International law firm McDermott Will & Schulte’s Sports practice has been recognized by Law360 as a 2025 Practice Group of the Year, following a standout year advising on the most consequential deals in the sports industry.

The year began with the firm’s representation of Theresia Gouw, co-founder and managing partner of Acrew Capital, in her equity investment in the Buffalo Bills. The deal is notable as the first time the Pegula family welcomed additional investors and the first NFL investment transaction that included a private equity investor under the NFL’s new ownership rules. 

The momentum continued with the representation of Aditya Mittal and the trustees of the Mittal family trusts in the acquisition of the Boston Celtics. Valued at $6.1 billion the transaction marked, at the time, the largest sale of an American professional sports franchise in history, setting a new benchmark for sports valuations.  Aditya Mittal is now the Co-Owner, Vice Chairman and Alternate Governor of the Boston Celtics.

The firm ended the year by representing Monumental Sports & Entertainment, one of the nation’s leading integrated sports, media, and entertainment companies, in connection with minority investments by Arctos Partners, the only private investment firm approved to own equity in teams across all five major North American professional leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS) and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the only sovereign wealth fund approved to own equity in any major North American professional league.

With a growing footprint across all major professional leagues and emerging markets, the McDermott Sports practice continues to define the future of the industry.

About McDermott’s Sports Law Group
For more than 30 years, McDermott has represented owners, investors, players, teams, and sports venues around the world in various leagues – including the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), National Football League (NFL), and PGA TOUR – handling their most critical transactional and non-transactional matters. With legal experience ranging from individual investments in teams and the purchase and sale of franchises, to solving critical tax, real estate, intellectual property, and labor law problems, our sports lawyers leverage top-tier M&A, tax, and estate to provide a problem-solving and client-focused approach to complicated sports law matters in the rapidly evolving sports world.