Jonathan Galst has extensive legal and business experience in the sports, media, and entertainment industries, representing sports leagues, teams and properties, content rights acquirers and distributors, production companies, sponsors, and marketing agencies.

Jonathan regularly supports his clients in the planning, structuring, and negotiation of a wide variety of commercial agreements, including:

• Television production development and licensing
• Talent
• Live game telecast rights
• Digital media deals and content distribution
• Sponsorships
• Influencer agreements
• Marketing deals
• Live events
• Consumer products licensing

Over the course of his career, with a focus on creative deal-making to overcome obstacles and ensure successful long-term relationships for his clients, Jonathan has worked on some of the biggest rights deals in all of sports and media, handling agreements with major television networks, Fortune 500 companies, cable and satellite distributors, digital platforms, documentary producers, and boxing promoters.

Before joining OGC, Jonathan served as Chief Business and Operations Officer for Improbable Media, where he oversaw legal and business affairs, operations, finance/accounting, and HR for the startup content company, which sought to incubate and accelerate the next generation of athlete-powered content and media businesses.

Prior to that, Jonathan spent over 7 years as Senior Vice President, Business Affairs for HBO, where he led business affairs for the HBO Sports division. While there, he negotiated and managed talent agreements for HBO Sports’ boxing and Real Sports programs, production services agreements with documentary producers, licensing agreements with major sports properties, and live event agreements with boxing promoters. Among other deals, Jonathan negotiated and implemented a complex four-way agreement among HBO, Showtime, Top Rank, and Mayweather Promotions for the largest pay-per-view event in boxing history, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.

Before HBO, Jonathan was the lead legal and business affairs attorney for the NFL’s media business, where he:

• Negotiated and helped structure the NFL’s multi-billion-dollar game telecast agreements with CBS, ESPN, FOX, NBC, and DIRECTV
• Increased distribution of NFL Network by more than 70% through the successful planning and negotiation of agreements with cable and satellite distributors
• Negotiated NFL Films production and licensing agreements with third-party networks
• Oversaw the legal team handling international television and digital media agreements
• Assisted with the NFL’s commercial name and likeness agreement with the NFL Players Association

Jonathan also served as Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel for NBA Properties, Inc., the commercial arm of the NBA, where he:

• Played an integral role in the NBA’s television and digital rights negotiations with ESPN and Turner Sports
• Developed, negotiated, and drafted the NBA’s and WNBA’s interactive/mobile, content licensing, international and domestic sponsorship, and consumer products licensing agreements
• Played a leading role in developing and implementing the NBA’s new media licensing strategy
• Oversaw NBA Properties’ commercial name and likeness agreement with the NBA Players Association
• Served as primary counsel and advisor for the NBA’s New Media/Interactive Services, Team Marketing, and Marketing Partnerships departments, and for its Canadian office

Jonathan began his career at Covington & Burling, where his clients included the NFL, among others. He graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from New York University School of Law, and magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton School.

Jonathan is an avid Mets fan who also enjoys golf and crossword puzzles. He is married and has two adult sons and a dog.