Charles Baker is Co-Chair of O’Melveny’s Sports Industry Group and a leading corporate lawyer. His practice encompasses mergers and acquisitions, including SPAC mergers, private equity, and venture capital transactions, with a core focus in the sports, media and entertainment sectors. Baker has represented buyers and sellers of sports franchises in nearly every professional U.S. sports league and many of the European football leagues. Most recently, he represented an ownership group founded by Natalie Portman, tech VC Kara Nortman, gaming entrepreneur Julie Uhrman, and VC and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in securing expansion rights to launch Angel City FC, a National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team in Los Angeles in 2022. Chuck also recently represented Kevin Durant and Thirty Five Ventures in joining the ownership group of MLS Philadelphia Union. He also represented David Tepper, founder and president of global hedge fund Appaloosa Management, in his acquisitions of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC, MLS’s 30th expansion team.

Baker 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, 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,” a feature spotlighting the most important players in the fields of law, finance, representation, and executive leadership.