B. Davis Butler

Partner

Davis Butler began his legal career in 1992 as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Robert B. Propst in the Northern District of Alabama. In 1993, he joined the practice of Alston & Bird LLP (A&B), a large firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, as a healthcare/medical product liability litigator. After two successful jury trials, Davis joined A&B’s healthcare mergers, acquisitions and securities team.

After years as a corporate transactional lawyer at several firms, Davis joined the International Olympic Committee (IOC) staff to manage and negotiate international partnership deals as part of the world’s largest sports sponsorship program – the IOC’s TOP Programme. Davis spent ten years at the IOC in a joint business and legal role (as Senior VP of Marketing Development) with offices in Atlanta and Lausanne, Switzerland. During this time, Davis negotiated and managed partnership transactions on behalf of Olympic parties valued at just under US$9 billion. He has negotiated and drafted sponsorship, broadcast rights, license, supply, acquisition, representation, and service agreements on behalf of sport properties around the world. He also has managed intellectual property issues around the world, and he has represented the IOC twice before the European Commission in Brussels on matters relating to antitrust issues in international sport sponsorship arrangements. While at the IOC, Davis did business in thirty nine countries, and he managed a team of lawyers overseeing Olympic marketing rights agreements in over 190 countries.

Davis left the IOC in 2010 to become a founding partner in Encompass International Network, LLC, an international sports marketing and legal network comprised of Olympic experts from North America, Europe, and Asia. At that time, Davis also re-entered the private practice of law, and he now represents a variety of corporate entities (especially in the healthcare, marketing, and sport industries) in mergers, acquisitions, private securities offerings, and general corporate matters. He has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia, and he is an owner of a variety of sport and healthcare businesses. He has started nine different for profit and non-profit businesses giving him special insight into the issues facing start-ups and early-stage companies.

He attended Vanderbilt University and graduated with honors in 1988. He received his law degree in 1992 from the University of Alabama School of Law where he was a Junior and Senior Editor of the Alabama Law Review.

Davis is currently licensed to practice law in Georgia and Alabama.