Andrew Morton: How a Non-profit Lawyer Works for Athletes and Celebrities

Welcome to the Legacy All Stars podcast where we talk to successful individuals in their respective fields who do things to help others and make an impact for the greater good. Here is your host, Alan Pavloski.

Welcome to the Legacy All Stars podcast. For those of you who are new to the show, you can find all episodes@legacyallstarspodcast.com Today's guest is Andrew Morton. Andrew is one of the preeminent nonprofit lawyers in the United States with a focus on representing foundations established by athletes and celebrities. He has represented hundreds of athletes and entertainers and has been involved in numerous inspirational causes that have made a huge impact on the greater good. I've personally known Andrew for around 15 years. We have worked together on many projects, and he has consistently demonstrated that his skill set is unparalleled in his area of expertise. He has also kept me from making a mistake or 10 in my own philanthropic activities. Finally, he's a great wingman at Super Bowl. Each year, without further delay, I'd like to introduce my good friend, Andrew Morton. Andrew, what's up, my brother?

Nothing, just recovering from our. Our wingman at Super Bowl. We're getting there.

Yeah, it's great. It was great to see you, as always. Even though we live close to each other, we always seem to see each other more at super bowl than any other time. So it's always fun. So let's jump right into it. I want to start asking you some questions about your outstanding work. What motivated you to specialize in philanthropy law for sports and entertainment professionals?

To be honest with you, the reality is that philanthropy law found me. I didn't find philanthropy law. I had joined a major law firm, 2,500 lawyer, 30 office type of law firm, and was going to be specializing in government relations work. I have a background on Capitol Hill. I grew up in the D.C. area. So during the course of doing government relations work, I ran across, through a pro bono client, a celebrity, an actress who impressed the heck out of me in terms of how articulate she was, how passionate she was. She was working in the field of refugee law, trafficking in slavery prevention, that sort of thing. And, you know, one of my favorite expressions is, you know, if all of you got to hammer, all your problems start to look like a nail. And, you know, my hammer was government relations. So brought her to Capitol Hill. Of course, Capitol Hill loves celebrities as much as celebrities love Capitol Hill and generated a lot of attention, you know, paparazzi. Was in the hearing room when she testified before the House Judiciary Committee and just had tremendous impact by working through the government. From there, she sort of went back to Hollywood. All of her friends and colleagues asked her how the heck she got on that track, and she said, I don't know, call this IDIOT attorney in D.C. see what we can do. And next thing I know, my phone's ringing off the hook. From sort of celebrities who wanted to have philanthropic impact. And, you know, my practice went from sort of government relations representation of folks wanting to influence Congress and the White House to sort of representing them in all their nonprofit ventures. You know, as I always say, I could live my life a thousand times over. It's not working out like this again. It just. Everything sort of fell into place just the way it needed to.

I mean, that the world has benefited because you've made a lot of impact with your work through being involved with people that have a platform. And I always talk about that myself, is that I've had a lot of background in that and worked with athletes and celebrities and the unique opportunity that we have to make a big difference in the world. Can you share some insights into the unique challenges high profile individuals face when establishing charitable organizations?

Yeah, I mean, it's sort of the proverbial double edged sword, right? I mean, these celebrities have a place in our society as being folks who draw a lot of attention, you know, especially in the age of social media, you know, when you have folks who can get millions of eyeballs onto to their message instantaneously. Awful long way from 15, 20 years ago where you had to set up an interview on a local news show. So these celebrities certainly have tremendous potential to message, whether it's about what car they're driving, what clothes they're wearing, who they're dating, who they're no longer dating. And the practice that we're in, in terms of representing these folks in the philanthropy world is just take advantage of the fact that in our society they have an outsized influence. And instead of just using that platform, you know, for, for selling cars and buying clothes, let's use it for promoting charitable causes. And it's, it's tremendously valuable, it's tremendously impactful, but at the same time, you know, it goes the other way as well. You know, there have been a number of stories lately about high profile individuals who are not doing it right, and they're sort of good people doing great things for all the right reasons. But if you do it the wrong way, you know, the wrong way becomes the story. And that's, that's a sh. I mean, it's tragic that you have these well intended individuals who are using their platform to benefit, whatever the causes, sort of most important to them. And then all of a sudden the news story comes out. It's about how they, you know, they didn't file an annual report, they failed to register with the attorney general, they didn't file a federal tax return. So that's, that's the risk is, you know, when you use your platform in any context, and certainly this one, being high profile means that all your successes are high profile and all of your mistakes are high profile. You know, so, you know, what we try to do is just make sure that while they're doing this good work, they do it the right way and make sure that that remains the story is the impact of their work, not their failure to handle legal compliance.

Yeah, I mean, we've talked about that a lot, you and I, but if you had to do a ballpark guess of how many disasters you've prevented by keeping people on the right track, Give me a ballpark guess.

It's interesting. Like, yeah, I. Probably a third of my clients come to our practice group because they have nothing and they want to start a charitable organization. They want to begin to dabble in the philanthropy space and sort of try to move the needle on whatever cause they care about. But, you know, half two thirds of our clients are coming to us because they got flagged. You know, they got a notice in the mail that they didn't file a charitable registration. They get a Notice that their 501C3 status has been revoked because they fail to file a tax return. So, you know, we get as many clients who come to us to fix it as we do, who come to us to create it. You know, and again, that's. It's tragic. I mean, these are. I still have yet to meet anyone who I believed in my heart of hearts was trying to manipulate nonprofit law, was trying to take advantage of it, was trying to, you know, figure out a way to have. Have nonprofit funds pay for, you know, a weekend at the Four Seasons with their buddies that just doesn't exist. And, you know, these are, in my experience, 100% of the time. They're folks who understand that they, they were given gifts, they, they have blessings that some of us didn't have. You know, Kareem Abdul Jabbar certainly spent an awful lot of time practicing his skyhook, but you can't practice to be 7 foot 2. You know, there's nothing that I could have done at 511, a buck 60 soaking wet to be an NBA center, you know, so, you know, so that's what drives these people is they recognize that they had opportunities that most folks don't have and they're trying to use it for good. And again, our mission is to make sure they do it the right way. And we just don't leave the opportunity for the story to be the failure to comply for reasons that, I mean, what NBA player, what, what actor, singer would sort of wake up one day and say, I wonder if I have to register with the attorney general. It's just not going to happen. You know, so how many do we prevent? You know, I hate to even put a number on it because it'd be awfully high. You know, when we get these folks who have nonprofits and come to us to do what we call like a compliance review or compliance audit, you know, I, I often say that, you know, on a 10 scale of like zero being perfect compliance and 10 being, you know, federal criminal tax fraud, they're usually five or six. And again, they all want to be zero. Most of them think they're zero, that they're in full compliance. They just don't know any better, you know, so our, again, our, our responsibility is to sort of be the wizard behind the curtain for legal compliance and, and just let them do the work that they can do, which is the impactful philanthropy, you know, the programs, the grant making, the fundraising and not have them whether or not they're going to get into legal trouble.

Yeah, absolutely. What kind of critical legal considerations for celebrities aiming to engage in legislative advocacy and public policy? What are those legal considerations?

That's sort of a whole, whole other issue. You get into legislative advocacy. But what's important to remember is that the single largest grant toward a nonprofits on the planet is the United States government. There are billions and billions of dollars spread across the dozens of agencies that are earmarked to for charitable activities. And you know, one thing that, that isn't really intuitive but you know, in a sense the whole non profit sector was created to outsource the government's job. You know, but for the nonprofit sector, a lot of these programs, a lot of these activities would have to be done by the federal government or the state governments. So, so the whole sector in, in and of itself is designed to be like a mini government or a government offshoot. And you know, when you think about that, that you kind of circle that back around and say, well, if we' you give us the money to do it and there's plenty of opportunity for grants at all. Levels of government from federal, state, municipal. They've all got money, they've all got things they need to do, and they'd all rather have us do it than do it themselves. So the key is just to figure out where to find those buckets of money. And again, that's a whole hour and a half long law school lecture that I give once a year. And you don't want to hear it. Now, there's always a way to find grant funds. Have. There is no nonprofit charitable purpose that doesn't have a government agency at some level or multiple levels that's dedicated to solving that problem. And if you can identify the agency and convince them you can solve the problem, then they're going to want to support it because they'd rather do that. They'd rather write a check than have to spend their effort doing it themselves.

Yeah, we talked about crisis management a little bit. How do you approach crisis management for nonprofit organizations facing operational or reputational challenges?

That's a good question. I mean, the, the most, the simplest answer is we just fix it. You know, we just get it right. I mean, I'll give you the most important recent example or, you know, the last couple of years has been, you know, the Walter Payton man of the year winner, the. That the NFL awards. And unfortunately, through no fault of the players, I mean, these are all mdn. I'll keep saying it because it's amazing important to, to emphasize, you know, these players are all doing the right thing for the right reasons. And unfortunately there are, you know, these organizations, whether it's the league, the, the players associations, the alumni associations, they're not experts in this either. So there's really nobody guiding these folks. And when they get into trouble, the best crisis management is fix the problem. And, you know, if they're out of compliance, get them into compliance. End of crisis. You know, so it's a little different than your typical sort of, you know, crisis management from like a PR perspective or a messaging perspective, at least with respect to my practice, is just fix it, period. Full stop. You're done.

Yeah. You know, one might think that this is a glamorous job and a lot of people try to get into sports or entertainment because they think it's going to be glamorous. What advice would you give to young attorneys aspiring to work with the intersection of law, philanthropy, sports and entertainment? I mean, is there something you can say that would either give them good advice on how to do it or talk them out of doing it?

You know, I get asked that a lot and you know, the truth is, as I said before, I don't really do this on purpose. Like, I didn't sit in a classroom at Penn Law and say I want to represent athletes, celebrity foundations one day. You know, I think that the nonprofit sector can be incredibly attractive to lawyers, law students for the sort of silly reason that a lot of law schools will provide loan relief for folks who go into public, whether it's with a government or with a nonprofit. So getting in a nonprofit law is great. Breaking into sports and entertainment, that. That's tough. You've got to find a hook. Like I said, I can take zero credit for getting into this space. The space found me. I just happened to have crossed paths with, you know, with a high profile actress accidentally, you know, through a pro bono project and, and it took off from there, you know, so I would say, you know, it's easier to get into the nonprofit space and find a way to get into sports and entertainment than the reverse. You've got to have the substantive exper. You know, again, I'm not an expert in sports and entertainment. Nonprofit law. Nonprofit law is what it is. And those just happen to be the clients that I've been fortunate enough to work with. But, you know, if you have a passion for, for helping folks and you don't have a passion for, you know, shopping for yachts and mansions, nonprofit law is a great space and who knows where it can lead?

Yeah. All right, I'm going to go off topic a little bit shocked by that.

Favorite super bowl moment over the last 20 years.

Wow. All right, so I am a lifelong Redskins fan who then became a Ravens fan when an owner that wasn't very popular took over the team. But I guess since this is a show about, about philanthropy and about my practice, I'm going to have to go with one of my very first clients, Antonio Holmes, and his, you know, his, his unbelievable toe tap catch from Roethlisberger in the back of the end zone. Not that I'm remotely a Steeler fan, but, you know, much like it's sort of like with fantasy football, like you care more with player than the team. I sort of have my own version. It's client football. Right. I just, I root for my clients irrespective of what team they're on. And it's kind of nice to be able to, to say that, that one of my clients made one of the best plays in, in super bowl history. So I guess I'll go with that. Not from a fan perspective, but if, if I'm being loyal to clients as I like to be.

Yeah. I mean, there's a great event that you and I attend every year at Super Bowl Thursday night. The big cigar party put on by Gridiron Grates and Ron Jaworski and the causes associated with that.

And coach the Bears.

That's right. Coach Ditka. Absolutely. What is it that makes those kinds of events so special to you? I know I have my own opinions on what makes them so great each year and being able to get together with friends that you've been around in the industry. What makes it great to you? Well, it's.

What I like about those sorts of events is that they sort of take on a life of their own. Right. I mean, the, the whole, the opportunity to have impact in philanthropy is, like I said, leveraging these high profile individuals and their, their, you know, the, the social media followers they have, the interviews, they're able to do, the, the press conferences. So, you know, when you have, when you establish an event and you have a few of those guys there, that attracts more people than the more people, the more athletes want to come because there's more fans there. And it gets to the point where, you know, the, the attendees who are, who are sort of the athletes, celebrity types, start to outnumber the folks who are actually buying tickets. You know, which in a way is an ideal. But, but from just an impact standpoint, it's fantastic. You know, we get, you know, for that cigar party in particular, I think we usually have a list of, you know, 100 plus, you know, football players or other athletes who want to come by and support the organization. And, you know, and then the next year when we put out the list of, you know, expected to attend or confirmed to attend, that attracts more people. We can drive up the ticket price because people get to have their picture taken and get their autographs. You know, there are people running around with the signature footballs and a Sharpie.

Yeah.

So that's, that's sort of exactly what this space is supposed to do. It's, you know, attract the athletes to support the cause and attract the fans who want to support the athletes. And, and like I said, the thing just sort of spirals from there in a good way. And, and, and then all of a sudden you have this annual event that people are begging for tickets for or begging for VIP passes instead of, you know, at the outset we're begging them to attend. You know, now it sort of goes, it goes the other way around where we, we have the athletes saying, can I pretty please get on the list and attend this event, which is a long way from from where it started saying, will you pretty please come and, and sort of help us, help us, you know, pedal tickets to raise funds for this, for the cause.

Yeah, we, we talked about that. Now it's a couple weeks ago now at super bowl. It's hilarious to see all the different celebrities and athletes that call you without naming names that you don't even know that want to get, that want to get into the event. Yeah.

I mean, again, it's, you know, once you get to that point, like the, you know, the proverbial tipping point where, where we don't have to ask them now they, now they ask us. It's. But I mean, it's fun. You know, you get to see these guys outside of, of outside the context. Right. I mean, it's one thing to sort of get a sideline pass and, and get 10 seconds with a guy as he's warming up or, or a post game, you know, when they, they just, either, you know, won and just want to go home or lost and really want to go home and try to have a conversation. You know, instead you're hanging around having a, having a bourbon, smoking a cigar, just chit chatting with them about anything but football. You know, that's what makes it special is, you know, you get to sort of cross paths with these guys you, you know, that you idolize and you watch on the field and now all of a sudden, a sudden, you know, you're lighting their cigar for them. It's, it's kind of cool. You know, that's, that's, that's what fans enjoy. And again, it's, that's the formula. You know, you get the high profile people, you get the fans who want to support them, you see what they're supporting, and then all of a sudden we're raising hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars for, for a cause that, that folks care about.

Yeah. You know what, Andrew? I mean, we've talked about this a lot because again, we're friends as well as, you know, we had these relationships over the years. But one of the things that I really am struck by is the people that choose to do things for the right reasons. And we've talked about that when it comes to philanthropy, work from athletes. But what is it about you and your upbringing and your influences that caused you to want to do things that weren't necessarily always about the money, but more about doing what's right?

I mean, again, I wish I could take credit for where my career ended. Up. I'm not going to say that I was this altruistic law student who aspired to be a nonprofit law. I had absolutely. No, no, I didn't take nonprofit law in law school. I never crossed my mind until I got to the law firm and the law firm was the one. I mean, I may as well pitch them. I give my credit, my career to Latham and Watkins. They have a strong pro bono mentality. They encourage borderline require associates to do a minimum amount of pro bono work. Most associates do significantly more because the firm supports it. You know, so it was through, you know, through being a lawyer that I got to nonprofit law. And you know, if I'm being honest, it's, it's great practice. I mean, I'm a sports fan. I've been a sports fan my whole life and you know, there are now folks that I count as friends that, that you could not have convinced my 14 year old self that I would ever say, you know, this athlete is somebody that I text also because back When I was 14 there were no cell phones. But you get the point. It's, you know, it's just, just, you know, like I said, it's not that I'm just, you know, so altruistic that I just want to help. I mean I make a good living. I don't, I don't care about making a better living. You know, I enjoy my practice. I like to say the only one who enjoys my practice more than me is my, my kid who's now 21 year old senior at the University of Miami and has a man cave that he could probably blow away. You know, even, even high profile athletes. It's pretty funny. You know, all my athletes know he's a sports fan. They just send signed football signed jerseys and I mean, and that's the fun part of the job. You know, there are ways to, to have a profession that, that is rewarding other than just in your bank account and you know, maybe for the right reason, maybe for the wrong reason, but I just, I love being around these athletes. They're, they're great guys. You know, I like to say I cheated in a way. Nobody else in the country represents 250 some odd athletes and celebrities with absolutely no divas, no prima donnas, because those guys don't tend to want to start nonprofits. You know, that's, you know, if you're a kind of guy that takes his, goes out with his neighbor friends and you know, for the weekend and party's till three in the morning, you're probably not waking up the next day and calling me about a foundation. You know, the guys who come to me are, they're the ones who are the big hearted guys. You know, they're the ones who, who really want to have an impact other than just on the field or on the court or on the ice.

Look, I don't want to call BS on you, but I know you well enough to know that you do things for the right reasons. So I'm going to let my audience know, know that Andrew Morton does things for the right reasons. And it's not just about, you know, hanging out with people and doing the right thing and making a living.

Right.

I'm gonna call BS on that because I know you well enough to know. Yeah, I got you.

Yeah. I mean, again, the right. You know, I'm just doing my job. Like my job is to be a nonprofit compliance governance oversight attorney. And through doing that, yeah, I get to do great things with, with people. I get to sort of take my, my small piece of the credit for all this incredible work they're doing. It. Yeah, it just, it feels great. It's. I wouldn't trade this job for anything and my kid wouldn't let me anyway.

Yep. You know, I wasn't going to ask you this question, but I'm going to. Are there any. Without having to name names because sometimes there's, there's obviously privacy issues and confidentiality issues. Are there any new and noteworthy projects that you're working on that just really touch your heartstrings?

I mean, it's, that's the funny thing about being a lawyer is. Right. Lawyers are primarily. We're process guys. I mean, my job to do oversight governance compliance isn't dependent on whether a client is doing after school programs or childhood cancer research or, you know, or any other charitable cause. It's, you know, we're just process guys. You know, personally though, you know, I have my own substantive interest and as I sort of referenced before, it's this trafficking and slavery and refugee rights and, you know, that's what I enjoy the most is when, you know, again, this is the way that I cheat is, you know, folks don't really care about, you know, what an attorney in San Francisco necessarily thinks. But you know, when I get to piggyback, you know, a high profile individual who's dedicated to the same sort of causes that I personally enjoy, you know, that's what's most rewarding for I suppose, obvious reasons. It's, you know, I'm limited in the impact that I personally can have, but you know, you throw, throw somebody in the mix who was, you know, on the Pro bowl team or who won an Oscar and all of a sudden, you know, I get to, I get to have more of an impact than, than I would on my own and, and just leverage what they're doing. That's the whole nature of the practice.

Yeah, well, you're the best at what you do.

I know it.

When you started. I love how things change in 30 minutes. It's nice.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, I'm going to say you're the best because I've had that experience with you. You. I do want to know how like my audience includes some of the athletes and celebrities that might need your services. I'd love to know how I can communicate to them how they can reach you and how they can find out more about what you can do for them to help them with their causes.

If you're talking on a, on a purely practical level, you know, my law firm is Handler Law. You know, Handler Law is our website and you know, my bio is there, my contact information is there. A quick overview of my practice is there.

You know, but again it's not, it's not that that, you know, what we do is so special. We're just nonprofit attorneys. You know, obviously we have the added dimension of the, the high profile individuals and like I was saying, that double edged sword, I mean if I, if there's anything keeps me up at night, it's knowing that to some extent, you know, these guys, reputations can be in, in our hands in terms of compliance. You know, if any of my guys wound up being in one of those stories about, about non compliance, I got to look for another job and I like my job. So it's, you know, it's a simple question of deciding how do you want to be involved. You know, worth mentioning that there, it's, there's this misconception that if you want to have philanthropic impact, you form your own 501c3 tax exempt organization. And that is absolutely the furthest thing from the truth. You know, I'm not going to bother rallying off the alternatives except to say there are a number of alternatives to having your own C3. You know, so what, what I would say is that, you know, everyone with a public profile ought to use that profile to, to have charitable impact. That doesn't mean with your own C3 and, and it doesn't mean that you have to, you know, save the world. You know, everybody has the opportunity to have impact on whatever level. You know their, their platform reaches. So, you know, I would encourage anybody with that profile to engage in this work, but I would encourage anyone with that profile to talk with somebody like us who knows nonprofit law, understands the alternatives, and can communicate what's involved with each one. What you have to do to run your own C3 is very different than what you have to do to open a donor advised fund, for example. So it all becomes about aligning those two interests. What kind of impact do you want to have? How much responsibility are you willing to take, how much control do you want to take?

And then sort of throw those all into the mix and figure out what is the right way to move forward.

I have one more question I want to ask you before we wrap up, and that is, do you have a specific process when you consult with somebody that has not yet decided on what cause they want to support or where the impact is that they want to make? Do you have a specific process that would allow you to extract the information that you need in order to make sure you're guiding them properly on how to make that broadest impact?

Well, there's sort of, there's, there's two primary questions, right? Is one, what is the cause that's going to motivate you to be dedicated to it? Like what, what is it that would have you interested, you know, to dedicate some of your time, your, your resources, obviously your money. And once you identify that cause, then it gets to that second question about, okay, now we know this is the cause that we want to support, what's the best avenue to get to that? Like, Is it a 501C3? Is it some other opportunity to open an alternative? Is it just linking up with an existing non profit and being their spokesperson and driving eyeballs to their website that way?

That first question, that's the fun one when you get to sort of pick their brain and test them in a way about what is the cause that you want to support. I mean, the best example that, that I, I always use is, you know, years and years ago I was contacted by, by an NFL player who, you know, said, you know, I understand you're the guy who does athlete philanthropy. I said, yeah. And so, well, I want to start a foundation. I said, great, what cause do you want to support? And he said, well, I want to be, I want to fight obesity among kids. I was like, fantastic. Cause like a lot of people want to support that. And then I asked the one word question is, well, why? And he said, what do you mean why? And I said, well, why is that the cause that you want to support? And he said, well, you know, Michelle Obama is this let's Move campaign. And it just seems like a popular cause. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, that's not going to get you out of bed if you're just following what Ms. Obama does. What do you do right now? And he said, well, in the off season, I'm getting an mba. And I said, why? He said, well, because I want to support minority businesses. And I said, well, well, how do you think that minority businesses do they have access to resources now? And he went off, he's like, absolutely not. We get screwed. We don't know what to do and nobody wants to give us money. And I said, stop, dude, you just found your cause. The cause is going to be the one that motivates you to do the work, is supporting minority businesses or providing resources for minority businesses to access funds, to access support. You know, so again, it's, it's, you can't fake it, you know, you've got to find the cause that matters. Did your mother survive breast cancer? Did your best friend in high school get, get killed by a drunk driver? Like, what is it in your heart that's really going to have you want to dedicate this time? Because it's not easy. You know, it's, it's hard to ask people to donate. It's hard to ask people to come to your events. But if you have that passion, you, you better believe that they're gonna feel it and they're gonna, they're not only gonna agree, they're gonna be excited to support you. So it's really, it comes down to that one word.

Why?

You know, what cause you want to support. Why? And you can see it in their eyes whether it's the right cause. And once that, that sort of flash goes off in their eyes, you know, okay, here we go. You know, now we know what you're gonna do. Let's figure out how you're gonna do it. Everything sort of falls into place from there.

Yeah, well, I couldn't end it on a better note. I wanna to thank my friend Andrew Morton for being here today. What a, what a real privilege it is to chat with you outside of our normal friendship conversation and let everybody know the kind of impact you have with your work. So thank you for being here.

Yeah, you bet.

You know, again, Legacy Allstars podcast.com is where you can find information about the show. If you want to learn more about how I help people build a legacy through passive income. You can find that on that website. Follow the instructions to book a call with me. Thank you again. Andrew Morton, you're a gem. I appreciate you, my friend.

You got it. Thanks.

Alright, it.