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While earning a BA in economics and political science at Vanderbilt University, Paul Wierbicki worked a summer internship at Enron. It would be Enron’s last summer internship class. Shortly thereafter the energy giant would find itself embroiled in a financial scandal, resulting in the company’s bankruptcy and the conviction of three of its top executives.
After Enron’s implosion, Wierbicki returned to Vanderbilt with some nagging questions: What happened to their stakeholders? What about the employees, the creditors, the equity holders, the numerous contract counterparties, the state parties they had as contract parties? How did the whole process play out? How do you unwind it? How do you get some value back?
These questions and the intricacies of the scandal piqued his interest, leading him to study law, in particular corporate restructuring law. “That’s where I started my career after law school. I was fortunate I went to NYU Law School, which happened to have a pretty good corporate bankruptcy set of courses and professors that really helped me learn more about it,” says Wierbicki, general counsel and chief legal officer at Rush Street Interactive, an online gaming platform.
“We’re always focused on our product offerings, always looking to make improvements.”
Paul Wierbicki
Wierbicki spent the first decade of his career working corporate restructuring cases at firms and as an in-house attorney. Directly out of law school, he worked in Kirkland and Ellis’s corporate restructuring group. Then he moved on to AbbVie Pharmaceuticals for a short time before landing at LAMB Capital, where he was chief legal officer of entities that own and operate multibillion-dollar real estate, gaming, and other assets.
Currently, Wierbicki heads up a thirteen-member team at Rush Street Interactive that is spread across North America and Latin America, whose role has expanded over the four years Wierbicki has been at its helm.
Initially dealing with purely legal matters, commercial contracts, litigation, and dispute, today the team covers government affairs, data protection, corporate governance, and external development. Wierbicki applies a business mindset to the law, viewing every issue through the lens of Rush Street’s business.
“I think if you come in with that mindset, you are more successful as an in-house counsel in a number of ways. One way is people will come to you more often,” Wierbicki says.
The CLO calls his leadership style one of respect. “And that’s not just for fellow colleagues—it’s respect for everyone. It’s something I talk to the team a lot about,” Wierbicki shares. Every business interaction must start with a foundational level of respect, he says, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it leads to stronger working relationships.
His team’s role expanded because Rush Street itself has been expanding over the four years Wierbicki has been its CLO. When the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that the law prohibiting online gambling was unconstitutional, states were free to legalize various forms of gaming and sports betting. The sector has been growing ever since. “The legalization has been pretty widespread. At this point, you’re at almost forty states that have legalized sports betting, as well as the District of Columbia,” Wierbicki says.
When Rush Street expanded into online casinos, Wierbicki’s team was charged with analyzing the initial legislation, regulations, and requirements. Gaming law requires that each online casino partner with a land-based casino or racetrack. Wierbicki’s team draws up those commercial arrangements and contracts for the various partnerships Rush Street enters into with these land-based companies.
The world of online gaming and sports is highly regulated. It’s also fast paced, and that pace will accelerate as more online gaming and betting platforms employ AI. Wierbicki says that use has really revved up in the last year or so.
“I think if you come in with that business mindset, you are more successful as an in-house counsel in a number of ways. One way is people will come to you more often.”
Paul Wierbicki
To stay ahead and increase operational efficiencies, his team searches for AI tools that help core functions like contract review, legal research, management, summarizing agreements, and extracting relevant insights from the numerous documents it maintains.
“Over the last several months, we’ve settled on a handful of tools that we’re using,” Wierbicki notes.
The team started with commercial contracting as a broad term, helping with review, redlining, and creating the initial drafts of certain provisions. He’s already using AI for dispute contacts, executing objectives, and performing legal research. In addition to AI, the team brings in external partners for targeted needs like reviewing outside counsel invoices—ensuring law firm efficiency while enabling in-house attorneys to stay focused on strategic initiatives.
“Paul has built a culture grounded in respect and business-first thinking. It’s exciting to watch his team scale alongside the evolving gaming industry,” says Ryan Loro, president of LegalBillReview.com. “We’re proud to support their efforts—helping create operational efficiencies around outside counsel billing so they can stay focused on the high-impact work that drives the business.”
Rush Street’s success is linked to the player journey. That journey starts the moment a player opens an account, progresses through the player experience, and culminates when a player withdraws their winnings. As Rush Street continues to expand into new markets, Wierbicki will scrutinize the legalization governing those new markets. “That’s a continuous effort for us,” the CLO shares.
Moving forward, Wierbicki promises Rush Street will continue its chief tenet: creating fun, friendly, and fair player experiences across all its products. “We’re always focused on our product offerings, always looking to make improvements,” Wierbicki says.
“How do we create products that continue to be engaging to our customers, whether adding new community chat features—which we’ve done over time—or adding new product features that further customer excitement and play with us,” he says.
