Jeff Gewirtz is the Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Chief Legal Officer of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, a role he has held since 2010. In 2021 he also served as Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment’s Chief Operating Officer, where he led the efforts around re-opening Barclays Center in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and had general oversight for arena operations and its health and safety protocols. Gewirtz joined Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment in May 2007 as Senior Vice President and General Counsel.
Gewirtz advises Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment’s ownership and his executive management colleagues on key business and legal matters for Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment's holdings, including the Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center, the New York Liberty, Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment Enterprises, the NBA G League’s Long Island Nets, and, through 2019, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Webster Hall. Gewirtz also works closely with Barclays Center management on live event concert, family entertainment, and sports programming alliances, and he previously had oversight of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment’s government relations function.
Gewirtz was a key member of the negotiating team for Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment’s most significant commercial initiatives over the past several years, such as: 2012 relocation of the New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn; development of the $1 billion Barclays Center; the 2015 relocation of the New York Islanders to Barclays Center and oversight of all legal affairs for the Islanders’ business operations through 2019; Nets and Barclays Center ownership transfer transactions in 2010, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2024; 2025 New York Liberty equity investments; the lease acquisition for and re-development of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum; development of the Brooklyn Nets’ state-of-the-art practice facility, the HSS Training Center; acquisition of the Webster Hall business; the Brooklyn Nets’ media rights alliance with YES Network; investment in the Brooklyn Paramount; and acquisition of Brooklyn Magazine.
Gewirtz was named to the 2019 United States GC Powerlist and the 2025 New York GC Powerlist by The Legal 500, and in 2015 his legal department was named one of the top 50 in-house legal departments in the United States by The Legal 500. In addition, Gewirtz was named 2014 Sports Counsel of the Year by the Association of Media & Entertainment Counsel, and in 2009 Gewirtz was selected to the prestigious “Forty Under 40” by Sports Business Journal as one of the 40 top sports executives under the age of 40 in the United States. Gewirtz is a Board of Directors emeritus member of the Sports Lawyers Association, and he is a past Sports Committee Chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries. He also previously served on the Board of Directors of Access Justice Brooklyn and as pro bono General Counsel to the Eastern Section of the United States Tennis Association (USTA).
Prior to Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, Gewirtz served as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) General Counsel and its Chief Legal & Government Affairs Officer where he was responsible for all USOC legal matters, as well as the USOC’s government relations activities with Congress and federal government agencies. Gewirtz has also held positions with: The Coca-Cola Company’s Corporate Legal Division – as Global Marketing Counsel – where he negotiated many of Coca-Cola’s most significant sports industry transactions such as its $500 million+ NCAA Corporate Champion sponsorship and media alliance with CBS Sports (as a secondment, he also served as Corporate Counsel for the Coca- Cola Southeast & West Asia Division, based in Bangkok, Thailand); IOC Television & Marketing Services SA – as Director of Legal Affairs – where he served as lead counsel for the International Olympic Committee’s global sponsorship Olympic Partner (“TOP”) Program, primarily in connection with the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games and 2004 Athens Olympic Games; the LPGA Tour as General Counsel; and the WTA Tour. He began his legal career as a corporate associate at the New York City law firm of Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP, where he worked on matters for the firm’s global advertising industry clients, along with sports industry clients such as the USTA and the USOC.
A native of Baldwin Harbour, New York, Gewirtz is a graduate of Tufts University, where he was a four-year member and Captain of the Tufts Varsity Tennis Team his senior year, as well as a member of its New England Championship team. In 2016 he was appointed to the Tufts Athletics Board of Advisors. Gewirtz received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School, where he was the recipient of a three-year merit scholarship, from which he is a two-time recipient of its Alumni Achievement Award in Sports Law, and at which he previously served as an Adjunct Professor of Sports Law. Gewirtz has qualified for the 2026 World Maccabiah Games, where he will be a member of TEAM USA and competing in the Master’s Division tennis competition.
Gewirtz is married to Brooke Raphael, who is Chief Operating Officer at Avicella Capital. They have two children.