Polsinelli is pleased to announce that Shareholder Timothy Browne has been named Chair of our Sports Industry Group, and Shareholder Leane Capps has been named Co-Vice Chair along with current Vice Chair Dan Adams. When Tim joined the firm’s Nashville office in July 2022, he brought with him decades of experience counseling clients in the sports, media, entertainment, and technology industries, with a focus on commercial contracts and intellectual property transactions. His addition to our Polsinelli team elevated our already experienced and diverse group of sports industry professionals and further distinguished our firm from others in the field.

Tim’s past experience includes serving for 10 years as Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs at the league office of the National Basketball Association (NBA), advising the league and its teams on a variety of licensing and business matters, including negotiating and administering some of the NBA’s most significant media partnerships. Most recently, Tim served as lead negotiator for Nashville Soccer Club in its naming rights deal for GEODIS Park in Nashville, the country’s largest soccer-specific venue. 

Leane has been a litigator for over twenty-five years and has been with Polsinelli in its Dallas office for ten years. Leane is listed in the Best Lawyers of America and Texas Super Lawyers and has been named as one of the Top 50 Women Attorneys in Texas. Her sports experience includes serving as lead trial counsel and lead appellate counsel for collegiate athletic conferences in significant class action cases, arbitrations, and the enforcement of contracts and bylaws. In addition to litigation matters, Leane advises her sports industry clients on avoiding risks, governance issues and state and federal legislation.

“Polsinelli’s expertise and experience in both the professional and collegiate sports areas combine to allow us to be actively involved in all aspects of the American sports industry,” Tim said. “Working with so many professional sports leagues and teams gives us the deal experience and valuable insight required by both existing and potential clients in this space.”

Polsinelli’s legal experience serving clients in both professional and collegiate sports coupled with a diverse group of talented lawyers located in pivotal markets throughout the country (including key members of the sports group in New York, Nashville, Dallas, Boston, Kansas City and Phoenix) distinguishes the firm from others in the industry. And, because Polsinelli already has years of experience working with major college conferences on groundbreaking transactions and litigation, Tim says Polsinelli’s Sports Industry Group is “well-positioned to offer the type of representation and guidance that collegiates sports clients will require as their business starts to more closely resemble that of professional sports in such areas as media rights, player rights and empowerment and the deployment of cutting-edge technology and digital platforms.”

“My goal is to grow the Sports Industry Group’s business in a bold but intentional manner and build upon the success of Kevin Sweeney as former Chair,” Tim says. “We can accomplish this by leveraging all of this great talent and experience, along with the vast and ever-expanding geographical footprint of the firm.”