Joseph M Hanna

Joseph Hanna is a commercial litigator and legal adviser nationally recognized for his work in media and entertainment law, as well as for being a leading voice for diversity in the legal and business communities. Joe is the founder and chair of Goldberg Segalla’s Sports and Entertainment Practice Group, chair of its Retail and Hospitality Practice Group, editor of the Sports and Entertainment Law Insider blog, and chair of the firm’s Diversity Task Force. He is the founder and president of Bunkers in Baghdad, a nonprofit that collects and sends golf equipment to U.S. soldiers and veterans worldwide to aid in recreation and rehabilitation from injuries.

In 2015, Joe was the youngest honoree ever to be named Lawyer of the Year in the Bar Association of Erie County’s 130-year history, and multiple times he has ranked among the top 10 attorneys in Western New York in Business First’s annual Legal Elite.

Joe dedicates his practice to serving the sports and entertainment, retail, hospitality, and commercial development industries. He represents national-league sports franchises, professional athletes, movie studios, and others in the sports and entertainment world on a wide range of high-value matters involving licensing, contracts, and day-to-day business management. Major retail and restaurant chains, global hotel and hospitality enterprises, shopping centers, property owners, and developers rely on Joe to find creative and cost-efficient resolutions to disputes with other parties, to represent them in commercial litigation, and to handle a broad array of legal and business challenges. An accomplished mediator, he is also a member of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s Panels of Distinguished Neutrals, a group of global leaders in providing and promoting alternative dispute resolution.

A Law360 Rising Star in 2014 and now a member of the organization's Sports Editorial Advisory Board, Joe is nationally renowned a for his work in media and entertainment law and for his authorship of leading articles on high-profile issues in these areas — including the first truly comprehensive examination of the legal issues in the National Football League concussion litigation controversy.

In 2014, Joe was one of just over 160 lawyers under 40 in the entire country to receive Law360's Rising Star honor, and one of only five in the Media and Entertainment category, that year. Then, in 2017, the American Bar Association (ABA) placed Joe on its prestigious “On the Rise — Top 40 Young Lawyers” list, honoring him alongside only 39 others from a competitive crop of over 2,800 nominees nationwide.

Joe is widely recognized for his extensive work as an innovator, mentor, author, editor, and speaker on diversity and inclusion in the legal world. He has held diversity-related leadership positions at national organizations like DRI as well as the ABA, where he served for several years as chair of the Minority Trial Lawyer Committee and editor-in-chief of Minority Trial Lawyer. He has received accolades that include the Minority Corporate Counsel Association George B. Vashon Innovator Award, the New York State Bar Association Diversity Trailblazer Award, and the University at Buffalo George W. Thorn Award. In 2014 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) selected Joe for their Fellows program; he now chairs the New York chapter for the LCLD Success in Law School Mentoring Program. He is also a mentor with New York Legal Education Opportunity (NY LEO), an organization designed to ensure a diverse legal community by promoting academic success in law school for individuals historically under represented in the legal profession, and administered through the New York State Judicial Institute.

Bunkers in Baghdad, which Joe founded in 2008 and still runs as its president, has sent 9 million golf balls, nearly 700,000 clubs, and messages of thanks from “Bunkers Buddies” — students in 500 schools — to U.S. soldiers and veterans in 65 countries.

In 2016, Joe participated in Harvard Law School's Executive Education Program, an intensive accelerated program designed to enhance leadership development in law firm partners. He graduated summa cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo and cum laude from its law school. He received his Master of Public Administration degree with a concentration on Public and Nonprofit Management from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 2014, graduating in the top 5 percent of his class. In 2018, he received a Master's in Sports Administration from Canisius College, graduating summa cum laude.