Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer
Anastasia Danias Schmidt is Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer for Major League Soccer and its affiliates, where she is a key member of the League strategic and operational leadership team. She oversees all aspects of legal and business affairs, including league expansion, team acquisition, sale and investment, corporate governance, compliance, privacy, policy, litigation, labor, intellectual property and commercial transactions.
Prior to joining MLS, Danias served as Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel for the National Football League, where she led the league’s litigation docket, advised on key intellectual property, policy and legislative priorities, and counseled club and league executives on key business initiatives.
Danias has been honored by Corporate Counsel as one of the 2019 Women, Influence & Power in Law, the Legal500’s GC Power List and Corporate Counsel 100, and the Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40. She has also been featured in publications such as Fortune, Modern Counsel and Marie Claire.
She frequently speaks on issues impacting sports, is on the faculty of the Practicing Law Institute and has taught sports law as an Adjunct Professor at New York Law School.
