The Calgary Flames hired their first in-house lawyer as three other National Hockey League clubs installed new legal leaders ahead of the start of the 2022-23 season.
Robyn Scott moved across Canada to start working last month for the Flames as general counsel and corporate secretary of Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. She most recently served as legal chief for visitor management startup iLobby Corp. and trucking logistics provider Fleet Complete, both based in Toronto.
Scott’s new employer had previously relied on outside counsel. One of them is Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer, a Calgary-based law firm known for its energy work.
The city of Calgary and the Flames announced Oct. 20 that they’ve resumed negotiations on a roughly $650 million sports arena for the NHL team, whose home ice for the past 39 years has been the Scotiabank Saddledome, the second-oldest arena in the league behind New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Getting a new facility for the Flames to replace the Saddledome, which needs repairs after being built for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, is part of Scott’s legal role.
“That’s the goal,” she said when asked about the arena talks.
A Rink Relocation
Scott began her career working for Rogers Communications Inc., a Toronto-based communications giant that owns a slate of local sports teams, including MLB’s Blue Jays, MLS’s Toronto FC, the NBA’s Raptors, NHL’s Maple Leafs, and CFL’s Argonauts.
During her five years at Rogers, Scott worked with the Blue Jays and helped bring the NFL’s Buffalo Bills to Toronto for a series of games. She started the legal and compliance function for four different companies after leaving Rogers, a switch that Scott said helped her gain critical experience in creating corporate law departments from scratch. She’s doing so for a fifth time in Calgary.
Scott’s typical day involves a range of issues, including contracts, intellectual property, and licensing. “You start out to be a pretty decent generalist and then just know when to call in outside counsel,” she said.
Moving almost across the North American continent was a potential hurdle to her move, but the native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, said her family was familiar with Alberta after spending a month in the province during the pandemic. Her young son enjoyed skiing in Banff—a short drive from Calgary—while she worked remotely.
That experience, as well as a summer Scott spent in Alberta in her 20s, convinced her to ditch a Toronto-based legal career for one out West.
Calgary, ranked this year as the world’s third-most livable city, also recently had its first major snowfall of the season, which Scott jokingly called a “bit shocking to the system.”
Scott said lawyers with the NHL and its member clubs have been a good support system as she settles into her job. The Flames were one of the few remaining teams in the league to not have an in-house lawyer until she came aboard, Scott said.
N. Murray Edwards, a Canadian oil sands billionaire and former Burnet Duckworth partner, is one of four businessmen that control the private company that owns the Flames. The group’s other sports holdings include the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders, the National Lacrosse League’s Calgary Roughnecks, and minor league hockey teams the Calgary Hitmen and Flames affiliate the Calgary Wranglers.
Legal Shift Change
At least three other NHL teams—the Dallas Stars, Ottawa Senators, and Pittsburgh Penguins—have new legal chiefs this season.
The Penguins promoted chief people officer and deputy general counsel Tracey McCants Lewis to the top legal role in August, making her the second Black legal chief for an NHL team. She succeeded general counsel Kevin Acklin, who was elevated in June to president of business operations.
Acklin, a former Pittsburgh mayoral candidate who was once a partner at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, joined the Penguins in 2018 after serving as chief legal officer for a utility company. The team, whose president of hockey operations is Harvard Law School graduate Brian Burke, was sold last year for almost $900 million.
The Penguins added to their legal ranks last month by bringing on United Soccer League associate general counsel Michael Donadio as a deputy general counsel.
A Senators spokesperson confirmed the team brought back former longtime senior legal counsel Richard Stacey as general counsel in August. Stacey spent the past year working for Solace Corp., an Ottawa-based software company.
Stacey’s return comes after the Senators saw former Norton Rose Fulbright labor and employment partner Peter MacTavish exit over the summer to join Quebec-based hockey agency Quartexx Management as a senior counsel and player agent.
C. Taylor White, an associate general counsel hired by the Stars last year, said via email that he’s been acting general counsel for the club since its longtime legal chief Alana Matthews quit in May to start her own women’s custom clothing company.
Matthews, a working mom who grew up playing on an all-boys hockey team, announced via LinkedIn her decision to step down to focus on her new role as founder and chief executive of Alautus Clothing Co. “It is energizing to build a company that is focused on serving women,” she said via email.
More Club Legal Moves
Other recent NHL recruits include:
- The Chicago Blackhawks, a so-called Original Six team that last year hired its first-ever general counsel, have welcomed aboard another in-house lawyer in Charles Eberhardt III. The former labor and employment associate at Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete in Kansas City, Mo., joined the team as counsel in August.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning, who lost the Stanley Cup this year amid a reshuffling of their in-house legal roster, hired former Sidley Austin managing associate Donald Munson that same month as a corporate counsel. Munson focused on entertainment, media, and sports work at Sidley in Los Angeles. He was previously a corporate associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York.
- The Seattle Kraken, an expansion franchise that hired two new lawyers ahead of taking the ice last year at the Amazon.com Inc.-sponsored Climate Pledge Arena, picked up associate counsel Andrew Perez in June. Perez, who works for the team and its home arena, was most recently a corporate associate at Perkins Coie.
- Delaware North Inc. hired Shannon Torgerson in May as assistant general counsel for transactional and regulatory matters for the food service and hospitality company. Torgerson, a former compliance director at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, works for the Boston Bruins and their home ice, TD Garden, both of which are owned by Delaware North chairman Jeremy Jacobs Sr.