Teresa L. Johnson is co-chair of WilmerHale's Sports and Gaming Practice and a partner in the firm's Transactional Department. Throughout her career, Ms. Johnson has served as lead outside corporate counsel to professional sports franchises and their owners, guiding high-stakes transactions shaped by league rules, ownership policies and debt limitations. Her work focuses on guiding the transactions that determine who owns a team, how it is capitalized and how it is governed.

Ms. Johnson represents clients across the ownership table, including major professional sports organizations, controlling and minority owners, private capital firms, family offices, high-net-worth investors and teams and leagues in formation. Her clients include the Las Vegas Raiders of the National Football League and the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association. For franchise clients, she handles the full arc of ownership and capitalization, including relocation and venue financing, through successive ownership transactions involving some of the most recognized names in sports and private capital, along with the credit facilities and governance structures beneath them, working directly with team leadership and leagues.

Ms. Johnson draws on more than three decades of counseling clients on securities, capital markets and corporate governance experience to help clients structure transactions that clear league approval, align economic and governance interests and achieve long-term strategic objectives.

Alongside her sports practice, Ms. Johnson counsels public and private companies, boards, senior executives, family offices and high-net-worth individuals on securities transactions, corporate governance and capital markets matters. She also has a long-standing practice representing wineries, owners and businesses throughout the wine industry.

Ms. Johnson has an expansive thought leadership platform, writing and speaking extensively on transactional and Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) matters, including in the Financial Times. She is also one of the lead editors of Environmental, Social, Governance: The Professional’s Guide to the Law and Practice of ESG (ABA). Ms. Johnson previously served as President of the Bar Association of San Francisco and the Justice & Diversity Center and is a leader in the Legal Alliance for Reproductive Rights.

Prior to joining WilmerHale, she served as a partner and co‑head of the capital markets practice at an AmLaw 100 firm.