Kaye Scholer is counseling the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders on its reported $548 million sale to an investor group advised by Katten Muchin Rosenman that will take full control of the franchise in two years.
The deal, the first sale of an NHL team since ex-Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison corporate partner Douglas Cifu was part of an ownership group that paid $250 million for the Florida Panthers late last year, comes a week after Andrew Barroway, a former high-flying Philadelphia plaintiffs lawyer turned hedge fund executive, retained Blank Rome to sue the Islanders’ current ownership after it allegedly reneged on a handshake deal to sell him the team in May. That move followed the record-setting $2 billion sale of the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a deal that closed this month after a probate court battle.
