Robert DuPuy is a partner with Foley & Lardner’s Sports Industry Team. Mr. DuPuy brings more than three decades of broad legal experience to his clients, including his tenure as chief legal counsel and, most recently, president and chief operating officer of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Mr. DuPuy focuses his practice on the representation of buyers and sellers in sports franchise sales transactions and restructurings, including related financing and navigation of league requirements in connection with these transactions; stadium construction and rehabilitation and financing; media and new media contracts and licensing, syndication and participation agreements, as well as other related business and legal issues.
While at MLB, Mr. DuPuy was responsible for all phases of business issues facing the organization, from labor relations to broadcasting rights within traditional and emerging media, and international expansion issues to stadium finance deals, marketing and legal affairs.
Mr. DuPuy has been involved in most of MLB’s legal issues since 1989, when he was brought in as outside legal counsel. He negotiated the settlement of the collusion grievance in 1990, and served as the principal outside counsel to the commissioner and the executive council from 1992 until 1998, when Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig hired him as the MLB executive vice president of administration and chief legal officer.
In that capacity, Mr. DuPuy oversaw the consolidation of the American and National Leagues into the Central Offices, the consolidation of MLB's office in Washington, D.C., and the formation MLBAM (Major League Baseball Advanced Media) as its initial chief executive officer.
Mr. DuPuy received a J.D. from Cornell in 1973, where he was editor-in-chief of the Cornell Law Review. Mr. DuPuy earned an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1968. He served in the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1970, including a year in Vietnam in the 504th Military Police Battalion, where he received the Army Commendation Medal for his service.
In 1973, after graduating from law school, Mr. DuPuy joined Foley. He was elected partner in 1980, before he became involved with Major League Baseball. Mr. DuPuy previously served as a member of the firm's Management Committee, and was chairman of the Professional Standards Committee.
Mr. DuPuy has taught legal ethics and professional responsibility at Cornell University, Northwestern Law School, the University of Wisconsin Law School, and Marquette University Law School, and has served as a long-time faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. For his preeminent legal ability and very high professional ethics, Mr. DuPuy has been Peer Review Rated as AV® Preeminent™, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell's peer review rating system.
He is a long-time member and past-chairman of the State Bar of Wisconsin's Professional Ethics Committee. Mr. DuPuy is admitted to practice in New York and Wisconsin.