A head-coaching offer on a nine-day clock. An existing contract with a full buyout, a non-solicit on staff and recruits, and an athletic director ready to enforce every line. We turned the wall into a door.
Coach Reyes had spent six seasons as an associate head coach at a mid-major program he helped rebuild. A larger conference school wanted him as its next head coach. The offer had a nine-day fuse before the school moved to its next name.
His current deal had three years left. It carried a buyout payable to the university if he left for another coaching job, a non-solicitation clause barring him from recruiting his current players or hiring his current assistants for twelve months, and a confidentiality provision his athletic director was already citing in writing.
The athletic director had made his position clear. Pay the buyout in full, on his timeline, or the release would sit. He framed the non-solicit as absolute. Two assistants who had followed Reyes for years wanted to come with him. The AD said none of them could move.
The new program needed an answer before its board meeting. Recruiting season was already underway, and the coaching carousel does not wait. Every day the release stalled was a day the offer cooled and a competing candidate warmed up.
Reyes came to us through a former client on a Friday. The board met the following Sunday week. The question was not whether he wanted the job. It was whether the paper would let him take it in time.
Marking up the buyout clause line by line, mitigation and offset language pulled to the surface.
"They kept saying the number was the number. Brandon showed me the contract already said otherwise."
We did not argue that the buyout was unfair. We read what it actually said, priced it correctly, and gave both universities a path that closed in days instead of weeks.
Contract review. We pulled the full agreement and every amendment within a day. The buyout was real, but it was not a flat penalty. Its own language allowed the obligation to be offset by the compensation Reyes would earn at his next job and softened it further the deeper he moved into the contract term. The number the AD was quoting ignored both.
The buyout math. We built the calculation the contract required, applied the offset against the new salary, and prorated for time already served. The defensible figure was a fraction of the demand. We put it on paper with the clause citations beside every line so no one had to take our word for it.
The non-solicit. We read the non-solicitation clause narrowly and correctly. It restrained Reyes from initiating contact with current players and staff. It did not bar an assistant who chose, on his own, to pursue an opening the new program had posted publicly. We documented the distinction and sequenced the hires to stay cleanly inside it.
New-employer coordination. We worked directly with the hiring school's counsel so the buyout could be structured and, per common practice, absorbed into the coaching package. That removed the personal-cash pressure the AD was counting on and let both institutions sign the same week.
The companion memo. We wrote Reyes a plain-language memo explaining the buyout figure, the non-solicit limits, and the risks of each path. He made the call with full information, not fear.
The release. No lawsuit. No injunction. The AD's counsel reviewed our buyout calculation, and the demand came down to the defensible number. A mutual release was signed nine days after the first call, ahead of the board meeting.
"A buyout is a contract, not a ransom. When you read it the way it was written, the number almost always moves."
— Brandon Leopoldus
A new gym, the same staff on the bench, and a contract that closed on time.
Coaches sign contracts written by the institution, and most never revisit them until the day they want to leave. That is the moment the language matters most. Buyouts are routinely quoted as flat, non-negotiable penalties when the clause itself allows offset, mitigation, and proration. Non-solicits are read as blanket bans when they cover far less.
The pressure is real. Coaching moves happen on tight clocks, in a small profession where everyone is watching. A rushed, overpaid exit follows you. A clean, correct one does not.
We represent coaches, coordinators, and front-office staff across college and pro sports. Contract review, buyout analysis, non-compete and non-solicit scoping, exit and transition. Flat fees for most matters, quoted upfront. Most resolve without litigation.
If you are a coach weighing a move against a contract you did not write, read it before you react. The clause may already be on your side. Every engagement starts with a free consultation.