August 26, 2004
By Tina Spee
LOS ANGELES – Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton and Rick Fox aren’t the only members of the Lakers’ organization who will be playing for a new team next season.
Daniel Grigsby, one of the team’s lead outside counsel, has left his position as a partner at the Century City office of Arnold & Porter.
Grigsby joined Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro as a partner on Aug. 16. He says he interviewed several places before deciding the Century City-based firm was the best place for his practice. He declines to identify the other firms by name.
“There’s a deeper and broader corporate practice here,” Grigsby says.
He specializes in entertainment and sports related transactions and intellectual property.
“There’s a significant existing entertainment practice, substantial sports practice, substantial intellectual property practice,” he says.
Grigsby says his job hunt began after entertainment attorney Harley Williams retired from Arnold & Porter and former partner Dawn Weekes Glenn left the firm for the Los Angeles office of Miami-based Greenberg Traurig this year.
“My sports and entertainment clients weren’t a good fit at Arnold & Porter,” Grigsby says.
Century City partner Ronald Johnston says the firm still does a substantial amount of work for entertainment and sports clients, both from its Century City office and firmwide. Williams still serves as of-counsel to Arnold & Porter.
“[Grigsby’s] a fine lawyer and a good friend, and we wish him all the best,” Johnston says.
Grigsby says he has represented the National Basketball Association’s Lakers since 1981, including handling the team’s outside business transactions and sponsorship agreements, employment matters, contracts and leases. He will continue to represent the team at Jeffer Mangels.
According to Grigsby, he has represented the Los Angeles Sparks since the formation of the Women’s National Basketball Association in 1996.
He also handles business and real estate matters for high-profile individuals like actor Kevin Costner.
“He’s long been known as an outstanding sports lawyer in this town,”
Mark Rosenthal says of Grigsby. Rosenthal serves as the chair of Jeffer Mangels’ five-lawyer sports practice group.
“Our firm has been building up its sports practice in the past couple of years,” he adds.
Rosenthal represented Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers in arbitration with pitcher Eric Gagne this winter. The panel of arbitrators decided on the Dodgers’ $5 million salary recommendation for Gagne over the player’s suggested $8 million in compensation for this year’s season.
Rosenthall claims he represents more baseball teams in salary arbitration than any other attorney in the country, including the Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds.
According to Rosenthal, attorneys at the firm also represent the Anaheim Angels, motor sport giants Kawasaki Motors Corp. and a National Hot Rod Association race-car driver.
“We thought this was a very nice piece to complement the sports practice we already have and really substantially expand it,” he says.
In addition to its 133-attorney Century City headquarters, the firm has one office in San Francisco. Firmwide, Jeffer Mangels has 161 attorneys.
Washington, D.C.-based Arnold & Porter has 18 attorneys in its Century City office and 700 attorneys in eight offices worldwide.