Toks Arowojolu – Baltimore Ravens

Toks Arowojolu has never thrown a pass, made a tackle or scored a touchdown, but the legal support she provides as the Baltimore Ravens’ associate general counsel has already made an immediate impact on the team’s success. Arowojolu has described it as an honor and a privilege to support the front office executives of the Baltimore Ravens, whom she describes as the “best in the business.”

Toks Arowojolu | Baltimore Ravens | Associate General Counsel

Arowojolu, a Maryland native of Nigerian descent, tells Vanguard magazine that working for the Ravens is her dream job—one that almost didn’t come true. In fact, her story of how she ended up in sports shows the importance of faith and resilience.

You see, Arowojolu always wanted to work as a transactional lawyer in sports, but after graduating from law school, her desire to start her career in DC led her to work in a big law firm’s energy practice for a few years.  She was eager to gain more transactional experience, so while living in Washington, D.C., Arowojolu took a job as a commercial attorney with Ameren, one of the largest energy companies in the nation based in Missouri. She moved from the only place she ever called home and settled in St. Louis in January 2020, where she had no family or close connections. A short time later, the world and Arowojolu’s life in St. Louis changed. When the world shut down in March 2020, she worked remotely in a one-bedroom apartment in St. Louis.

“During lockdown, I still dreamed of working in sports law, and as people were losing their jobs—and their lives—because of COVID-19, it changed my perspective,” she recalls. “I realized that life is short. Why not pursue this dream? So, I applied for every sports-related and sports-adjacent job I could and reached out to people I knew in sports. But I didn’t find much success, so I prayed and then stopped looking.”

Acknowledging that she was happy with her job at Ameren, Arowojolu decided to put her head down and keep doing her best to support the energy company’s business and mission. With the company’s support, she eventually moved to Chicago to be closer to friends. Despite working remotely from Chicago, she made amazing connections with her business clients and legal team. “I will never forget the support I received from my colleagues from Ameren during the pandemic and when conversations surrounding race relations were at an all-time high. Their support in that season of my life was everything.”

One day, while on vacation in Santorini in Greece (with no laptop and no real connection to the world), her friend sent her a screenshot of a job listing about the Baltimore Ravens needing a lawyer. She also received a text from an attorney for a professional sports league about a new opening—she was in shock.

“I applied for the Ravens job on my cell phone on a beach in Greece because I was too excited to wait. When I was looking for a job in sports, I told anyone who asked that my dream would be to work as an attorney for the Ravens or the NBA but that it would probably never happen. I guess I was wrong, and I couldn’t be happier about that,” she remembers.

When Arowojolu landed back in Chicago, she received an email from the Ravens asking to interview her for the legal position. She quickly also landed an interview with a professional sports league and went through several rounds before letting the league know she was accepting another position.

“I am a person of faith and believe that everything happens for a reason,” Arowojolu says. “Everything just fell into place. Two dream opportunities came when I stopped looking and decided to sow where I was planted. I was homesick, so getting a job that would return me to Maryland was a miracle. I still get chills when I think about it.”

Scoring big deals

Since joining the organization in August 2023, Arowojolu has negotiated for everything from sponsorship agreements, concessions and retail operations, marketing and gameday entertainment engagements, suite licensing agreements and deals to bring other sporting events to M&T Bank Stadium. Recently, the team announced a deal with Levy for it to become the team’s official food, beverage and hospitality partner. A new deal was also reached with Fanatics to extend and expand its partnership to handle in-person retail sales at the stadium in addition to online sales and operate the Ravens’ first-ever year-round retail store in 2025.

The home stadium’s lease and naming rights deal was recently extended, and a three-season renovation and upgrade project was also announced that will add amenities throughout the stadium, including restaurants and lounge spaces, that all required contract work. Arowojolu is part of the negotiations to renew and extend corporate partnerships and agreements to support the stadium’s new luxury suites and hospitality offerings.

“I was involved in purchasing the actual seats for the new Field Seats premium seating offering, and I negotiated the agreement to memorialize the deals with Fanatics and Levy. It has been a joy to support the executives involved in these new initiatives, some of whom have been with the Ravens for over 20 seasons. We are on a new journey together, and it has been a lot of fun!” Arowojolu says.

Despite her previous years in energy law, Arowojolu got hands-on experience negotiating sponsorship agreements between Ameren and the St. Louis Cardinals and a suite arrangement with the city’s new professional soccer team. She also negotiated hundreds of vendor and construction-related contracts. That experience has helped immensely as Arowojolu has been the point person for developing new contract language related to the new initiatives at M&T Bank Stadium. Though living in a new city during the pandemic was hard, stepping out of her comfort zone to take the role with Ameren prepared her to add value to the Ravens organization immediately.

“My previous job included a lot of high-volume work from the supply and procurement departments to facility operations, corporate events, and marketing, as well as coordinating with various departments and advising leaders. I saw a lot of contracts, created templates and did a little bit of everything to support everyone,” Arowojolu says. “That and my law firm experience helped make my transition to the Ravens as smooth as possible.”

Part of the team

In addition to her transactional experience, Arowojolu says she was hired to help mentor the legal department’s newest attorney, David Ghostlaw. (The department also includes SVP, General Counsel Brandon Etheridge and Senior Director Jessica Markison, who handles risk management and compliance.)

Ghostlaw has been with the team for over a decade but was in an operations role for most of that time. Arowojolu is completing a three-step process to help sharpen his skills. The first step included contract review and contract analysis, teaching him about different contract provisions, what they mean and how to negotiate them. He absorbed those lessons quickly, Arowojolu says.

Part two was all about negotiations and how to think quickly when face-to-face with opposing counsel on a deal, handling pushback and building relationships with external clients. Step three has been about time management and perfecting his craft as a lawyer.

“He knows the organization but is learning the legal side. I know contracts and have had to get to know the inner workings of the Ravens. It has been a mutually beneficial partnership from the beginning,” Arowojolu says. “Because of the support of the Ravens organization and the amazing people I work with in the legal department, it has been an easy transition.”

As an in-house attorney, Arowojolu works with departments across the organization, including marketing, IT, sales, human resources, community relations, operations, and media. Collaboration and fostering productive and comfortable relationships have been key to her success, and Arowojolu is quick to point out the positive work culture around the office and within the organization.

“You don’t get to be a successful NFL franchise without a positive work environment and caring staff from everyone from the top to the bottom of the organization,” she says.

A dream come true

Arowojolu’s family is from Nigeria—her parents moved to the U.S. in the early 80s—and she grew up in Columbia, Maryland. She earned a degree in sociology and family science from the University of Maryland in College Park and a Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where she has returned to teach an annual course on intersectionality to the students in the Women, Leadership, and Equality program.

“I knew that I had no interest in being a litigator. My goal in law school was to work on the corporate side, doing transactions and making deals,” Arowojolu recalls.

While in law school, Arowojolu was on the negotiations team and got a lot of practice with alternative dispute resolution. After leaving K&L Gates, she spent over three years in-house for Ameren and left as corporate counsel to join the Ravens in August 2023.

The Ravens’ interview process was robust—she interviewed with 16 people who all had a say in getting her the job. Since then, those individuals and others throughout the organization have been there to answer any questions and welcome her openly.

“It has been the honor of my career to work on these projects to support the Ravens and their community. As a longtime fan of my hometown team, I am proud to make decisions that help the team succeed and maintain its stellar reputation. My first season with the Ravens was a rollercoaster. I couldn’t have done it without my support system and the wonderful people I work with every day. I’m so excited for what’s to come as a fan and attorney for my home team.”