Buffalo Bills Name D’Angelo Legal Chief Ahead of NFL Draft

The Buffalo Bills have named Kathryn D’Angelo general counsel ahead of the annual NFL Draft, which will start Thursday night in Kansas City, Missouri.

D’Angelo has spent the past seven years working for the Bills, four of them as an assistant general counsel. The Bills tapped her to be interim legal chief last year after their longtime top lawyer, Gregg Brandon, took a leave of absence.

A former prosecutor in New York, D’Angelo began doing work for the Bills during her three years as an associate at Buffalo’s Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria. She was among a half-dozen promotions announced April 21 by the Bills as the team prepares to select a new group of rookies to build its roster for the 2023 season.

D’Angelo didn’t respond to a request for comment about her new role.

She was in the team’s top legal role during training camp last year as the Bills coped with the fallout from their release of former rookie punter Matt Araiza, who faced sexual assault claims.

Prosecutors in San Diego declined to file criminal charges against Araiza in December. He remains a free agent, having earlier this year called off plans to play in Mexico, as Araiza faces a trial later this year in a related civil lawsuit.

Brandon, who previously worked at Akerman and now-defunct Howrey, is no longer with the team, a Bills spokesman confirmed.

“Gregg Brandon stepped away from the club in the summer of 2021 following an unexpected medical issue, and as a result he is no longer with the organization as he focuses on his health,” the team said. “Gregg did an amazing job for the Bills and they are grateful for his nearly 10 years with the organization, and sincerely wish him and his family all the best.”

Brandon joined the team in mid-2013. He helped keep the Bills in Buffalo the following year via their $1.4 billion sale to oil and gas billionaire Terry Pegula.

Gridiron Roundup

The Carolina Panthers, who have the No. 1 pick in this year’s NFL draft, have added to an in-house legal team that already drafted a new leader earlier this year in general counsel Tanya Taylor.

André Walters, a former vice president of legal affairs for the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats, now known as the Charlotte Hornets, was named deputy general counsel this month for Tepper Sports & Entertainment. The holding company is controlled by hedge fund mogul David Tepper, owner of the Panthers and Major League Soccer franchise Charlotte FC.

A Tepper spokesman confirmed the addition of Walters, who also announced his new job via LinkedIn. Walters was most recently chairman and chief executive of his own Charlotte-based consulting firm, The A. Shawn Group LLC, having left the Bobcats a decade ago.

Walters is also a co-owner of Duck Donuts, a growing donut chain that takes its name from a town on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

• The Las Vegas Raiders, having named a new top lawyer last year amid ongoing litigation between the NFL and the team’s ex-head coach Jon Gruden, tapped deputy general counsel Zahir Rahman to co-chair the administrative and legal subcommittee of the Las Vegas Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee. Holland & Hart partner Gregory Gilbert will also lead the legal group for the organizing body of Sin City’s first-ever Super Bowl, slated for Feb. 11, 2024, at Allegiant Stadium. Rahman, a former associate at Covington & Burling and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, joined the Raiders in 2020.
• The Arena Football League, having folded in 2019 despite the efforts of Randall Boe, the league’s former commissioner and ex-AOL legal chief, could return. An investor group announced in February the indoor football operation will come back next year with 16 teams and a new commissioner, A. Lee Hutton III, a former Barnes & Thornburg partner now with his own firm in Minneapolis. Hutton, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, is the first Black commissioner of a pro sports league in North America. He’s also listed as a deputy general counsel of the revived arena league on its website.
• The XFL, a spring football league that saw the pandemic kill a prior iteration before being rebooted this year by an ownership group led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, recently hired Allison Gordon as a vice president of business and legal affairs. Gordon, who has worked in-house at ESPN Inc., NBC Sports Group, and Endeavor Content, joined the upstart league after it recruited Wendy Bass from NBC to be its chief business and legal officer in December.