William M. Lawrence spoke with Law360 for an August 19, 2022 article about the firm’s representation of Auburn University alumni to acquire a name, image and likeness (NIL) collective designed to assist the school’s student-athletes in one of the first deals of its kind.

The new collective, called On to Victory, acquired the existing collective, NIL-Auburn, LLC, with a goal to shift from a for-profit model to a model that sends at least 90% of proceeds directly to Auburn student-athletes. More information on the acquisition and its focus on helping student-athletes is available here.”

Lawrence discussed more details with Law360 on the firm’s involvement, which included Lawrence as primary acquisition counsel along with tax partners C. Logan Hinkle and J. Allen Sullivan Jr. 

“I got intrigued from the start about NIL work because, as a lawyer, we rarely have opportunities to get involved at the literal birth of a legal issue, which NIL deals are,” Lawrence said. “I especially enjoyed the acquisition because I got to double down on a couple of firsts: representing a client in the infancy of a NIL publicity rights deal and handling one of the first, if not the very first, acquisition of a collective in the early days of NIL.”

“I think what On to Victory brings to the table is a dedicated group of Auburn alumni and management that isn’t running it to benefit their individual bank accounts,” he said.

For the full article, please visit Law360.