A Sporting Chance...Thanks to last week's sale of the Washington Capitals hockey franchise, D.C.'s Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering expects to add another team to its sports stable. Partner George Stamas headed a team that helped America Online Inc. executive Ted Leonsis and Washington entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky buy a piece of Abe Pollin's sports empire. "This was an extremely smooth transaction because we were really on the same side of the table," says Stamas, who is also outside general counsel to baseball's Baltimore Orioles. Wilmer landed the work because of Stamas' ties to both Leonsis and Ledecky. Stamas was outside counsel to U.S. Office Products when Ledecky chaired the company. Working with Stamas were partners, Mark Pollak, a trustee of the Washington Redskins football team, who recently jumped to Wilmer from Baltimore's Piper& Marbury; William Wilkins, head of Wilmer's tax practice; Thomas White, who also does work for the National Hockey League's Carolina Hurricanes; and Mark Dewire. They were assisted by five associates. Pollin was represented by David Osnos and Richard Brand at D.C.'s Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn, which has long represented Pollin and his sport ventures. At Arent Fox, where Osnos has put in thousands of hours for Pollin since 1973, it was Brand who led the work on this transaction, with help from Osnos and tax partner John McCoy. Brand describes the sale as "win-win," and says there is a genuine affection between Pollin and Leonsis. Arent Fox expects to continue representing the Pollin sports empire, which includes the Washington Wizards basketball team, the MCI Center, the Ticketmaster franchise, and the US Airways Arena in Landover, Md. Because of the ownership change, Wilmer Cutler has a good shot at succeeding Arent Fox as general counsel of the Capitals.

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