The Atlantic Coast Conference disclosed spending $7.23 million on attorneys in the fiscal year 2023, the most of any of the Power 5 schools during that period.
That time frame predated the league’s recent headline-grabbing courtroom battles with two of its members, Florida State and Clemson, over media rights and exit fees.
Among the recipients of the ACC’s FY23 legal binging was Jon Barrett, who previously served for two decades as outside counsel to the Big Ten. Barrett’s sole practitioner firm received $888,588, according to the league’s most recent tax filing, which was made public Thursday. Barrett had spent the last couple years advising the ACC after losing his long-running Big Ten gig when former commissioner Kevin Warren decided to bring that conference’s general counsel position in-house.
Barrett was a college friend and longtime confidante of Warren’s Big Ten commissioner predecessor, Jim Delany, who had recently served as an advisor to the ACC but is no longer in that role.
As Sportico previously reported, Delany was involved in finding the ACC a permanent in-house GC to replace Barrett, who retired in February. Barrett, according to a source familiar with the situation, also advised the ACC on who it should hire as its first-ever in-house counsel. That position ultimately went to Pearlynn Houck, who started last April.
In addition to Barrett, the ACC paid $1.76 million to law firm Fox Rothschild, which has defended the league on a number of complex litigation matters, including the In re College Athlete NIL Litigation, otherwise known as House v. NCAA.
(An ACC spokesperson declined to comment about the conference’s legal expenditures.)
Meanwhile, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips—who was paid $2.76 million in FY23—has his own mounting legal bills; he is defending himself for his prior leadership role as athletic director of Northwestern, which is embroiled in a football hazing scandal that has spawned multiple lawsuits by former players.