Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Labor and Agents

Sports business veterans form new law firm

Pioneering sports agent Tom Reich, former National Basketball Players Association general counsel Bob Lanza and George Daniel, the former commissioner of the National Lacrosse League, have formed a new sports law firm.

The new firm — Lanza, Reich & Daniel — will be based in New York and handle sports legal matters for players, agents, teams, leagues and owners.

REICH
Reich, a former NHL and MLB agent, represented superstars across sports including Mario Lemieux, Mo Vaughn, Joe Morgan, Sammy Sosa and Chris Chelios, and has owned major sports agencies including the former Reich, Katz and Landis.

Lanza was the general counsel of the NBPA from 1997 though 2002. Since then he has worked on legal matters in sports representing players, agents and owners.

LANZA
Daniel is joining the firm after stepping down last week as commissioner of the NLL, a position he had held since January 2009. The NLL said last week that Daniel would continue to serve as counsel to the league.

Lanza said the three men have known one another for years and have long talked about forming a business where they could work together.

DANIEL
“We all have different talents,” Lanza said. “We just decided, ‘Let’s go for it. Let’s put it together. Let’s make it work.’”

Lanza said that although he could not name specific clients, the firm has several already, including a “very wealthy group of investors” who are trying to form a basketball league in the Middle East. Additionally, Lanza said, the firm has been retained by another group that wants to build an arena for a professional sports franchise to play in the U.S. He declined to identify that group or say what sport they were eyeing.

“We are representing an NFL team,” said Lanza, who added that he could not name the team.

Daniel said that his contract was up at the NLL and that he has let owners of NLL teams know that he was considering leaving for quite a while. He will serve as outside counsel until the NLL finds a replacement.

“It’s been in the works for about six months,” he said of the new venture.

Daniel said, after leading the NLL, he is excited about the opportunity to do work in other sports.

“I have been with the league for 15 years, and seven as commissioner, and at this point in my life I want to do one more thing — at least one more thing — in my professional life,” Daniel said.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/11/30/Labor-and-Agents/Reich-Lanza-Daniel.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/11/30/Labor-and-Agents/Reich-Lanza-Daniel.aspx

CLOSE