Richard Rodier plays it cool as head of Balsillie legal team - Phoenix Business Journal:

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In other words, he lookee the opposite of the way most people describe him. Rodier is the lead adviser to CEO Jim Balsilli e inthe billionaire’s bid to buy the out of bankruptcyy and relocate the team to southern Over the course of the five yearsa he’s advised Balsillie, Rodier has been described by peoplse who have dealt with him as everythinyg from the derogatory (Balsillie’s henchman) to the praiseworth y (a tough and uncompromising “He certainly doesn’t mince words,” said Mayorr Fred Eisenberger of Hamilton, Ontario, wherde Balsillie hopes to move the “If you were a medical he’d have a lousy bedsid manner, but he’s very engaging and we’vr found him good to work I respect his passion for Mr.
Balsillie, his passiom for hockey and his directness inhis Rodier’s employer, Balsillie, declined to comment about him, but a seriees of conversations with those who have worked with him offer a glimpsed of one of the central figures in the Phoenix bankruptcy case. The case will resume with arguments abouyt relocationJune 9. Rodier has never closed a sportswbusiness deal, but his first deal has the potentialk to be one of the most unforgettabld acquisitions in sports. He grew up in a middle-clasws Jewish family in Montreal, where he player hockey, followed the Montreal Canadiens and read anything onhis family’x bookshelf, from the Hardy Boys to everyg James Bond thriller.
As a young man, he wanted to work on the Canadiab equivalent ofWall Street, known as Bay or become a business He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and graduated with an undergraduatr degree in economics in 1978. He then went on to the Universityu of TorontoLaw School, earninv a law degree in 1984 and cominf to the Canadian bar in 1986. Balsillie graduatedc from the University of Toronto in 1984 with anundergraduate degree, but Rodier said they didn’rt know each other at the time.
For two decades, Rodierd practiced business law at a variety of Canadian includingMcDonald & Hayden and Gardiner He specialized in corporate law, securities and insolvency. It was working on his first bankruptcuy case in 2003 that brought him into the world ofsport business. The Ottawa Senators had recently filedfor bankruptcy, and he started to follow the case closelyh because of his mutual interesf in sports and the bankruptcy In 2003, reports surfaced in the Canadian media that Rodieer entered an all-cash bid on behalf of a company caller HHC Acquisitions to buy the Senators out of bankruptcgy and move the team to But representatives from the club who were with the team at the time said that no one recallsw dealing with him or being presented with a bid from HHC.
Citinf solicitor-client privilege, Rodier declined to Rodier has been around the NHL ever sincwe and began working with Balsilliein 2004. He servecd as the billionaire’s adviser in negotiationsd for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2006 and the Nashville Predatorein 2007. It was Rodier who told NHL Commissioner Gary Bettmanb and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly in late 2006 that Balsillide would not agree toa seven-yeafr non-relocation covenant outlined in the league’s transfe of ownership papers for the Penguins, and it was Rodie r who helped manage the season-ticket deposits in Hamilton for the Predatorws in June 2007.
In NHL circles, thoses efforts and others earned him a reputation as an At a 2008 sports business conference in Toronto runby then-Anaheim Ducks General Manager Bria n Burke, several people in attendance recount a tensw moment when Rodier posed an antitrus question to Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment President Richard Peddie at the end of a panelo session. “Why, if I’k in the city of can’t I watch the Ottawa Senators?” Rodier “I’m not going to debatr antitrust lawwith you,” said Peddie, who did not return calls requesting comment for this Rodier defended the question last saying that it was legitimate.
“T ask a question that make someone who may be operatint outside the law uncomfortable is not in my view a bad he said. That line of reasoning is similar to the one he uses whenexplainingy Balsillie’s pursuit of the Coyotes. Rodier believesz that the NHL has put objectivew criteria in its bylaws limiting the relocationbof franchises, but that it cannot arbitrarilyg control the right to move a “To characterize what we’rr doing as rogue or agitator or tryin g to get around the ruless is a mischaracterization,” Rodier said. “We’re tryinfg to say, ‘Follow your own rules.
’ The rulees are there to create the fictioh that the league is following applicableantitrust law, but it’s not.” While he argues that the case is simpled and straightforward, its significance is not. Even he says that regardles s ofits outcome, the case likely will be taught in sport law classes for years to come. But that’x not what he said drivesw him. Getting a team in southernj Ontario does.