New York Football Giants Get New Top Lawyer Amid NFL Playoffs

The New York Giants, having secured their first postseason berth since 2016, are looking to push forward to the Super Bowl with a new head of the team’s legal unit.

Richard Hernandez was elevated this month to general counsel of the National Football League franchise. Hernandez, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, confirmed his promotion in a recent message posted to his LinkedIn profile. The front office page of the Giants’ website also lists his new legal chief role.

Hernandez, a former chair of the antitrust and sports practices at McCarter & English, was hired by the Giants as an assistant general counsel last year. He takes over the club’s top legal chair from William Heller, a fellow McCarter alum who the Giants brought in-house in 2010.

A Giants spokesman and Heller, whose name was removed from the team’s website this month, didn’t respond to comment requests.

Heller was named as a defendant in a 2021 lawsuit by a former video director who claimed he was fired by the Giants in retaliation for complaining about alleged workplace violence. The litigation was resolved in a confidential settlement after the team sought to dismiss the case.

Heller and the Giants were represented by lawyers at McCarter. The Newark, NJ-based law firm has enjoyed a longtime client relationship with the team, handling everything from real estate matters to memorabilia disputes.

In December, a US federal magistrate judge recommended that a proposed class action filed last year against the Giants and New York Jets over their use of “New York” and not “New Jersey” in their names be dismissed.

Both NFL teams, which play their home games at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, are represented by Haynes and Boone in that case.

Giants president and CEO John Mara, the eldest son of late Giants owner Wellington Mara, is a former labor and employment litigator at now-defunct New York firm Shea & Gould. John Mara preceded Heller as the club’s general counsel.

Hernandez, the new general counsel for the Giants, started his legal career in 2001 at what is now Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer. He joined McCarter in 2004 and made partner in February 2012, the same month the Giants beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. During his time in private practice, Hernandez specialized in antitrust and financial services litigation, as well as franchising law.

The Giants aren’t the only NFL team in the market for legal expertise.

The Jacksonville Jaguars, who just pulled off the third-largest comeback in NFL playoff history, hired associate general counsel Brittni Fabinak earlier this month.

Fabinak, most recently a senior corporate counsel for health care automation startup Olive AI Inc., said via LinkedIn her first week with the club was capped with a division-clinching win over the Tennessee Titans.