Madison Square Garden Entertainment Hires Lawyer After Departure

Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. said Friday it hired Jamal Haughton as its new top lawyer, a move that reunites him with company CEO James Dolan.

Haughton, a former associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, starts his general counsel role Dec. 6 after leaving Samsung Electronics Americas Inc., where he held that same position for the past five years. He replaces a legal chief who left Madison Square Garden Entertainment after a little more than a year on the job.

Haughton previously spent a decade in-house at Cablevision Systems Corp., a company once owned by Dolan, who also holds the title of executive chairman of Madison Square Garden Entertainment.

The company was formed last year after Madison Square Garden Co. split itself into Madison Square Garden Entertainment and Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. Madison Square Garden Entertainment includes New York City’s Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, while Madison Square Garden Sports controls the New York Knicks and New York Rangers franchises.

Bloomberg News reported in August on some investors pouring money into Madison Square Garden Entertainment as they bet on a rebound in live events in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Haughton’s hire comes a little more than a year after the company named Scott Packman—a former general counsel at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.—as its top lawyer. Packman is no longer with Madison Square Garden Entertainment, said company spokeswoman Erica Slep.

Securities filings show that Packman left as of Nov. 1. He didn’t respond to a request for comment about his exit.

Dolan said in a statement that Haughton was an “important member of our legal team at Cablevision” and that he “brings significant experience in high-profile corporate and business legal matters.” Dolan and his family sold Cablevision for $17.7 billion to billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice NV in 2016.

Haughton said in a statement he’s looking forward to joining Madison Square Garden Entertainment “at such an important time for the company” as it seeks to execute “key growth initiatives.” The company didn’t immediately disclose how much Haughton stands to earn in his new role.

At Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Haughton will work alongside executive vice president of corporate development Lawrence Burian, a longtime lawyer for Dolan-related entities. Burian is general counsel and head of corporate development for Madison Square Garden Sports, having previously been the top lawyer for Madison Square Garden Co., Slep said.

Burian currently owns more than $2 million in Madison Square Garden Sports stock, per Bloomberg data. The company disclosed in a proxy statement filed last month that Burian received nearly $3.7 million in total compensation during fiscal 2021, up from the roughly $2.7 million he earned the year prior.

Burian is not an executive officer at Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which named him to its corporate development role in December 2020.

New Legal Hands

Bloomberg data shows that Packman, Haughton’s predecessor as legal chief, currently owns nearly $131,000 in company stock.

Packman earned nearly $3.2 million in total compensation during fiscal 2021, according to an annual proxy statement filed by the company last month.

The filing shows that Packman received more than $1 million in cash—including a one-time award of $250,000 to relocate from Los Angeles to New York—as well as almost $2.1 million in stock. It also mentions an Oct. 20 separation agreement between Packman and Madison Square Garden Entertainment that makes him eligible for $3.2 million in severance, including $580,000 to be paid prior to Dec. 31.

Packman isn’t the only lawyer to leave the company this year.

John Master, an associate general counsel for sales and marketing, left in March to become general counsel for Comcast-Spectacor, a sports and entertainment company controlled by cable giant Comcast Corp.

Comcast-Spectacor owns the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers, National Lacrosse League’s Philadelphia Wings and Overwatch League’s Philadelphia Fusion, as well as the Wells Fargo Center, an arena home to those teams and the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76ers.

Master spent more than a decade in-house at Madison Square Garden Co. When he moved to Madison Square Garden Entertainment following that separation, he also became general counsel for the Madison Square Garden Relief Fund, an entity set up to provide financial assistance to arena employees adversely affected by Covid-19’s financial impact on U.S. professional sports.

In March, Debevoise & Plimpton advised the Dolan family, which controls the company, on its purchase of MSG Network Inc., the cable channel that broadcasts the NBA’s Knicks, which James Dolan also owns.

The all-stock deal triggered a putative class action by MSG Network shareholders alleging self-dealing by the Dolans. The transaction, however, closed in July after a Delaware judge rejected those claims. Other lawsuits have also been filed.