Page 6 - NYLS Magazine • 2014 • Vol. 33, No. 2

a few years at various firms, including the Smith Vasilou Management Company and Cowen & Company, he sought
the help of his sister, Sonia Gardner (also an attorney), and together they formed Amroc Investments and Avenue Capital Group—both of which became incredibly successful distressed debt investment firms.
On April 16, Mr. Lasry’s basketball dream came true. He and partner Wes Edens purchased the Milwaukee Bucks, hoping the same strategy that made them
successful in finance would work just as well to produce a winning team in Wisconsin.
“I thought if I bought the team that I’d be able to play,” Mr. Lasry joked again. “I guess there’s some kind of rule against that.”
Mr. Lasry’s enthusiasm was matched by that of Mr. Viola and Mr. Wilf. Both commented about their passion for sports as well as the differences and similarities between sports management and corporate management roles.
“I manage the team exactly the same way I did my business,” said Mr. Viola. “It all begins with trust. Trust breeds communication. And discipline— discipline will always feed efficiency.”
The son of a World War II veteran
turned truck driver, Mr. Viola was born
in Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Technical High School before receiving
an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Like Mr. Lasry and Mr. Wilf, Mr. Viola was always
a competitive athlete and enjoyed playing sports. But after graduating from West Point, he left with the intention of building a career in the military and achieved the rank of Major in the U.S. Army Reserves.
After leaving the Army, Mr. Viola returned to New York, where he joined the New York Mercantile Exchange as
a local trader and began attending law school. He went on to become a member of the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1982—his third and final year at NYLS.
“I wouldn’t trade my legal education for any other education experience,” he said. “You take on a different understanding and you’re better able to think critically.”
Mr. Viola found himself gravitating toward securities law at NYLS, which
led to an interest in investing. It was his founding of Virtu Financial—a high-tech, high-frequency trading firm—that proved to be one of the most lucrative decisions of his career. The success of Virtu led to Mr. Viola’s first foray into team ownership with a minority stake in the New Jersey Nets basketball team. But after the team’s ownership was sold and split, moving the franchise to Brooklyn, Mr. Viola went looking for another team.
In September 2013, after a meeting with National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettmann, Mr. Viola found a
new team to call his own in the Florida Panthers.
But as all new owners discover, unexpected challenges often crop up.
“Some of these players are just so young, they don’t understand that they are
4 NEw York Law SCHooL magazINE • 2014 • VOL. 33, NO. 2