A’s name D’Lonra Ellis Chief Legal Officer

OAKLAND, Calif. – D’Lonra Ellis has been promoted to the role of Chief Legal Officer for the Oakland Athletics and San Jose Earthquakes. Ellis previously served as the A’s Vice President and General Counsel from 2019-21 and as its Assistant General Counsel from 2017-18, and held similar roles for the San Jose Earthquakes.

“We are excited for D’Lonra’s expanded role. She is a proven strategic leader with extensive legal experience who helps continue to drive our ongoing success,” said Oakland A’s President Dave Kaval. “Her counsel and guidance is a significant asset to our organization.”

In her role with the A’s, she manages the team’s day-to-day legal matters, including its corporate governance, labor and employment, intellectual property, commercial transactions, and litigation matters. She also oversees all legal aspects of the A’s real estate acquisition, entitlement, and development efforts. The people operations and technology departments report to her as well.

Prior to joining the Club, Ellis was the general counsel of Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization that serves over fifteen thousand students throughout California. She has additional experience as a director and senior corporate counsel in the intellectual property, marketing, and advertising group at Gap, Inc.; and as an associate in the litigation practice of Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk and Rabkin (now Arnold & Porter).

Ellis is an Adjunct Professor at UC Hastings College of Law, where she teaches sports law and the corporate counsel externship program. She sits on the board of directors of Bay Area Legal Aid, which provides legal services to low-income residents in seven Bay Area counties; the board of directors of KIPP Northern California Public Schools, which serves over six thousand students in seven Northern California cities, including Oakland; and the board of directors of Seven Stories Institute, which runs a nonprofit bookstore collective in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. She is a member of the Alameda County Bar Association and Golden Gate Chapter of Lambda Alpha International. She received her BA in Architecture, Preservation, and Planning from Columbia University and her JD from Stanford Law School. A lifelong A’s fan, Ellis is from Richmond, Calif., and attended Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland.