Clemson will make 60 times more from ACC settlement than it spent on lawsuit, AD projects

CLEMSON — Clemson settled its lawsuit with the Atlantic Coast Conference on Tuesday but spent millions of dollars in legal fees to get there.

Clemson sued the ACC over their grant-of-rights agreements on March 19, 2024, which was seen as the first legal step to departing the conference. The ACC countersued  in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, a day later.

Clemson hired four law firms: Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarbrough LLP (based in Columbia, South Carolina), Willson Jones Carter & Baxley, P.A. (Greenville, South Carolina), Ropes & Gray LLP (Boston) and Parry Law (Chapel Hill, North Carolina), and paid them a total of $2.04 million for over 3,300 hours of work.

Clemson funded its legal battle with the ACC through its athletic department dollars and privately raised IPTAY revenue, according to the university. IPTAY is the school's separate athletic fundraising organization.

Here's a breakdown of how much Clemson paid each firm after its nearly year-long lawsuit against the ACC, according to documents obtained by The Greenville News via an open-records request. 

How much Clemson paid lawyers in ACC lawsuit

Clemson paid most of its fees to Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarbrough for its work in Pickens County. The firm billed Clemson $1.54 million for nearly 2,500 hours of work. Invoices show the group's work from March 1, 2023, to Nov. 30.

Clemson's lead trial counsel, David E. Dukes, is a part of Nelson Mullins, and he is a member of Clemson's Board of Trustees. The most expensive billing period for any firm came in April 2024 when Nelson Mullins charged $391,908 for 605 hours of work.

Parry Law, which Clemson hired for its Mecklenburg County case when the ACC countersued, was the second-most expensive firm. It represented Clemson during its arguments for sovereign immunity, asserting that the dispute should be heard in South Carolina instead of North Carolina. Clemson paid the firm $243,603 for 527 hours from April 2024 to February 2025.

MORE: Why Clemson is set up to leave the ACC in the next decade after settlement of dueling lawsuits

Ropes & Gray billed Clemson $195,294 for 117 hours for its work in Pickens County. It only charged Clemson five times, beginning in August 2024 through December.

Willson Jones charged the fewest amount, $61,774 over 228 hours. The Greenville firm's largest request was $29,296 in one invoice for March 2024. It charged Clemson 10 times with the latest coming in January 2025: $285 for an hour.

There may be more invoices coming soon as there are a few missing months before Clemson settled its lawsuit in March.

Will Clemson lawsuit vs ACC be worth it financially?

Clemson has spent a little over $2 million on legal fees for its litigation against the ACC in what can turn into a nine-figure paycheck over the next six years.

Clemson, Florida State and the ACC's settlement will create a new revenue distribution model that will reward the league's biggest brands. The "viewership pool," which is directly focused on football and men's basketball viewership, will be funded by 60% of the league's TV revenue and will be for the conference's most-watched teams.

Clemson athletic director Graham Neff projects it will generate $120 million in new revenue during the next six years for Clemson based on this model and the ACC's success initiatives.

"In five of the last 10 football seasons, Clemson has had the most-watched college football game, and over the last six years within the ACC, we are the most viewed college football program in the ACC," Neff said during Tuesday's Board of Trustees meeting. "We certainly have proven success of viewership and brand value over the recent years."

The settlement also reduced the nine-figure withdrawal penalty to $75 million by 2030-31, and departing members will retain their future broadcast rights around the time when TV contracts are up for the Big Ten, Big 12 and the CFP.

Derrian Carter covers Clemson athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at  dcarter@gannett.com  and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @DerrianCarter00

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: What Clemson will make from ACC settlement vs what it spent on lawsuit