MSG Entertainment hires Samsung America's legal chief

MSG Entertainment hires Samsung America's legal chief

Appoints Jamal Haughton as general counsel and executive vice president

Madison Square Garden (MSG) Entertainment, the operator of its namesake sporting and live events arena in New York, has hired veteran in-house legal executive Jamal Haughton as executive vice president and general counsel.

Haughton was a senior vice-president and general counsel at Samsung Electronics America for five years. Managing its North American legal department, he succeeds Scott Packman, who held the role for over a year.

In his new role, Haughton will serve as head of the media giant's legal department and oversee corporate, commercial, transactional, litigation and regulatory legal functions. Reporting directly to Jim Dolan, executive chairman and CEO of MSG, Haughton will also manage the company's development, negotiation and execution of all material business transactions.

Congratulating him, Dolan said, "We are pleased to welcome Haughton, who was also an important member of our legal team at Cablevision." His "significant experience in high-profile corporate and business legal matters" will help move the company forward as it pursues its future growth strategy, including the ongoing construction of a $1.8bn live entertainment venue, MSG Sphere, in Las Vegas," he added.

Haughton began his legal career in private practice at Wall Street's Cravath Swaine & Moore. He said, "I am thrilled to join MSG at such an important time for the company. I look forward to working with the management team to help ensure we continue to deliver excellence across our operations and drive the company's key growth initiatives."

Before landing at Samsung, he spent a decade in a variety of in-house roles, including as senior vice president and associate general counsel of telecommunications company Cablevision, which was acquired by European telecom conglomerate Altice in 2016. The same year Haughton moved to Samsung.

MSG's properties were previously under Cablevision's ownership after the latter acquired a 50 per cent ownership stake from Viacom when it purchased Paramount Communications, MSG's former parent company, in 1994.

Besides MSG Sphere and the original Madison Square Garden arena, MSG also owns New York's Hulu Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Chicago Theatre in Windy City.

The company operates two regional sports and entertainment networks, MSG Network and MSG+ and holds the television rights for a number of Tri-State Area professional sports teams including the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks.