Attorney
Harris is Co-Managing Partner of ESG Law and Chair of the firm’s Corporate Group, where Harris advises companies, founders, investors, studios, publishers, teams, and other businesses across the video game, UGC, esports, sports, and entertainment industries.
ESG Law has built one of the country’s leading practices at the intersection of UGC, gaming, esports, sports, and digital entertainment, representing more UGC studios, UGC businesses, and esports teams than any other law firm in the country. The firm’s clients include the studios and businesses behind leading UGC titles such as Grow a Garden, Animal Hospital, and 99 Nights in the Forest; premier esports organizations including Team Liquid, Cloud9, 100 Thieves, TSM, and OpTic Gaming; The Pokémon Company International; and leading businesses across the broader creator and digital entertainment ecosystem, including Fixated and AMP.
Harris’s corporate practice focuses on M&A, venture capital and private equity transactions, strategic investments, corporate structuring, joint ventures, partnerships, sponsorships, and other complex commercial matters. Harris has represented ESG clients in significant financing and M&A transactions, including venture capital investments, private equity-backed acquisitions and sales, and transactions involving nine-figure valuations.
Harris’s involvement in esports extends beyond outside legal counsel. In 2015, Harris led a group of investors in the acquisition of H2K Gaming, at the time the largest acquisition of a European esports team, and became an equity holder, COO, and General Counsel of the organization. H2K went on to finish third at the 2016 League of Legends World Championship.
While at H2K, Harris assembled a coalition of European teams known as ELLTA and served on its Executive Committee. The group collectively negotiated with Riot Games for improved revenue sharing and governance rights, the first such collective negotiation between European teams and Riot. That experience became the foundation for much of Harris’s subsequent work helping develop the business and governance infrastructure of modern esports.
Since 2015, Harris has played a leading role in the development of virtually every Tier 1 esports ecosystem in the Western world, including negotiating the original governance frameworks for the LCS, LEC, OWL, CDL, BLAST, and ESL. Harris also developed widely used Team-Player Employment and Team-Advertiser Sponsorship Agreements and has represented clients in connection with some of the largest sponsorship transactions in esports history.
Beyond private practice, Harris serves on the Board of Directors and as Executive Director of the Content Creator and Esports Bar Association, which is dedicated to improving legal and industry standards for content creators and esports.
Harris regularly writes and speaks on the legal and business issues shaping these industries, including M&A in gaming, the California Talent Agencies Act, advertising best practices, unionization in esports, salary caps in professional sports, and the continued evolution of UGC and digital entertainment.
Admissions
Publications by Harris Peskin
Understanding Nintendo's Licensed Tournament Guidelines
In this article we cover Nintendo's Licensed Tournament Guidelines, and what organizers can do to ensure compliance while applying for, and after receiving, a tournament license.
By Harris Peskin
The H3CZ Scump Activision Lawsuit A Lawyers Perspective
An anti-trust and intellectual property analysis of the HecZ and Scump lawsuit against Activision Blizzard.
By Harris Peskin
Unionization in Esports
A discussion of the legal hurdles surrounding unionization in esports and the traditional sports caselaw on the subject.
By Harris Peskin
Fixing Esports Finances: A Salary Cap Course Taught By Traditional Sports
A piece on salary caps in esports, comparing pro sports & describing the challenges of collective bargaining, antitrust, corporate, and employment law.
By Harris Peskin