Charles Baker is Co-Chair of O’Melveny’s Sports Industry Group. Chuck’s corporate practice encompasses mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture capital transactions, with a core focus in the sports, media and consumer sectors.
Chuck has represented buyers and sellers of sports franchises in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, and many of the European football leagues. Most recently, Chuck represented David Tepper, founder and president of global hedge fund Appaloosa Management, in his acquisition of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
Chuck has been featured by dozens of national publications and other media outlets as a thought leader in the fields of sports and entertainment law, and is also a frequent public speaker on those topics. Most recently, The American Lawyer named Chuck to its prestigious 2019 “Dealmakers of the Year” list. He was also profiled in Variety’s 2018 and 2017 “Dealmakers Elite New York,” a feature spotlighting the most important players in the fields of law, finance, representation, and executive leadership.
Chuck has been recognized nationally for sports law in the last six editions of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, which has described him as a “very strong practitioner” who is “well connected, incredibly bright and just able to get the deal closed” with “tremendous experience and know-how in the sports space.”
He was also recognized by Law360 in 2015 and 2016 for his stellar M&A and sports law work, and by the Global M&A Network for his work on the sale of the Atlanta Hawks NBA team, naming it the “2015 USA Deal of the Year” at its prestigious M&A Atlas Awards. In 2016, he was featured in Sports Business Journal’s “Power Players: Sports Lawyers & Outside Counsel” 2016 list.
Chuck, who holds a JD from Cornell University, is a Distinguished Lecturer at NYU’s Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business. He is also a member of the University of Miami School of Law’s Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law board. Chuck also served as a staff associate for former Senator Bill Bradley.
He is active at the board level with the March of Dimes and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and previously with USA Triathlon.