Linklaters: Strategic Hiring

The leadership read

Recruiting two partners who have functioned as FIFA's primary US legal counsel is not a capability add; it is a client-relationship acquisition. Boehning and Levi carry with them years of institutional trust with one of the most litigious and politically complex governing bodies in global sport. That relationship is now sitting inside a firm whose sports client roster already spans the Premier League, NFL Players Association, and DAZN. Linklaters has committed itself to running a genuinely integrated global sports practice anchored in New York, which is operationally different from having US-based partners who happen to advise sports clients. The 77% partner headcount increase since 2022 makes clear this is a sustained build, not opportunistic lateral hiring. The related-signals set for this period is broad across sectors and does not offer close legal-market comparables; the more relevant peer signal is Freshfields simultaneously restructuring its own partner base to fund US expansion, and Paul Hastings launching a new global sports practice with lateral hires from across the market. That makes at least three Magic Circle or major international firms visibly repositioning their US sports and disputes capabilities within a 90-day window. The pattern is concentrated enough to read as a category-wide recognition that sports law has crossed a threshold: private equity capital flow into clubs, leagues, and media rights has made the work large-ticket and cross-jurisdictional enough to warrant dedicated practice infrastructure. Across firms competing in this corridor, the functional pressure concentrates in a specific cluster: regulatory and governance counsel with international sports-body experience, cross-border disputes leadership at the intersection of commercial arbitration and public law, and commercial partners able to convert deep client relationships into multi-matter mandates rather than single-case retainers.