Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, Kansas City Royals Baseball Club, Kansas City

Lawyers always dress professionally for work but Adam P. Sachs recently got to take batting practice and grounders in his business clothes on a major league ballfield. He even got to dive for a ball in his khakis and golf shirt.

“I’ve always loved the Royals and I’ve always loved baseball,” said the 59-year-old Washington University graduate. “I’m in a crazy spot in my career I never thought I’d get to but I’m thrilled to be here.”

It is an unusual role for the former Husch Blackwell partner and Kansas City native who started his career doing polling and consulting in Washington D.C. before going to work in various roles on Capitol Hill, including as associate counsel in the Labor & Education Committee offices of Illinois Sen. Paul Simon and senior legislative assistant to Rep. Lane Evans. He was also chief Democratic counsel and staff director for the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations.

“My family has a long history of public service, specifically in the law,” he said of his decision to go to law school. “It was a natural progression for me. I thought it gave me a lot of opportunities in my career to do things that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.”

Sachs joked that his wife finally tired of the D.C. traffic so he eventually returned to Kansas City to do government affairs work at Husch. He finally joined the Royals in 2021 where he oversees all legal aspects of the team’s business operations from labor and employment to contracts with vendors.

The impending end of the Royals’ lease at Kauffman Stadium in a few years has prompted a desire to move baseball closer to downtown, an idea which has been a focus of Sachs’ efforts of late and may even include a potential ballot issue next year.

Sachs’ involvement in civic affairs is wide ranging and includes the Urban League of Greater Kansas City and the Harry S. Truman Library Institute.