Weil won a major victory before the Supreme Court of Washington State, on behalf of Washington State University and co-plaintiff Oregon State University, in a high-profile dispute regarding the future of the Pac-12 athletic Conference. The court’s ruling ensures that our clients have sole control over the Pac-12 moving forward, following the announced departure of 10 members from the Conference, even as the departing members sought to continue serving on the Conference’s board and influencing its governance and finances.

Following appellate briefing led by Weil, the court denied our adversaries’ motions for discretionary review of a lower court’s order that denied defendants’ motions to dismiss and granted our clients’ motion to preliminarily enjoin the 10 departing member universities from continuing to serve on the Conference’s board. This is the third consecutive victory Weil has secured for its clients in this dispute, following earlier rulings in which the trial court granted our request for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction.

Weil has been leading the charge before the trial and appellate courts for NBA All-Star Zion Williamson and his agency, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), in multi-jurisdictional litigation in North Carolina federal court and Florida state court against his former agent, Prime Sports Marketing (PSM). The disputes collectively implicate more than $100M.

In North Carolina, where Zion had commenced an offensive case, PSM separately filed counterclaims citing breach of contract, fraud, unjust enrichment, and misappropriation of trade secrets. In 2022, Weil won a complete summary judgment victory when the court dismissed PSM’s contract-based counterclaims because the court earlier deemed the underlying contract null and void, and dismissed PSM’s trade secret claims because the information PSM claimed to be trade secrets were not protectable trade secrets under NC law. PSM has appealed both decisions to the Fourth Circuit, which heard oral argument in October 2023.

Meanwhile, in Florida, where Weil had already secured an appellate victory for Williamson that dismissed all claims brought against him by PSM, we won a February 2023 summary judgment victory for CAA and several other co-defendants that dismissed all claims against them, as well.

Weil represented CBS Sports in a wide range of high-profile sports media-related litigations, including, among others: multi-district antitrust class action litigation relating to the use of CBS Sports’ NFL broadcasts in the “Sunday Ticket” subscription package; the “grant-in-aid” litigation resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alston decision, as well as the ongoing In re College Athlete NIL Litigation, challenging the NCAA’s rules prohibiting student-athletes from receiving compensation in exchange for the use of their names, images, and likenesses; a dispute with the Alliance of American Football (AAF) following AAF’s chapter 7 bankruptcy filing; and a pair of major class actions filed by putative classes of current and former college athletes involving right of publicity issues.

Weil is counseling DIRECTV in connection with litigation and restructuring options surrounding its contractual relationship with Diamond Sports Group, a regional sports network affiliate of Sinclair Broadcasting Group that has encountered financial difficulty. Diamond operates 19 individual regional sports networks that serve as the TV home to more than half of all MLB, NHL, and NBA teams based in the United States.