Major sports teams, owners, and leagues, college conferences, and sports-industry financiers call on Joseph Leccese of Proskauer Rose LLP, in New York when they need legal assistance. As the firm’s Chairman, he also acts as co-head of the Sports Law Group, a practice that garnered Proskauer Rose a Sports Practice of the Year honor from Chambers USA. Joseph Leccese and his sports law colleagues possess expertise in such areas as the negotiation of high-profile collective bargaining issues, complex stadium and arena financing, league expansions, and new league formation.
Joseph Leccese and Proskauer Rose’s Sports Law Group have represented Major League Baseball clubs in salary arbitration proceedings with players. Additionally, this group counseled the New York Jets and other investors in the $1.3 billion financing of a National Football League stadium, the largest such transaction to date. Proskauer Rose also successfully defended the ATP World Tour against price fixing claims by the Hamburg Tennis Tournament.
Under Joseph Leccese’s direction, the firm handled the formation of the Women’s National Basketball Association, NBA China, and the NBA Development League. Joseph Leccese has also represented the National Hockey League (NHL), the PAC-12 Conference, Major League Soccer, and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour.
For the NBA, Joseph Leccese assisted in securing grants for expansion franchises in Charlotte, North Carolina; Vancouver, British Columbia; Toronto, Ontario; Orlando and Miami, Florida; and Minneapolis, Minnesota. He provided similar services to the NHL for new franchises in St. Paul, Minnesota; Columbus, Ohio; Nashville, Tennessee; and Atlanta, Georgia. At Proskauer Rose, Joseph Leccese also represents bidders for many professional teams in auctions and privately negotiated sales. In addition, he represents Proskauer Rose as a frequent lecturer and guest speaker on legal and business issues of the sports industry.
Prior to his rise to leadership at Proskauer Rose, Joseph Leccese served as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court, District of Delaware for the Honorable Joseph J. Longobardi. Joseph Leccese received a Bachelor’s degree cum laude from Georgetown University and completed a law degree at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he took part in the Virginia Law Review.
