Hanson Bridgett will be handling a wide roster of legal matters for the America’s Cup Event Authority as the organization preps for the 34th America’s Cup World Series, to be held in San Francisco in 2013.
The series includes a number of regattas that start this year in Cascais, Portugal, with stops in Plymouth, England, and San Diego before culminating in S.F.
As the official law firm for the Cup, Hanson Bridgett will provide legal counsel on issues ranging from sponsorship agreements and security relationships to jurisdictional agreements with local counties and authorities over the use of the Bay.
The three-year contract is based on an alternative fee arrangement. Firm Managing Partner Andrew Giacomini said it’s easily one of the firm’s biggest projects.
“We have larger clients and larger projects,” Giacomini said, “but as a single project, this may be the largest we have in terms of scope.”
Working closely with the America’s Cup Event Authority's general counsel, Sam Hollis, will be Hanson Bridgett partners Garner Weng, Jonathan Storper, Steven Gasser, Scott Smith and Dorothy Liu. Hollis is relocating to the Bay Area from Dubai.
Giacomini brought the business to the firm. He said he first got involved as a member of the Bay Area Council’s executive committee. He said he didn’t know which other firms competed for the work, but that he believed Hanson Bridgett's local ties helped the firm stand out. Hanson Bridgett will refer matters in which it doesn’t have know-how to its partners in the Global Law network, Giacomini said.
Does this mean we’ll see Giacomini sailing the Bay in coming months? Possibly. Though he doesn’t view himself as a sailor, Giacomini said he can sail a Laser or a Sunfish as well as anybody, having learned how to handle a boat as a child. He’ll go as far as the Golden Gate Bridge, he says. “But I don’t know if I’d venture out as far as the Farallons.”
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