Robinson Bradshaw

Overview

Robinson Bradshaw is a Carolinas-based law firm with national practices. We provide comprehensive legal services of the highest quality to businesses ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. Our ability to efficiently deliver excellent service is based on experience, teamwork and talent. In order to best serve our clients, we hire a diverse range of lawyers with both exceptional academic achievements and practical problem-solving skills. Our firm and lawyers are repeatedly recognized as leaders in the legal community. Robinson Bradshaw has decades of extensive nationwide legal experience and industry knowledge in sports and entertainment law. In particular, (i) we have helped shape the legal landscape of the American motorsports industry; (ii) we have represented collegiate conferences, as well as colleges and universities, in numerous matters, including groundbreaking broadcast deals and complex litigation; and (iii) we have guided major sponsors through complex sponsorship and naming rights transactions in major professional sports. We bring a great deal of value to our clients by drawing on our broad-based general experience in business law and litigation, our deep knowledge from sports representations, and our experience in intellectual property matters, taxes and representations of large nonprofit entities.

Select Experience

• Represents the Southeastern Conference in defending putative class actions filed by present and former student-athletes challenging the validity of NCAA grant-in-aid rules and claiming a right to be paid for playing in televised games, including in the Alston action now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Represents the Southeastern Conference in nine “single-school, single-sport” putative class actions (MDL centralization in Illinois) filed by former football student-athletes related to concussions in college sports.
• Represented and continues to represent the Southeastern Conference in its broadcast licensing and sponsorship agreements, including with respect to the formation of the SEC Network.
• Represented the NCAA in the broadcast licensing agreements for its Men’s Basketball Championship (with CBS and Turner) and in the licensing agreements with ESPN for other NCAA championships.
• Represented several collegiate conferences in broadcast licensing agreements.
• Represented multiple top past, current and/or Hall of Fame drivers and riders, including Richard Petty, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Jeff Gordon, Marcos Ambrose, Ricky Carmichael, Dale Jarrett and Daniel Suarez, as well as various crew chiefs and others, with respect to their legal needs in various racing series.
• Represents a major national sponsor in connection with multiple major league sports sponsorship agreements.
• Organized MotoAmerica for motorcycle road racing in the United States and represents MotoAmerica in connection with major contractual and other matters.
• Represents NASCAR racing teams, including Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Wood Brothers Racing and others, in connection with a full array of contract and legal requirements.
• Represented the owner of a professional sports agency in connection with a sale to a European-based competitor agency.
• Robinson Bradshaw attorney Stoke Caldwell has served the Sports Lawyers Association for many years and is currently a director emeritus.