Jamie McCourt
Encyclopedia
Jamie McCourt is the former CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...

 baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 team

Early life

Jamie McCourt (née
NEE
NEE is a political protest group whose goal was to provide an alternative for voters who are unhappy with all political parties at hand in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.The NEE party was founded in 2005 in Antwerp...

 Luskin) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Jewish parents. Her father, Jack Luskin, ran the Luskin's chain of appliance stores in Maryland. As a 17-year-old freshman at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

, she met Frank McCourt
Frank McCourt (executive)
Frank McCourt is the owner and chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. In , he purchased a controlling interest of the Dodgers from Fox Entertainment Group, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...

, whom she would marry in 1979. She earned a degree in French at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 (1975), a law degree at the University of Maryland School of Law
University of Maryland School of Law
The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is the second-oldest law school in the United States by date of establishment and third-oldest by date of first classes. The school is located on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore in Downtown Baltimore's West Side...

 (1978) and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management
MIT Sloan School of Management
The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....

.

She relocated from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 in 2004 with her husband and their four sons, Drew, Travis, Casey, and Gavin. She joined the Dodgers' front-office organization as an executive after the team was acquired.

Career

For fifteen years she was a practicing attorney, engaged in international and securities law in New York as well as in corporate, real estate, and family law in Boston. She then spent ten years as vice president and general counsel of the McCourt Co., the family real estate development firm in Boston.

Beside her legal and real estate work, she also taught classes at the MIT Sloan School and the UCLA Anderson School of Management
Anderson School of Management
Anderson School of Management may refer to:*UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles*Anderson School of Management *A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California, Riverside...

. She sponsored the 2009 Maccabiah Games
2009 Maccabiah Games
The 2009 Maccabiah Games were the 18th incarnation of the Maccabiah Games, being held in July 2009. According to the organizing committee these were the largest games held yet. On the 13th of July, more than 6,000 Jewish athletes from all over the world joined Team Israel's 3,000 participants at...

, is a trustee of Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....

, and in 2009 was appointed a trustee of the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

.
For her philanthropy to Jewish causes, in 2006 she received the National Scopus Award from the American Friends of The Hebrew University
American Friends of The Hebrew University
American Friends of The Hebrew University is a national, not-for-profit 5013 organization which provides programs, events and fundraising activities in support of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel’s foremost center of higher education and research...

. In 2008, the Los Angeles Business Journal
Los Angeles Business Journal
The Los Angeles Business Journal, established c. 1979, is a weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, California, which covers general business news. According to the journal's website, it has over 12,000 online subscribers, and a weekly print circulation of 30,000...

named Frank and Jamie McCourt the “Power Couple of the Year”.

In September 2008, the McCourts purchased the Los Angeles Marathon
Los Angeles Marathon
The Honda LA Marathon is an annual running event held each spring in Los Angeles, California. The 26.219 mile footrace, inspired by the success of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, has been contested every year since 1986...

 which had been experiencing financial difficulties.

McCourt divorce/Dodgers ownership dispute

In the year(s) preceding 2009, Jaime McCourt allegedly engaged in a sordid, extramarital affair with her driver, as court documents reveal. These acts of infidelity allegedly carried on for some time, which included Jaime McCourt taking her alleged lover on a trip to Israel under the pretense of a religious pilgrimage. Additionally, the McCourts allegedly absconded with $130 million associated with the Los Angeles Dodgers operations through perquisite benefits, including a $10,000 per month hair stylist, or being paid to themselves as a dividend.

In October and November, 2009 the owner(s) of the Dodgers, the McCourts, separated and later commenced divorce proceedings. Their respective attorneys have publicly identified a dispute as to whether the Dodgers assets are community property (i.e. owned 50% by Jamie McCourt), or are separate property, 100% owned by Frank McCourt
Frank McCourt (executive)
Frank McCourt is the owner and chairman of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. In , he purchased a controlling interest of the Dodgers from Fox Entertainment Group, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...

. The team and stadium assets were purchased for $430 million in 2004 and were valued at $722 million in 2009 (according to Forbes), a theoretical increase in value of $292 million (68%) in five years.

On October 22, 2009, Frank fired Jamie from her position as CEO of the Dodgers. In court documents, the Dodgers have stated Jamie was terminated for insubordination, as well as for having had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.[9]link dead

Jamie McCourt was represented in the divorce by well-known trial lawyer David Boies
David Boies
David Boies is an American lawyer and chairman of the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner. He has been involved in various high-profile cases in the United States.-Early life and education:...

, with assistance from Wasser, Cooperman & Carter.

On June 17, 2011, Frank & Jamie reached agreement on a settlement of their divorce. The settlement was contingent upon Major League Baseball approving a 17-year television contract between the Dodgers and FOX Television. The discussion set aside the Dodgers ownership issue until a scheduled one day trial on August 4, whereupon if the Judge sided with Frank he would keep the team and pay a settlement fee to Jamie and if the Judge sided with her the team would be sold. However, on June 20, baseball rejected the television deal and the settlement agreement fell apart.On June 27, 2011 the team filed bankruptcy papers and led to a bitter dispute between Frank and the Baseball Commissioner over the future of the team.

On October 17, 2011, it was announced that Frank & Jamie had reached a settlement in their divorce case, where she would get about $130 million and give up her claims on the team. This settlement ended what is widely believed to be the costliest divorce in California history.
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