We interviewed several national firms with real estate and sports facility expertise. We also spoke to GCs at large real estate companies that had utilized many of these firms. At the end of the day, it was the combination of DLA Piper's depth and experience along with a few key recommendations from people we knew and trusted. It is very similar to hiring other outside counsel on other significant legal matters for the organization.

Did your colleagues need to learn new areas of law (involving real estate) to accomplish your goals?

Yes, the real estate work was fairly new to our in-house team. We spoke with other team GCs and also GCs at local real estate companies. We hired Jonathan Smith, who was previously a real estate partner at Miller Martin, to join our in-house team as a result of our development of The Battery Atlanta.

What's the biggest challenge for your legal team between now and Opening Day?

We are bringing online a new MLB ballpark and a major mixed use development in 2017. We will need to make sure that both operations are in synch and communicating well and anticipating legal challenges that did not exist previously. … We should go from the hectic “deal pace” and “construction phase” to more of an operational phase once we open SunTrust Park and The Battery Atlanta. Nonetheless, life will be very different than it was in 2013 given all of the new features at SunTrust Park and all of the legal issues associated with The Battery Atlanta. We have essentially created a new real estate development division that we operate alongside the baseball team and new ballpark and w

Atlanta Braves

ATLANTA—Everyone knows that in-house lawyers for a ballclub don't get to make in-game tactical moves like bringing in a relief pitcher or calling for a hit-and-run. Yet the three lawyers and two paralegals for the Atlanta Braves had to go beyond the typical role of an in-house department as the team announced its move to Cobb County. In an article written by GlobeSt.com sister publication, ALM's Daily Report, the team's general counsel, Greg Heller, has answers.

How much of the work on the move to Cobb County—negotiations with Atlanta, negotiations with the county and the subsequent deals with the county, with financiers, with developers of the ballpark and the Battery (shops, restaurants, hotel, apartments, Roxy, office building) involved the use of outside counsel for the Braves?

We retained Maxine Hicks and her team at DLA Piper at a very early stage. Initially their role was to assist with the negotiation of a deal to remain at Turner Field and to redevelop the areas around Turner Field. When our discussions with the city stalled, and the opportunity in Cobb presented itself, Maxine and her team became more involved. We have negotiated stadium deals in other jurisdictions (Rome, Georgia; Pearl, Mississippi; and Gwinnett County) and so we handled much of the initial stadium deal work in-house. When we got to the long form phase, and the mixed use piece of the project, including negotiating deals with joint venture partners for retail, residential and the hotel and associated financings, DLA Piper became more heavily involved in those transactions. DLA Piper also introduced us to Jones Lang LaSalle and they have been instrumental in the project including providing real estate advisory services on both the ballpark and mixed use projects.

How did you choose outside counsel for these projects?

We interviewed several national firms with real estate and sports facility expertise. We also spoke to GCs at large real estate companies that had utilized many of these firms. At the end of the day, it was the combination of DLA Piper's depth and experience along with a few key recommendations from people we knew and trusted. It is very similar to hiring other outside counsel on other significant legal matters for the organization.

Did your colleagues need to learn new areas of law (involving real estate) to accomplish your goals?

Yes, the real estate work was fairly new to our in-house team. We spoke with other team GCs and also GCs at local real estate companies. We hired Jonathan Smith, who was previously a real estate partner at Miller Martin, to join our in-house team as a result of our development of The Battery Atlanta.

What's the biggest challenge for your legal team between now and Opening Day?

We are bringing online a new MLB ballpark and a major mixed use development in 2017. We will need to make sure that both operations are in synch and communicating well and anticipating legal challenges that did not exist previously. … We should go from the hectic “deal pace” and “construction phase” to more of an operational phase once we open SunTrust Park and The Battery Atlanta. Nonetheless, life will be very different than it was in 2013 given all of the new features at SunTrust Park and all of the legal issues associated with The Battery Atlanta. We have essentially created a new real estate development division that we operate alongside the baseball team and new ballpark and w