028 and $863 billion by 2033. … David Markman, the co-chair of DLA Piper’s entertainment transactions practice, is joining Weil, Gotshal & Manges as a partner in the firm’s entertainment, sports and media (ESM) practice in Los Angeles. Markman referenced another DLA partner, Tom Ara, a private equity attorney who had recently joined Weil as lead in the ESM practice, and said that the connection between the two (they also worked at Greenberg Traurig) was a leg supporting the move. Markman said his practice, perhaps more than most in the ESM transactions space, is quite “broad.” “I don’t do team sports,” he said. “More wrestling, [mixed martial sports], rodeo; not just sports but media. We look for outlets and distribution on the broadcasting side, have some individual clients, on-camera people, and do some corporate representation on the broadcasting side. Endorsements, branding, things of that nature.” “David brings in-depth experience advising clients in ESM transactions of all kinds, including traditional film, music and sports as well as gaming, digital media, publishing, hospitality and entertainment experiences,” Michael Aiello, chairman of Weil’s corporate department, said in a statement. … Greenspoon Marder added veteran attorney Cathy Hampton as a partner in Atlanta in an expansion of the firm’s entertainment and sports and corporate practice groups. Hampton’s practice focuses on the sports and hospitality industries and has had a varied career that included operating her own firm, leading legal operations for the Atlanta city government and serving as an in-house counsel for the National Basketball Association. Her experience includes major transactions such as sports sponsorships, the consolidation of a global bank conglomerate, the sale of an international hospitality brand and the sale of multiple retail assets for athletes, actors, producers and TV film and digital creatives, according to the firm. … With over 25 years in fashion law, Danielle Garno leaves Big Law’s Holland & Knight to begin a new chapter as an entrepreneur and partner at sports, entertainment and fashion law firm Daniel, Ebeling, Maccia & Cohen (DEMC). Garno brings a book of previous clients to the current firm, though she declined to name them. Throughout her career, Garno has advised global and emerging brands on trademark litigation, influencer deals, celebrity endorsements and commercial collaborations. She’s represented globally recognized brands and organizations across fashion, entertainment and sports industries. Her career portfolio, according to the firm, includes clients such as TKO Group Holdings (WWE, UFC, Professional Bull Riders), Gucci, David Yurman, Richemont (Cartier, Panerai, Montblanc, IWC Schaffhausen), William Morris Endeavor and the Miss Universe Organization. As a “baby lawyer,” Garno said, she did a lot of anti-counterfeiting work for luxury brands, which brought experience working with law enforcement. But over time, Garno found her unique value proposition in fashion. “I decided to really establish roots [in Miami] and grow my practice here,” Garno said. “There’s such a natural intersection between fashion and entertainment and sports.” Beyond her legal practice, Garno leads multiple ventures at the intersection of law and technology, including as chief legal officer of My Ascend AI, a community-focused agentic AI platform, and its legal product Amicus Pro. In addition to her client and platform work, Garno teaches in the Entertainment, Arts & Sports Law in the LLM program at the University of Miami School of Law. … Christopher McCreary is stepping down as general counsel of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) after a decade in the role. McCreary had been a longtime attorney at Visa rising to senior associate general counsel before joining the USOPC as legal chief in 2015 to help it navigate the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal, which led to lifetime imprisonment for former team doctor Larry Nassar and payments from USA Gymnastics, USOPC and other parties to survivors totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. The organization expanded McCreary’s responsibilities in 2022, when it gave him the additional title of chief operating officer. “Throughout the past decade, Chris has been a driving force behind initiatives that have significantly enhanced the safety, protection, and well-being of Team USA athletes,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland wrote in a note to the organization’s staff.  McCreary is a well-known figure in the field of sports law and currently serves as president of the nonprofit Sports Lawyers Association, an international professional organization that advances the ethical practice of sports law. It’s not clear why McCreary, who is in his early 60s, opted to leave the USPOC now. He did not immediately respond to a message from Law.com inquiring about his departure and his future plans. The organization said it is breaking the COO and GC posts into separate jobs. It has hired Korn Ferry to lead the COO search and Excel Sports Management to lead the GC search. Based in Colorado Springs, CO, the USOPC is responsible for organizing and sending U.S. teams to the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and other international multi-sport events, including the Pan American Games and Parapan American Games. The organization has about 640 employees and works with about 780 volunteers. In 2023, the latest year for which financials are publicly available, the committee generated revenue of $272 million in revenue, with $71 million of it coming from contributions and grants. According to the USOPC’s Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service, McCreary was its second-highest-paid executive, earning $620,751.