Council of Legal & Business Affairs – Brooklyn Nets & Barclays Center
Kari Cohen was raised in Great Neck, NY and graduated Cum Laude from George Washington University with a B.A. in Journalism. She attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Floersheimer Fellowship as well as senior editor for the Journal of Law and Literature. After her first year of law school, Ms. Cohen spent the summer interning at Blue Equity (a private equity firm which managed SFX tennis and Joel Segal’s Worldwide Football Agency), where she developed a passion for sports law. She had always been an avid sports fan, but working with Blue Equity’s in-house legal team made her realize that she was keenly interested in the legal issues associated with the field. During her last two years of law school, Ms. Cohen worked as a legal intern for the National Hockey League General Counsel’s office where she continued to hone the skills she began to develop as an intern for Blue Equity.
At the recommendation of her mentors, Ms. Cohen spent her last summer of law school as a summer associate in the New York office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and later accepted a full-time position with the firm where she spent two years in the New Media, Entertainment and Technology practice group. As an associate at Hughes Hubbard, Ms. Cohen provided transactional support and counseling to media and technology companies in connection with content and software licensing, syndication, and intellectual property issues.
Most recently, Ms. Cohen was fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to work with the Brooklyn Nets assisting their Executive Vice President of Business Affairs & Chief Legal Officer, Jeff Gewirtz, as Counsel of Legal & Business Affairs. It has been quite a busy time since Ms. Cohen joined the Nets in June 2011, as she has helped Mr. Gewirtz and the entire organization prepare for their move to, and operation of, a landmark sports and entertainment arena – Barclays Center. Ms. Cohen has found providing transactional support in association with such an incredible venture to be both an exciting and rewarding experience. Moreover, she is thrilled to be able to follow her passion for sports law and be part of an organization with unlimited potential and promise for a bright future.