Bio

Charles Baker is Co-Chair of O’Melveny’s Sports Industry Group. Chuck’s corporate practice encompasses mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions, with a core focus in the sports, media, entertainment, and consumer sectors. Chuck has represented buyers and sellers of sports franchises in the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, National Women’s Soccer League and many of the European football leagues. Recently, he advised Todd Boehly, Co-Founder and CEO of Eldridge Industries, on his acquisition of a minority interest in the L.A. Lakers, private equity firm Arctos Sports Partners on minority investments in NHL and NBA franchises, and David Tepper on his $2.275B acquisition of the NFL Carolina Panthers. Chuck also recently represented Genius Sports in its multi-year strategic partnerships with the NFL and CFL and in the acquisition of Steve Balmer’s Second Spectrum, and fuboTV in its acquisition of Molotov SAS, France’s number one live TV streaming company. Chuck’s other recent work includes representing the L.A. women’s soccer team Angel City FC and KC Current in their expansions in the NWSL, stadium and numerous sponsorship deals, and SportsTek Acquisition Corp. in its upsized US$150 million SPAC IPO. 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, Sports Business Journal named Chuck to its 2021 “Power Players” list and Law360 named Chuck to its 2020 list of Sports & Betting MVPs. The American Lawyer named Chuck to its prestigious 2019 “Dealmakers of the Year” list and he was also profiled in Variety’s 2018 and 2017 “Dealmakers Elite New York.” Chuck is consistently recognized nationally for sports law by Chambers USA, in which he has been described as a "very smart and astute transactional lawyer," and 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.” Chuck is a Distinguished Lecturer at NYU’s Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business. He is also an adjunct professor and member of the University of Miami School of Law’s Entertainment, Arts, and Sports LL.M program’s 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.