A key architect of the Florida Panthers’ first Stanley Cup victory is former litigator William “Bill” Zito Jr., who joined the NHL franchise four years ago as its general manager, his first role running a team in the league.
Only days after a video of Zito angrily tossing a water bottle during Game 5 went viral, the lawyer and player agent was shedding tears before a crowd of 20,000 fans at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida. The Panthers triumphed on Monday night with a 2-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Zito’s journey from law school to professional hockey began from the ice up. Raised in a Milwaukee suburb, he played hockey at Yale and coached collegiate hockey while earning his law degree at the University of Wisconsin. In the early 1990s, he worked at a litigation boutique run by the late Michael Rovell, a former partner at Jenner & Block. In past interviews, Zito has likened the boutique to a Wall Street law firm.
Monte Mann, an Armstrong Teasdale litigation partner in Chicago, recalls crossing paths with Zito when Mann was a law student at Northwestern. “I think it was Bill’s first job out of law school,” said Mann. “He was a great guy—very funny, affable, charismatic, and passionate. I could see him being great in a team or locker room environment.”
Zito has credited his legal training with teaching him critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In 1995, he co-founded the hockey player agency Acme World Sports LLC, which he built into a top contract representation shop before joining the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets as an assistant general manager. Acme was sold to sports mogul Casey Wasserman’s firm in 2020.
The Panthers, Zito, and the club’s general counsel C. Edward Wildermuth didn’t respond to requests for comment. Nor did Panthers vice chairman Douglas Cifu—a former partner and member of the management committee at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison—who invested in the team along with majority owner Vincent Viola, a New York Law School graduate and billionaire founder of trading firm Virtu Financial Inc.
Hockey Glory
It was Jenner & Block, Rovell’s former firm, that inadvertently facilitated pairing Zito with the head coach who would complete the Panthers’ transition from an NHL embarrassment to league champion.
An investigation led by Jenner & Block partner and former federal prosecutor Reid Schar into sexual assault allegations involving a former assistant coach for the Chicago Blackhawks led to the late 2021 resignations of several individuals, including Joel Quenneville, who was then the Panthers’ head coach.
Forced to find a new head coach, the Panthers hired Paul Maurice in June 2022. Maurice joined Zito among the players, coaches, staffers, and executives celebrating this week.
Zito is one of a few Big Law-types working in NHL hockey operations. Former Latham & Watkins associates Andrew Lugerner and Donald Fishman hold assistant general manager roles for the Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals, respectively, while Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois was a tax lawyer at the now-defunct Canadian law firm Heenan Blaikie. All three teams have won the Stanley Cup in recent years.
With the NHL’s 32 franchises vying for the same assets and employing similar strategies, legal expertise in the C-suite can be advantageous in navigating the complex world of pro sports. “I found having owners with legal and dealmaking backgrounds was an advantage compared to clubs that regularly ran into bottlenecks when trying to get buy-in for any big moves,” said Steven Werier, a former Paul Weiss associate who spent five years as an assistant general manager and vice president of legal for the Panthers. Werier left the team before Zito joined.
Monte Mann, reflecting on Zito’s career path, noted his former colleague will now have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. “It’s a totally different path,” Mann remarked. “When I was watching the other night, I was really rooting for him.”