Madison Square Garden Entertainment, the operator of its namesake sporting and live events arena in New York, has hired veteran in-house legal executive Jamal Haughton as executive vice president and general counsel, succeeding Scott Packman who held the role for just over a year. 

In his new role, Haughton will serve as head of the media giant’s legal department and oversee corporate, commercial, transactional, litigation and regulatory legal functions effective 6 December. Reporting directly to Jim Dolan, executive chairman andCEO of MSG Entertainment, Haughton will also manage the company’s development, negotiation and execution of all material business transactions. 

Haughton, who began his legal career in private practice at Wall Street’s Cravath Swaine & Moore, joins MSG Entertainment after a five-year stint as senior vice president and general counsel of Samsung Electronics America, where he was responsible for all legal matters and management of Samsung’s North American legal department. 

“I am thrilled to be joining Madison Square Garden Entertainment at such an important time for the company,” Haughton said. “I look forward to working with the management team to help ensure we continue to deliver excellence across our operations and drive the company’s key growth initiatives.” 

Before landing at Samsung, he spent a decade in a variety of in-house roles, most recently as senior vice president and associate general counsel of telecommunications company Cablevision, which was acquired by European telecom conglomerate Altice in 2016 — the same year Haughton moved to Samsung — and now operates its services through Altice USA. 

MSG’s properties were previously under Cablevision’s ownership after the latter acquired a 50% ownership stake from Viacom when it purchased Paramount Communications, MSG’s former parent company, in 1994. Dolan, who was Cablevision's CEO prior to its sale to Altice, led MSG Entertainment, spun off from Cablevision in 2010 and continued to head MSG Entertainment after the 2016 acquisition. 

“We are pleased to welcome Jamal, who was also an important member of our legal team at Cablevision,” Dolan said, adding that Haughton’s “significant experience in high-profile corporate and business legal matters” will help move the company forward as it pursues its future growth strategy, including the ongoing construction of a $1.8bn live entertainment venue, MSG Sphere, in Las Vegas. 

Besides the MSG Sphere and the original Madison Square Garden arena, MSG Entertainment also owns the New York’s Hulu Theatre, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Chicago Theatre in the Windy City. The company operates two regional sports and entertainment networks, MSG Network and MSG+, and holds the television rights for a number of Tri-State Area professional sports teams including the New York Rangers and the New York Knicks.