Sports IP Counsel in 2026: 33.1% of Sports Deals, 2.1% of IP's

A general counsel shopping for sports intellectual property lawyers is buying from a bench for which sports is a sideline. Sartori & Partners data show that IP lawyers worked on 33.1% of sports deals in the 12 months to October 2026, 115 deals, more than any other practice; corporate and M&A lawyers came next at 25.1%. Turn the lens around and the figure shrinks. Sports was the client sector on 2.1% of the 5,352 deals the IP practice logged in the same months. The sector depends on IP counsel; IP counsel hardly depends on the sector. One caution applies throughout: deal counts are matters on record, court and trademark-office filings included, so they measure work on file, not fees, and never a split of the market between practices.

Set against the whole deal market, the tilt toward IP is the defining feature of sports work. IP lawyers appeared on 11.1% of all dated deals, so their share of sports deals runs 3.0 times higher. Corporate and M&A lawyers, the second practice on sports matters, sat on 25.1% of them against 23.3% of all deals, close to their usual weight. Litigation and disputes lawyers were on 6.9% of sports deals against 3.7% across the market. A single deal can carry several practices, so these shares overlap and are never added together.

For a club, league or sports brand, the lesson is about where outside-counsel spend starts. IP is the standing line of work, present on 33.1% of the sector's deals, while corporate work runs at roughly the rate seen in any sector. Build the panel around the IP relationship and add corporate capacity to it, rather than treating IP as an extra bolted onto an M&A firm.

In the Sartori & Partners deal records, the IP practice logged 5,352 deals over 12 months, and sports was the client sector on 2.1% of them, 115 deals. Consumer goods and retail headed the practice's sector list at 8.8%, with technology and software at 7.0% and food, beverage and agriculture at 6.5%. Sports does sit above its weight in the wider market: it was the client sector on 0.7% of all dated deals, so its share of IP work is 3.0 times its share of everything. Some deals carry no industry label at all, which is why these sector shares are read against all dated deals.

The asymmetry is the point for a buyer. To the sports company, IP is the first practice on the file; to the IP group, sports sits at 2.1% of the docket, behind several larger client sectors. Ask each candidate firm to name the IP partners who handled sports matters in the past 12 months, and how many, before assuming that a strong IP group also knows the sector.

By deal type, sports work is contested work. Disputes and investigations were the first type in the sector, at 51.3% of sports deals, against 25.0% of all dated deals. M&A came second at 19.3%, the same share it holds across the whole market, 19.3%. The IP practice explains much of the gap: 95.3% of IP deals were disputes and investigations, a count that takes in court and trademark-office matters on record. When IP lawyers arrive on a sports file, they usually arrive for a contested matter.

Pick IP counsel on its record in contested matters, not on its transactional reputation. M&A still accounts for 19.3% of sports deals, so the same firm, or a second one on the panel, has to cover a sale or an investment when it comes.

The work is concentrated in one city. Of the sports deals with a known lawyer location, 40.5% were handled with lawyers in New York, 13.3% with lawyers in Washington, DC and 12.7% with lawyers in London. Los Angeles came fourth at 10.9%, so New York's share was 3.7 times the Los Angeles share. Chicago followed at 7.6% and Boston at 6.6%. A deal counts in every city whose lawyers worked on it, so the shares are never added, and they cover all sports work, not only the IP part.

A sports company based elsewhere should expect its IP partner to sit in New York or Washington, DC, or to lean on colleagues there. With London on 12.7% of the sector's deals, a company with business in Europe should test whether the firm's London office actually works sports files.

Both volumes grew over the latest settled year. Sports deals rose 22.7%, from 278 in the 12 months to September 2025 to 341 in the 12 months to September 2026. IP deals across all sectors rose 20.9%, from 4,399 to 5,319, and all dated deals rose 10.6%, from 43,590 to 48,216. No trend is published for IP work in sports alone, so the two readings stand side by side and neither explains the other.

The lawyers who serve the sector changed firms more often. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, moves by lawyers with a sports focus rose 47.1%, from 51 to 75, and partner moves among them rose 91.7%, from 24 to 46. Corporate and M&A lawyers were 36.6% of these movers over the last 12 months, an index of 177 against the market, and litigation and disputes lawyers 33.8%. Lateral hiring in the IP practice as a whole held flat (+7.2%), from 987 to 1,058 moves. The counts are small, but the sports reading is a rise, not noise.

More movement means a higher chance that the partner running a sports matter changes firms before it ends. Name a second partner on every sports IP mandate at the start, so the file keeps cover if the lead leaves.

There is no firm list for IP work on sports deals. Two lists come near it, and each is wider than the pair: the sports list ranks advisers on all the sector's deals, disputes and M&A alike, while the IP list ranks advisers on the practice's deals in every sector. Akerman heads the sports list in the 21-40 band; Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton heads the IP list in the 151-250 band.

Compared name by name, the lists share two firms: Barnes & Thornburg, 7th on sports and 4th on IP, and ArentFox Schiff, 9th and 5th. A firm missing from one list says nothing about the work it does.

The overlap gives a short first call list that pairs sports volume with IP volume. Neither list shows which partners did the sports IP work, so ask each firm on either list for its sports IP matters of the last 12 months, by partner and city.

Treat IP as the core of the outside-counsel budget: IP lawyers were on 33.1% of sports deals, against 11.1% of all deals. Expect to be a small client to that bench, since sports was 2.1% of IP deals, and buy sector knowledge by checking named partners' sports matters rather than a firm's IP size. Hire for contested work, because disputes and investigations were 51.3% of the sector's deals. Look first in New York, where lawyers worked on 40.5% of sports deals. Plan for partner mobility: partner moves by sports-focused lawyers rose 91.7% while IP lateral hiring overall held flat (+7.2%).