Christine Lazatin is a partner in the Corporate Department and a member of Proskauer’s Sports Group.
Christine's primary practice focuses on sophisticated financing transactions, including acquisition financings, working capital facilities, league-wide and league-level credit facilities, stadium financings and other strategic capital solutions. Over the course of her career, she has advised on multi-billion-dollar transactions that have helped shape the financial landscape of professional sports, including league-wide financing programs for both the NBA and the NHL. In addition, she regularly represents financial institutions and private capital firms in matters involving teams, owners and their affiliates, giving her a unique perspective from both sides of the market—as counsel to borrowers and as counsel to lenders. She has also played a significant role in developing the debt policies of several professional sports leagues.
Christine's work extends beyond sports finance to the formation, growth and long-term development of sports businesses. She has advised on transformative expansion and ownership transactions, including the NHL's expansions to Las Vegas and Seattle and Major League Soccer's expansions to Miami and San Diego. She also helped launch several emerging leagues, including MLS NEXT Pro, the Professional Women's Hockey League, League One Volleyball and Major League Table Tennis, and she currently advises the NFL on its partnership with TMRW Sports to develop and launch new men’s and women’s professional flag football leagues. As these organizations evolve, Christine continues to advise them on governance, expansion, commercial initiatives and other issues critical to their long-term success. Most recently, she advised MLS on its strategic joint venture with KKR to form Hometown Soccer Holdings, a new platform established to support MLS NEXT Pro's continued growth and commercial development.
Christine has been recognized as an elite lawyer by various sports and legal publications. She was named by Sports Business Journal as a 2022 “Game Changer: Women in Sports Business,” has been recognized by SBJ as a “Power Player: Outside Counsel” in sports law, and is listed among the sports and entertainment industry’s top lawyers by Lawdragon 500. In 2026, she was one of only eight women ranked by Chambers USA in the Sports Law category, and was named a “Next Generation Partner” by The Legal 500 United States.
Within Proskauer, Christine is Co-Chair of the Firm’s NY Hiring Committee, a member of its Evaluation Committee and a partner liaison to the Proskauer Women’s Alliance.
Education
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Boston University School of Law, J.D.
cum laude
Editor-in-Chief, Boston University Annual Review of Banking and Financial Law
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Yale University, B.A.
Admissions & Qualifications
- New York
Awards & Recognition
Chambers USA: Nationwide: Sports Law, 2026
Sports Business Journal Game Changers: Women in Sports Business 2022
Sports Business Journal Power Players: Outside Counsel 2021
Chambers USA: Nationwide: Sports Law 2019-2025 (Associate to Watch, 2019-2020; Up & Coming 2021)
The Legal 500 United States: Industry Focus: Sports 2024, (Next Generation Partners), 2026
Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers 2025
Matters
Some examples of Christine’s work include:
- Representing the NBA with respect to its $5.5 billion league-wide team facilities
- Representing Soccer United Marketing, an affiliate of MLS, in its $25 million financing with a syndicate of Black-owned banks organized by the National Black Bank Foundation, the first major commercial deal in which a U.S. sports league transacted exclusively with Black-owned banks
- Representing two major sports leagues in upsizing and extending their league level financings ($900 million and $575 million, respectively)
- Representing JPMorgan as agent in credit facilities for the Chicago Cubs, the New York Mets, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Rays
- Representing the Philadelphia Eagles in financing the team’s renovation of Lincoln Financial Field
- Representing a global financial institution in upsizing and extending a $230 million line of credit for the largest minority owner of an MLB club
- Representing an MLB club in an aggregate $350 million term loan and revolving facility from a subsidiary of a global asset manager
- Representing various NFL owners in financings with JPMorgan and Wells Fargo