Phil Hoffman / Baltimore Ravens
Civil rights and public interest law grabbed Brandon Etheridge’s attention as a college football player at Yale, and he completed internships at the International Justice Mission and U.S. Attorney’s Office. At Harvard Law, he found himself refreshing ESPN, scouring box scores and devouring articles.
“Ultimately, my passion is sports,” Etheridge said, “and that’s just not going to go away.”
Hearing sports executives Adolpho Birch and Damon Jones speak at forums helped Etheridge realize he could “marry law and business with sports.”
At Covington & Burling, Etheridge’s first sports case was helping defend NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell against a defamation lawsuit after the New Orleans Saints’ Bountygate scandal. The NFL Management Council hired Etheridge, who wanted to work in-house for a sports property. In 2016, at age 31, his hometown Ravens asked him to become the franchise’s first general counsel in nearly two decades, a job he called “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Crediting the two team presidents he’s worked for, Dick Cass and Sashi Brown, Etheridge has broadened the job role beyond negotiating contracts and playing gatekeeper on legality. He negotiated with Maryland for $600 million in public funding for stadium renovations and a lease extension through 2038, with M&T Bank on a 15-year naming-rights extension, and with SeatGeek on ticketing and sponsorship agreements.
“Legal is typically a support department, as opposed to driving a business process or operation,” he said. “Because I’ve had these two lawyers as team presidents, they recognize that there’s plenty that I can do in terms of driving business processes and really helping achieve results and implementing and executing strategic initiatives.”
Etheridge also designed and led the Ravens’ social justice response and community engagement following the deaths of Freddie Gray and George Floyd. — Joe Lemire
Brandon Etheridge
Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Baltimore Ravens
Age: 39
Born: Baltimore
Education: Yale University, B.A., political science; Harvard Law School, J.D.
Family: Engaged to be married June 29
Advice to my 20-year-old self: Someday, you will be thankful for the opportunities you didn’t get.
How I deal with stress in the workplace: I really enjoy listening to guided meditations on the Calm App.
Cause supported: I am on the board of the Baltimore Community Foundation, with which I started the Brandon M. Etheridge Family Fund, which assists organizations dedicated to improving the mental and physical health and wellbeing of the youth in the Greater Baltimore Area.
First social media platform I signed up for: Facebook.
Person in sports business I’d most like to meet: Mark Cuban.
Sports business leaders should be more mindful of … : The importance of serving the communities that support us.
Back to the Forty Under 40 home page
