Krista Whitaker named legal chief after working in Big Law, NBA
Andrea Zopp, an ex-Chicago deputy mayor, gets an advisory role
The National Football League’s Chicago Bears are adding some legal firepower to further their bid to finalize a multibillion-dollar deal for a new stadium.
Krista Whitaker is joining the NFL franchise as executive vice president of legal and business affairs, the Bears said Tuesday. Andrea Zopp is the team’s new senior adviser for legal and business affairs.
Whitaker is a former corporate associate at Proskauer Rose who for the past three years has worked for the National Basketball Association’s Miami Heat, where she most recently was an associate general counsel.
Zopp, managing partner of venture capital firm Cleveland Avenue LLC, is a former litigation partner at a Dentons predecessor who once spent almost two years as a deputy mayor of Chicago.
The new hires will work alongside Bears president and CEO Kevin Warren, who joined the team last year after serving as commissioner of the collegiate Big Ten Conference. Warren is a veteran sports industry lawyer and former of counsel at Greenberg Traurig who has taken the lead on the stadium project.
In March, the Bears took a key step toward staying in the Windy City with their pledge for a $2 billion investment to offset the cost of replacing their current home, historic Soldier Field. The stadium, located on the shore of Lake Michigan, is the NFL’s oldest and also has the league’s second-smallest capacity with roughly 62,000 seats. The total cost for a new facility is expected to hit $5 billion.
A Bears spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment about the team’s hire of Whitaker and Zopp or whether the franchise has engaged outside counsel in its negotiations for public money to fund a new stadium’s construction. Whitaker also didn’t return a comment request.
Whitaker worked on several major sports deals during her five years at Proskauer. She advised the former owner of Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins on the $1.2 billion sale of the club and counseled the National Hockey League on its $500 million award of an expansion team in Las Vegas.
Zopp, a former state and federal prosecutor is a prominent lawyer in Chicago. She was an early adopter of programs designed to increase diversity in the legal profession. Zopp served a half-dozen years as president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League and spent time as general counsel for energy and retail giants Exelon Corp. and Sears Holdings Corp., respectively.
The Bears in January parted ways with their longtime general counsel, Cliff Stein, who had spent more than two decades working for the team.
In March, the Bears were sued by a White, male law student at DePaul University who claimed the team discriminated against him in favor of racial minorities and women in hiring for a legal diversity fellowship position this year.
Continue Reading
Be the first to comment