Top Cowboys executives say Stuart has become a national leader in sports law and sports business.<\/p>\n
Business Briefing<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n Stuart said her position now \u201cis nearly unrecognizable from the one I took in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs the legal department for all the Jones family businesses, there are companies and projects I support now that didn\u2019t exist when I started,\u201d she said, pointing to the luxury gym Cowboys Fit, the high-end co-working space called Formation, the private social club Cowboys Club and tens of thousands of square feet of commercial real estate. In recent years, she has added matters related to employment law, intellectual property protection and commercial real estate to her portfolio.<\/p>\n Cowboys chief financial officer Tom Walker told The Texas Lawbook that Stuart has the \u201cability to see the positive in almost every situation\u201d and looks for solutions that benefit all parties.<\/p>\n \u201cKaleisha addresses each situation with an eye towards the positive outcome, which often helps provide a sense of calm to the other folks she\u2019s working with,\u201d Walker said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen that in somewhat tense employee-relation matters as well as in time-sensitive contract issues. Her sense of calm actually helped keep the situation far more steady and on task.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite being only 35, Stuart has achieved some extraordinary recent successes, including: <\/p>\n Negotiating sponsorship deals exceeding $25 million in the past two years;Helping bring nearly 50 high-profile public events to AT&T Stadium in Arlington and The Star in Frisco, including Taylor Swift<\/a>, Metallica, Beyonc\u00e9, Ed Sheeran and Zach Bryan concerts, international soccer matches and WrestleMania;Playing a leading role in securing the landmark sponsorship agreement to keep Miller as the Official Beer of the Dallas Cowboys; and Demonstrating her commitment to advancing legal education in the industry by co-creating and co-teaching an advanced-level sports law class at SMU Law School and by helping to develop a curriculum for the American Bar Association\u2019s annual ABA Forum on Sports and Entertainment.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring her time with the Cowboys, Kaleisha has demonstrated a wide variety of legal skills that makes the business go,\u201d said Cowboys General Counsel Jason Cohen. \u201cShe has run point on groundbreaking sponsorship and marketing agreements as well as helping to close transformational real estate deals.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas Cowboys deputy general counsel Kaleisha Stuart at the team’s practice facility in Frisco, Texas.<\/p>\n Patrick Kleineberg\/The Texas Law<\/p>\n Stuart said that her roots are integral to her professional successes. Her grandmother cleaned homes and her grandfather worked in the Kentucky coal mines. Her father served in the Army in Desert Storm and then worked for Union Pacific Railroad as a conductor and later a locomotive engineer. Her mother became an award-winning middle school math and science teacher.<\/p>\n She was born in Germany during her father\u2019s deployment and then settled in San Antonio, where Stuart spent most of her childhood.<\/p>\n \u201cMy upbringing taught me the value of a dollar, that nothing comes without hard work and that it is family that means the most,\u201d she said. \u201cI am proud of my humble beginnings because they have made me resilient. That I get to live this life, to do this job, for this brand is a miracle made possible only by the sacrifice and love of my hardworking family.\u201d<\/p>\n When Stuart joined the Cowboys in 2016, she was the only Black woman lawyer working in-house for any NFL team. During her decade with the NFL franchise, Stuart has fostered a more inclusive and supportive workplace through the creation and launch of The Fellowship, a Black employee resource group that hosts the annual Black History Month luncheon, and the creation of the Cowboys\u2019 annual Juneteenth festival, which supports local Black-owned businesses, features musicians and other artists and is sponsored by Miller Lite.<\/p>\n \u201cKaleisha creates an environment that we can all listen and learn from each other \u2014 fostering an open dialogue and a thoughtful approach,\u201d Cohen told The Lawbook.<\/p>\n The Association of Corporate Counsel\u2019s DFW Chapter awarded Stuart with its prestigious 2024 DFW Corporate Counsel Award for Achievement in Diversity and Inclusion. <\/p>\n \u201cKaleisha\u2019s tenure has been marked by unparalleled achievements, from spearheading groundbreaking sponsorship deals to negotiating multimillion-dollar contracts,\u201d said McCathern Law partner Stephanie Almeter. \u201cBeyond her legal accomplishments, she stands as a beacon of community support, fostering inclusivity through initiatives and mentorship programs. Her impact on the sports law industry and her commitment to empowering others make her an exceptional candidate for this prestigious recognition. Her proactive approach in reshaping the Dallas Cowboys\u2019 music management strategies in response to industry shifts underscores her adaptability and foresight.\u201d<\/p>\n Stuart\u2019s success, according to Jeff Becker at Haynes Boone, can be seen in the way that she \u201cdemonstrates a keen understanding of the balance between legal precision and practical business needs.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cKeeping Mr. Jones happy for almost a decade is strong evidence that Kaleisha\u2019s time with the Cowboys has been a constant series of professional successes,\u201d Becker said.<\/p>\n The Texas Lawbook is an online news publication focused on business law in Texas. For a longer version of this story, visit texaslawbook.net.<\/p>\n As the \u201cheart of the legal team\u201d at Texas Capital Bank, the associate general counsel helps lead the institution\u2019s transformation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe, as a state, failed those families. Those girls never had a chance,\u201d trial lawyer Mikal Watts told The Texas Lawbook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kaleisha Stuart was 14 and working at her first job, making $5.15 an hour at Chuck E. Cheese.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[910,815,102,113,104,103,3843],"class_list":{"0":"post-24042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallas-headlines","13":"tag-dallas-news","14":"tag-the-texas-lawbook"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dallas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/N6LX5N76EZFYNAMYGNPZ3TTVMQ.jpg\")
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