Pac-12 Taps Interim Legal Chief After NFL Team Hires Top Lawyer

The Pac-12 Conference has named R. Scott Petersmeyer interim general counsel following the departure of its former legal chief for the Detroit Lions.

Margaret “Maggy” Carlyle was announced Wednesday as the National Football League team’s new general counsel and senior vice president of legal affairs. She will join the Lions as of Feb. 1 and report to B. Jay Colvin, who the club recently promoted to chief legal officer. Carlyle wasn’t immediately available to discuss her new role.

Carlyle is the second general counsel appointed by an NFL team this month after the New York Giants named a replacement for their longtime legal chief, who retired.

A Pac-12 spokesman confirmed that Petersmeyer has succeeded Carlyle as interim general counsel. The Pac-12 last year promoted Petersmeyer to deputy general counsel. The former Cooley associate has worked for the San Francisco-based collegiate athletic conference since 2014.

The Pac-12 is grappling with the expected departures of two key members—USC and UCLA—for the rival Big Ten Conference in 2024. The exits of both schools will change the face of college football and see the Pac-12 implement its own expansion plans.

Carlyle spent seven years at the Pac-12. She previously was counsel and corporate secretary for the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks after working for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, and the league’s headquarters.

She took over in August 2020 from the Pac-12’s former general counsel, Woodie Dixon Jr., who stepped aside as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the collegiate sports landscape. At the time, Carlyle said the Pac-12 used Cooley, Covington & Burling, and Proskauer Rose for outside counsel.

Proskauer was paid more than $2.3 million in legal fees by the Pac-12 during fiscal 2019-20 and nearly $1.8 million in 2020-21, according to the organization’s most recent tax filings. Carlyle received roughly $332,500 in total compensation and Dixon another $478,000 from the Pac-12 in 2020-21.

The Pac-12 is parting ways with Carlyle as another major major conference—the Big Te—looks for a new leader after being raided by a Lions rival.

The Chicago Bears appointed a new president and CEO last week in Kevin Warren, a former of counsel at Greenberg Traurig who has been the Big Ten’s commissioner since 2019. During that time the Big Ten has had three different legal chiefs.

Warren received nearly $3.4 million in total compensation from the Big Ten during fiscal 2020-21, per the organization’s most recent tax filing. He previously was general counsel and chief operating officer for the Minnesota Vikings.