Kirkland Reunites Proskauer Pair in Quest to Top Sports Deals

Kirkland & Ellis is poised to add partner Jason Krochak from Proskauer Rose, advancing a push to be the top deals firm in the increasingly big-money sports business.

Krochak, a 13-year veteran of Proskauer, was part of a team that advised the ownership of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills on a minority investment this year by Arctos Partners, a Kirkland client. His pending move to Kirkland was confirmed by three people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because the hire hasn’t been announced publicly.

The hire follows Kirkland’s addition last month of prominent sports partner Frank Saviano from the firm’s biggest rival, Latham & Watkins. Krochak’s hire will reunite him with Saviano, who before joining Latham in 2020, worked with Krochak at Proskauer in the sports practice long associated with former firm chair Joe Leccese, a leader in that field.

The moves show how Kirkland, already a top M&A firm, is looking to leverage its relationships with alternative asset managers to dominate deals work as professional sports teams increasingly consider private equity backing.

“Law firms that have strong private equity practices want to have partners who are involved in all the industry verticals their clients are making big moves in,” said Sabina Lippman, managing partner at recruiting firm CenterPeak. “And sports is now one of those significant industry verticals.”

Amid the tight-knit sports practice, Saviano’s pay package had become the subject of rampant speculation that he’d be among Kirkland’s highest paid partners, who can earn in excess of $20 million a year.

He was allotted partner shares that last year would have been valued between $13 and $14 million, according to a person familiar with the package who was granted anonymity to discuss non-public data.

The average Kirkland partner earned $9.25 million last year, according to data from The American Lawyer.

The New York-based Saviano has worked on a long list of sports deals, including advising Mark Cuban in the sale of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks two years ago, and helped raise Latham’s sports practice profile over the past five years. He advised Diamond Baseball Holdings, a portfolio company of private equity firm Silver Lake, on the acquisition of over 40 Major League Baseball minor league teams.

Krochak did not respond to a request for comment and Saviano and Kirkland declined to comment. A Proskauer spokesperson said “We wish Jason all the best.”

Firm Competition

The rush of investment in sports has led to an emerging talent battle for sports partners among the Wall Street law firms that have set their sights on the practice.

That competition for partners plays out in an industry which requires specialized experience with the investment rules developed by the myriad leagues. Many of the lawyers who have that experience developed it at firms like Proskauer with longstanding sports groups.

Still, top-flight M&A shops are getting work in the sector.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison advised Apollo Global Management Inc. this week on the launch of the Apollo Sports Capital platform that focuses on financing sports teams and leagues.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz represented the investor group that purchased the National Basketball Association’s Boston Celtics for more than $6 billion in March.

Davis Polk & Wardwell advised Guggenheim Partners chief executive Mark Walter in his leadership of an investor team that purchased the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers for a sports franchise record $10 billion in June.

The industry is also throwing off work for non-traditional sports leagues like Professional Bull Riding and the entertainment ecosystem that’s built around live events.

Other law firms have been investing in the space, and more are expected to launch formal sports law practices. Weil, Gotshal & Manges earlier this year hired a former Hogan Lovells sports deals partner, Steve Argeris, noting that its private equity clients were piling into sports.

Kirkland’s Strategy

When Kirkland was looking to break into New York City’s elite M&A practice in the early to mid-2010s, it made waves for hiring partners from the most prestigious practices in the space: Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Wachtell. Now that it’s looking to dominate the sports world, the firm is bringing in partners associated with Proskauer, which has branded itself The Sports Firm.

Not adding sports specialists could also risk private equity clients using rivals to advise on their biggest sports deals, causing Kirkland—or other firms with major private equity groups—to cede market share to rivals.

“We continually aim to have the top talent on our platform to meet clients’ needs, and the sports and entertainment industry has been a rapidly growing focus for private capital investors,” Kirkland chair Jon Ballis said in a statement when the firm announced Saviano’s hire last month.

Its recent hiring aside, Kirkland has already done its share of sports deals, notably through a longstanding relationship with Arctos Partners.

Dallas-based partner Michael Considine has represented investors or owners of NFL franchises including the Bills, Chicago Bears, Los Angeles Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s also worked on deals involving NBA teams such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz, according to his Kirkland bio page.