The 2017 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors announced today that David Kelly, Warriors General Counsel and Vice President, Basketball Management and Strategy, has been named Corporate Counsel of the Year in the Private Company category by the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal. Kelly, recognized for his leadership in the Bay Area community as the Warriors General Counsel, will be honored at the Four Seasons in East Palo Alto tonight, Thursday, March 1.
Kelly, currently in his seventh season with the Warriors, serves as the team’s chief legal officer, manages matters related to the salary cap and luxury tax planning, and oversees many of the company’s key projects and initiatives on both the business and basketball side of the organization. Outside of his work with the Warriors, Kelly serves on the board of directors for the California Bar Foundation and the Justice and Diversity Center, is a UNCF Leadership Council Member, and is involved in numerous bar associations across the country.
As the Warriors continue to work towards the opening of Chase Center, their state-of-the-art sports and entertainment complex being built in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, Kelly is on the forefront of all legal matters pertaining to the team’s new arena. For Kelly, the large undertaking of this major real estate development includes entitlement efforts, the purchase of land, construction issues and contracts, and litigation. On the basketball side, Kelly’s responsibilities include managing the team’s salary cap, interpreting the league’s collective bargaining agreement, and assisting with player scouting.
With Kelly’s help, the Warriors won a league-high tying five awards at the 2018 NBA Sales and Marketing Meetings and were nominated for Sports Team of the Year by the SportsBusiness Journal in 2017, an award they previously won in 2014 and 2016. Kelly also represented the Warriors in Monaco on February 27, 2018 at the 2018 Laureus World Sports Awards when the team was honored as a finalist for the Team of the Year award.