NFL’s Jaguars Hire Veteran Sports Lawyer as New General Counsel

The Jacksonville Jaguars have hired Justin Sievert to fill a general counsel role that has had its two previous occupants depart in recent months.

Amanda Holt, a spokeswoman for the National Football League franchise, confirmed that Sievert started Monday with the Jaguars. He will report to the team’s executive vice president and chief legal officer Megha Parekh, Holt said.

Sievert didn’t respond to a request for comment about his new role. The job opened up after former Jaguars general counsel Lauren Strackbine joined the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks last month as a deputy general counsel.

Strackbine reunited with Sharks general counsel Cassie McBride, who joined the NHL team over the summer after also serving as general counsel for the Jaguars.

Sievert said in a Nov. 12 post to his LinkedIn profile and Twitter account that he’s excited about starting a new chapter in his career with the Jaguars.

He was most recently chair of the sports and gaming practice at Vela Wood, a corporate boutique law firm based in Dallas that has a presence in four other cities, including Miami, where Sievert worked.

Sievert joined Vela Wood last year after winding up Sievert Werly, a sports-focused firm. His fellow former co-founding partner Daniel Werly left in late 2019 to become general counsel for a Major League Soccer expansion team in Nashville.

Werly wasn’t long for that gig, leaving last summer to join the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, where he’s now vice president, general counsel, and chief of staff.

Werly took to Twitter this week to congratulate Sievert on his new role with the Jaguars, although he jokingly included a link to a YouTube video of Titans running back Derrick Henry’s 99-year touchdown run against the Jaguars in 2018.

The Jaguars and Titans play in the AFC South, where the Titans lead the division with an 8-2 record, while the Jaguars are in second-to-last place at 2-7. The Titans beat the Jaguars in early October and the two teams will play one another again in December. The Jaguars have won two out of their last four games.

Sievert’s new job with the Jaguars will see him handle litigation and intellectual property management, as well as employment and real estate matters, according to a job posting for the general counsel position. The posting noted that ideal candidates should have an understanding of NFL collective bargaining rules.

The Jaguars general counsel also provides legal support and counsel to related sports and entertainment properties, including Bold Events LLC, a sister events and concerts company that is controlled by Jaguars owner and billionaire Shahid Khan.

Khan also owns All-Elite Wrestling LLC, a competitor to World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., and the English soccer club Fulham. Khan abandoned a bid to buy London’s historic Wembley Stadium in 2018, although the Jaguars have for nearly the past decade played one home game in the city each season.

Proskauer Rose advised Khan on his $760 million purchase of the Jaguars in 2011. Parekh, the top in-house lawyer for the Jaguars since 2013, prior to joining the team spent nearly four years as a corporate associate at Proskauer in New York.