A head coach moving between programs, a seven-figure employment agreement with a multi-year buyout, and an outside business he had built and wanted to keep running. We negotiated the contract and walled off the business.
The coach had accepted a head coaching offer at a larger program. The terms of the employment agreement, as drafted, would have required him to devote his full professional attention to the program, including business activities, with explicit university approval required for any outside engagement over a modest hourly threshold.
He ran a small training-and-content business that predated the coaching position by several years, with staff, contracts, and recurring revenue.
The draft buyout provision would have converted his outside business into a de facto asset of the university if he left before his term ended. The draft IP clause would have captured any content he produced, including content for his own business.
We negotiated a carve-out for his existing outside business with a schedule of pre-existing activities the university acknowledged and approved. We narrowed the IP clause to content produced within the scope of coaching duties, expressly excluding pre-existing and independent work. We restructured the buyout so a departure-before-term-end payment was calculated on a clear formula tied to remaining years, not on a percentage of the coach's outside business revenue. We built a conflict-of-interest policy for the outside business that the university acknowledged in writing.
We formed a holding entity for the outside business separate from his personal name, and coordinated with his tax advisor on the income characterization and retirement-plan structure. The agreement signed with the outside business intact and walled off.
"They were hiring a coach. I was bringing a business. Brandon made both fit."
— Head Coach
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