From Associate to Alumnus: Carrying Lessons of Leadership Forward

How do you build a legal department for a rapidly growing youth sports company? Just ask Michael Campbell, former corporate and business transactions (CBT) associate in Philadelphia and now general counsel of Unrivaled Sports. After six years as a transactional lawyer, Michael translated Morgan Lewis’s culture of elite client service into a career home run.

We recently spoke with Mike about his transition from midlevel associate to general counsel, the importance of getting career advice from those with different perspectives, and how he continues to put into practice the client service lessons he gained at Morgan Lewis.

You were a CBT associate in the Philadelphia office from 2021 to 2023. What made you want to go in-house, and what drew you to Ripken Baseball?

I wanted to go in-house so that I could get a degree or two closer to the inner workings of a business than from my vantage point as outside counsel. I wanted the variety of challenges that come with working on solutions to problems in different departments, from the business development side to IT to marketing and elsewhere. I also wanted the continuity associated with having the company as my long-term client. The notion of working on an M&A deal and then getting to follow through with the integration of a new business into an existing one—where the people at the business that I was doing due diligence on would become my coworkers—was exciting to me.

Relatedly, one of my favorite courses in grad school was a business school course focused on corporate development and integration. I learned a lot in that class from the client’s side, with classmates describing post-investment integration issues they’d encountered while at Google, Facebook, Anheuser-Busch, and investment firms. I took those lessons with me into the law firm and thought I could bring them to bear in an in-house role. 

In terms of why I chose to go to Ripken Baseball/Unrivaled Sports, I looked hard at a few different in-house options, but Unrivaled Sports was the sort of golden opportunity that I knew I wasn’t likely to see again and couldn’t turn down. At that time, the parent company, Unrivaled Sports, didn’t yet have a name or many employees. Ripken Baseball and Cooperstown All Star Village were the marquee businesses under the umbrella, and they had stellar reputations in the youth baseball space. They also had good backing from two very strong family offices. Further, I had worked on separate deals with some of my Morgan Lewis coworkers who had done work for Unrivaled Sports (or what would be called Unrivaled Sports). I respected their work and trusted their positive reviews of the family offices and the company’s leadership. The biggest draw from my perspective was that I’d be the first legal hire, so I had the challenge or opportunity to learn a lot quickly and define a role.

You were a sixth-year associate when you moved from Morgan Lewis to a general counsel role. Was there any trepidation about taking on such a senior position at that stage of your career?

Yes, definitely! I knew there was a lot I didn’t know. I still know that. But I wanted the test, and I knew I’d learn a lot even if it was hard and I didn’t always have the answers. I read through three “in-house 101” books before my start date, and I’ve gone back to those a few different times over the past few years. I also had assurances that I could lean on outside counsel as needed and wouldn’t be left on an island addressing all legal concerns, which was very important.

A few different sets of discussions made me more comfortable stepping into the role with only six years of experience in transactional law: discussions with company leadership during my interviews, with Morgan Lewis coworkers who had worked on Unrivaled transactions, and with my existing network.

With company leadership, I tried to be blunt about what I could do for the company when hired, what I thought I could learn to do, and where I’d need to lean on outside counsel for help. In the course of those discussions, I set expectations for the role. I laid out the broad contours of what my role could be. They were very receptive to that, which I took as a good sign.

My coworkers at Morgan Lewis couldn’t say enough good things about the Unrivaled Sports team, particularly the CFO, with whom I knew I’d be working closely.  I grilled them a bit on the team’s approach to different problems and the sorts of issues that arose in diligence on past deals. I kept hearing, “They’re just good, smart folks.” That was very reassuring, and it turned out to be true.  Viewing myself on the client side assessing Morgan Lewis, I knew that Andrew White was the go-to partner for Unrivaled. I had worked on one of Andrew’s deals for a different client, and I asked colleagues who had worked more extensively with him about their experiences. I confirmed that he’s a great lawyer who is devoted to his clients and demanding of high-quality work from his team. 

Once it became clear that I was going to get the offer for the role, I did a pulse check with my wife, my brother who works in M&A, and five or six friends from grad school and past jobs whose opinions I respect. That group included two people from my JD/MBA program who had already worked in leadership roles overseeing the legal function. That was my “gut-check gauntlet,” and I came out still feeling like this was a great fit.

How did your experience at Morgan Lewis prepare you for your future career?

Excellent client service requires devotion to other people’s goals. I learned a great deal from working with partners and associates at Morgan Lewis who had clearly devoted themselves to client service. In the in-house role, that dedication doesn’t change too much—“client service” means the legal function’s devotion to the needs of the business. We need to figure out how to make new ideas happen. I learned plenty of technical skills along the way as well that I use regularly, including in contract drafting and negotiation, but I think the service-focused approach that Morgan Lewis takes is what I’ve definitely carried with me.

Can you tell us a bit about what your day-to-day is like?

When I joined the company, I was part of the umbrella team that provided central services functions to Ripken Baseball, Cooperstown All Star Village, Sports Force, and Baseball Factory. As we grew into what would become Unrivaled Sports, we built up significantly through strategic M&A. We expanded from baseball programming in a few places to having flag football and other sports programming. We also added high-quality sports destinations in New Jersey, Texas, Nevada, California, and Canton, Ohio, adjacent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We’ve also dramatically expanded our footprint in youth baseball along the way, with Unrivaled Baseball Network as a nationwide group of premier baseball tournament operators affiliated with the United States Specialty Sports Association. That transition—going from small but mighty to much bigger and trying to stay just as mighty—has been the most exciting part of the job and the biggest challenge, because the legal team is supporting the existing business while evaluating new growth opportunities and executing on new deals.

My day-to-day usually involves a few different types of work: risk management/compliance, business development (M&A and otherwise), and general advisory work. We need to keep kids safe and our business in compliance with any relevant regulations. That means working with our health and safety team to respond to incidents as they occur and draft company policies that are thoughtful, practical, and implementable. It also means working closely with our insurance broker to make sure we’re covered where we need to be. On the business compliance front, we need to stay organized on business licenses, registrations to do business, franchise taxes, and anything else that might arise across many jurisdictions.

On the non-M&A business development front, I oversee the work of our assistant general counsel, who generally takes point on new contracts that help us grow the business. We work together with our business leads to build agreements that match up with deals they’ve struck. Our best work is done when we’re involved early in the planning process, because we can help them problem-solve live and work through potential sticking points.

My general advisory work runs the gamut, covering any potential “legal” issue.

When handling these different buckets of work, I’m fortunate to work with a great assistant general counsel and, as of April 2025, a great chief legal officer.

What advice do you have for lawyers just starting out in their careers or who are deciding what direction their career paths should take?

For any new lawyers, gaining competence needs to be the primary focus. Coming out of law school, you’re being hired for what you can learn and not what you already know. You need to recognize that feedback is a gift, and you earn more of it by showing that you can learn from it. Associates two or three years more senior can be your best resources, but they are often too busy working to teach the same thing two or three times. They may give up on someone who keeps making the same careless mistakes, but they’ll show more patience for the ones who keep at it, show they can learn, and want to be useful. The tough part about starting from zero, though, is keeping your head up in the face of a lot of feedback early on. If you keep at it, your persistence and your training in the early years will form a strong foundation to build a career on.

For folks deciding on career direction, I think putting yourself out there to ask for advice from a variety of perspectives is really important. For major life decisions, there’s value in taking a “dragonfly eye” approach. In other words, you know that every person you speak with is going to be biased in their own way based on their own experience, but you can still put their perspectives into context and learn from them. So, if in-house jobs are a consideration, go talk to five different in-house lawyers at different-sized companies in different stages of their careers. If you want to do IP law, go talk to five IP lawyers. If you can get time on their schedules, people generally like being asked about themselves, and they’re far more willing to provide guidance when they feel like their opinion is valued.

What inspires you every day?

I’m in the business of building and supporting premier youth sports experiences across the country, and all of my coworkers are expected to work toward that same goal, from the leadership team to the general managers and on-field operators to the restaurant staff to the marketing and accounting teams. That inspires me every day.

What does success mean to you?

In my role at Unrivaled Sports, success means aligning our legal strategies with our business goals in an efficient manner.