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Re:

What Was Norwich City Majority Owner Mark Attanasio Doing Before the Canaries?

Before Norwich City, Mark Attanasio was a lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton, then worked in M&A and trading at Drexel Burnham Lambert before co-founding Crescent Capital Group in 1991.
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Before he became involved with Norwich City, Mark Attanasio built a career that moved from law to investment banking, then to investment management, and later to sports ownership. He trained as a lawyer, worked as a third-year associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, moved into mergers and acquisitions at Drexel Burnham Lambert, then transferred to Drexel’s trading desk. After leaving Drexel he co-founded Crescent Capital Group in 1991. He later became chairman and principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, and then joined the Norwich City board.

The career sequence at a glance

The table below lists each stage in the order it happened, with the date each source gives. Where a source does not give a date, the cell says so rather than estimating one.

Stage Role or activity Date given Source
Legal education J.D. from Columbia Law School; the Brewers’ biography also lists an A.B. from Brown University Not stated Columbia Law School 2019 alumni profile; Milwaukee Brewers official biography
Law practice Third-year associate at Debevoise & Plimpton Not stated Columbia Law School 2019 alumni profile
Investment banking (M&A) Mergers-and-acquisitions work at Drexel Burnham Lambert, after moving from New York to California Not stated Columbia Law School 2019 alumni profile
Trading Move to Drexel’s trading desk, where he taught himself skills such as computer modeling Not stated Columbia Law School 2019 alumni profile
Investment management Co-founder of Crescent Capital Group LP; later co-managing partner before a recent sale to Sun Life Financial 1991 (founding) Columbia Law School 2019 alumni profile; Milken Institute 2026 biography
Team ownership Chairman and principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers Not stated Milwaukee Brewers official biography
Norwich City Joined the board; became majority shareholder Board: September 2022; majority shareholder: October 2024 (annual report) or March 2025 (Milken Institute 2026 biography) Norwich City annual report; Milken Institute 2026 biography

Law first, and the decision to leave it

Attanasio’s starting point was law, not finance. He earned his J.D. at Columbia Law School and worked at Debevoise & Plimpton as a third-year associate. In Columbia’s 2019 alumni profile, he explains that he left the partnership track because it looked too predictable to him. He put it this way: “I didn’t want my whole life planned out at 26.”

The same profile records him reflecting on what Columbia gave him: “If you could get through Columbia Law School and do well, you sort of felt you could do anything.” Columbia identifies Eric Talley, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and co-director of the Millstein Center, as the interviewer at the alumni speaker luncheon where these remarks were made.

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Drexel Burnham Lambert: from deals to trading

After leaving Debevoise, Attanasio moved from New York to California to work in the mergers-and-acquisitions department at Drexel Burnham Lambert. This was his first move into investment banking.

He later moved again, to Drexel’s trading desk. According to the Columbia profile, he felt finance was more cutting-edge than M&A, and he taught himself skills including computer modeling to make the switch. The profile does not give a year for either move, so the timing between Debevoise, M&A and trading can only be described in order, not by date.

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Crescent Capital Group

Attanasio co-founded Crescent Capital Group LP after leaving Drexel. The founding year, 1991, comes from Columbia’s 2019 profile. That profile also reported that Crescent was employee-owned, with approximately $26 billion in assets under management and more than 170 employees. Those figures describe the firm as of 2019 and are historical, not current.

The Brewers’ official biography calls him Crescent’s co-founder and managing partner. A 2026 Milken Institute biography goes further and says that, before a recent sale of Crescent to Sun Life Financial, he was its co-managing partner. The Milken biography is written from speaker-supplied information, and the Institute notes that it does not independently verify those biographies.

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The Brewers also describe his investment-management experience as more than 35 years. That is an organizational description, not a precise start date, so it should not be read as the year he entered finance.

From Crescent to the Brewers and Norwich City

The Brewers’ official biography identifies Attanasio as chairman and principal owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. That role is the sports-ownership background that comes before his Norwich City involvement. Sources in this area give no separate year for the Brewers role in the material used here, so the timeline is best read as a sequence rather than a set of dates.

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Norwich City’s annual report records two milestones: Attanasio joined the club’s board in September 2022 and became majority shareholder in October 2024. The Milken Institute’s 2026 biography gives a different date for the majority-shareholder change, March 2025.

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Why the Norwich majority-shareholder date differs

The two dates come from different kinds of source. The annual report is a club-published document, and the Milken biography is a speaker biography written for an event. The sources used here do not explain why they differ, and neither source resolves the question. If the exact date matters for your use, cite both and attribute each one to its publisher. Do not treat either date as settled on the other’s authority.

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Both sources agree on the broader point: Attanasio went from a legal education to investment banking and investment management, and then into sports ownership and Norwich City.

Sources and limits

  • Columbia Law School 2019 alumni profile: the main source for the law, Drexel and Crescent narrative, along with his own remarks and the Crescent figures.
  • Milwaukee Brewers official biography: the team source for his education, investment-management description and team roles.
  • Norwich City annual report: the club-reported board and majority-shareholder dates. The report was consulted through indexed search-result text, not the full PDF.
  • Milken Institute 2026 biography: a 2026 snapshot that gives a later majority-shareholder date and the Crescent co-managing partner detail.

No exact years are published for the move from Debevoise to Drexel or for the switch from M&A to trading. Crescent’s assets and headcount are from 2019 and should not be presented as current.

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