An Interview with the General Counsel of the Jaguars

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A just-published article in an online daily legal publication I thought might be of interest. 

15 Minutes With The Jacksonville Jaguars' General Counsel


Share us on:       By Michele Gorman 
Law360, New York (January 22, 2018, 1:53 PM EST) -- The Jacksonville Jaguars lost to the New England Patriots in Sunday's AFC championship game, ending the NFL team's season before Super Bowl LII. Aside from both the on-field and off-field performances that helped the football organization advance through the playoffs, the franchise's general counsel, Cassie Sadowitz, said she is proud of the organization's ability to disrupt what she called the traditional NFL team culture.

The Jaguars, she said, have been able to push the limits in ways other teams have not, by last year opening an amphitheater adjacent to the EverBank Field football stadium and in 2014 installing pools in the north end zone platform area of the stadium, just to name a few.

"We've made all these investments into the stadium and into the team, and I think that the future is bright for us," Sadowitz told Law360. "I really do believe that the only way we can go is up from here. The team is excited, our fans are energized and there are good things on the horizon."

Sadowitz also shared what life is like in the Jaguars' legal department as the NFL faces political controversies over national anthem protests, and how she approaches explaining complicated legal matters to nonlawyers within the franchise. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.




Cassie Sadowitz


Currently: General counsel, Jacksonville Jaguars
Previously: Associate counsel, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Law school: California Western School of Law
What do you enjoy most about your job?

I particularly enjoy the versatility and scope of work. As lawyers, we get to collaborate with essentially all areas of the franchise, whether it's advising football operations or drafting sponsorship, ticketing agreements or even just assisting with overall business strategy. We at the Jaguars also support several other ownership ventures with some of those businesses outside of the sports arena. So we have a pretty solid and diverse workload.

Generally speaking, no two days are the same. I remember one day I was negotiating a vendor agreement in the morning and then by the afternoon I was clearing out the stadium for our mascot to drive go-karts around the concourses. That's an example of the fun part of risk management right there. But I would say every day brings excitement and a new challenge, which is something that I enjoy.

Do you have specific tasks during the playoffs that are different from your responsibilities throughout the rest of the year?

Generally, in the offseason, we're taking a more of a proactive approach. We're reassessing our internal policies and procedures. We're getting our sponsorship agreements drafted. It's really gearing everything up for the regular season, and then because you're not sure of what that outcome is going to be in December and whether or not you'll be playing in January, a lot of the work and the prep is really happening the week before. You have to be able to adapt to the different priorities and needs that come through from various departments.

How has the professional sports industry changed over the past five years and how has the franchise adapted to that?

The sports industry in general has evolved over the past several years on many fronts. You see on-field rule changes and game play, implementation of new media and technology initiatives and also international expansion, just to name a few of those changes. We've also seen an explosion with e-sports in the past five years, which is the latest competitive sporting trend. I think that in and of itself presents new opportunities for unique fan engagement. Just to give you an example, the Jaguars partnered with EA Sports, and we've been able to capitalize on synergies between gaming and football to essentially develop and then execute innovative fan activation that showcases both football and gaming. We've had to adapt a little bit into what the new desires of our fan base are, and then develop new fan experiences that really touch on both of those needs and those desires.

I can also speak on the international front, specifically as it relates to the NFL. The league has expanded its presence in London and Mexico, and the Jaguars have been fortunate to play a direct role in that expansion. We have committed to play at least one home game per season in London through the 2020 season. We're the first NFL franchise to really have more of a full-time presence overseas and assist the league in that broader expansion.

Those are just a few of the ways in which we've seen the industry change and then also had to adapt and react and shift our priorities a little bit.

You mentioned adapting and reacting to changes. The NFL isn't political, but the league has been pulled into political conversations recently with the national anthem protests, and into debates about head injuries. How have you and the franchise dealt with this atmosphere?

After the anthem controversy this season, I can say for certain that our team is stronger as a result of it. It's important for us to ensure that we protect the interests of our players, while also balancing the interests of our fans and the community at large. But it was our owner [Shahid Khan] that actually said that we need to show the world that even if we have differences of opinions or differ at times, we can and should be united to become better both as people and as a nation. I think that that sort of captures our stance and our viewpoint toward the whole situation.

We've been fortunate to have great community ties. We've set up different town hall-type forums with our mayor and with different members of our community with varying opinions. And some of our players have come together. We try to keep the dialogue going in a productive manner.

At both the league level and also at the Jags — on a team level — player health and safety is critically important. It's our No. 1 priority on the player side. I would say that continuing to monitor, research and enhance those specific elements related to on-field performance, and then also being able to leverage technology to make the game safe, those are our core focuses, and again it's both at that league level where we work with the league directly and also individually. We have an excellent medical team. We have excellent athletic trainers that are in-house and we're constantly working with them — even on the legal side — to make sure that we are doing things appropriately and taking every measure that we can to make sure that the game is safe.

What's the most important skill for GCs they don't teach in law school?

Being an effective leader and a mentor. When you're in-house, you're managing several personalities from different walks of life and each of whom have varying professional goals and desires. It's all about knowing your audience and having the ability to motivate, inspire and truly invest in others. I think we don't really learn quite how to make that happen in law school.

How do you approach explaining complicated legal matters to nonlawyers?

This is actually a daily function for my legal department. We generally have a very young population of employees. There are three lawyers on our team. One of our focuses has really been of rolling out different trainings on respective areas of the law. For instance, we will hold annual trainings on intellectual property licensing and what it means to license out use of our trademarks and logos, whether it's to sponsors or to fans in conjunction with the current community initiatives that we have. We run through Trademarks 101 and help explain to folks who may not necessarily have that legal background how to approach these conversations in the marketplace and best practices around them.

We also hold management training for our manager employees where we run through best practices with respect to hiring and managing your people. We do a lot of professional development series. We've found that through these type of niche trainings, we're able to really connect with our employees and then equip them with the resources that they need to be successful while also being sensitive to the changes in the laws.

What keeps you up at night?

A requirement of this job is constantly staying current on evolving areas of the law and then again implementing new policies and procedures to ensure that risk is mitigated to the maximum extent possible. It's no surprise that there's been a lot of buzz lately surrounding data breaches. So that's one area in particular in which we're focused with staying up to date on the legal landscape with respect to data, technology and related privacy laws.

Here at the team, we do have HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996] requirements that we deal with because we do have a medical facility at the stadium. So really staying up to date on what those changes are and what the potential impact will be for the team is something we're in tune with right now.