San Diego Wave FC’s owners are suing the team’s former president, Jill Ellis, alleging that she lied about her intentions of staying with the Wave throughout purchase negotiations last year and then announced her resignation two days after the sale was complete, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in San Diego Superior Court.
Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine, the billionaire couple that owns Beverly Hills-based private equity firm Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, are suing Ellis through a related entity that purchased the Wave last October. The suit accused Ellis and other unnamed defendants of intentional and negligent misrepresentation, concealment, and false promise — all of which the lawsuit alleged led to lost revenue equating to $40 million in the Wave’s total value.
An attorney for Ellis called the lawsuit “meritless” and said it was filed in retaliation for Ellis asking the owners — first on her own, then through an attorney’s demand letter last week — to pay her more than $1.2 million in deferred compensation that she is allegedly owed as part of her previous contract with the team.
Ellis, who is now chief football officer at FIFA, soccer’s worldwide governing body, is a U.S. Soccer hall of famer who led the U.S. Women’s National Team to World Cup championships in 2015 and 2019. The lawsuit alleged that her role as Wave co-founder and president was one of the key factors in the Levine Leichtman Family Office choosing to purchase the Wave for what was then a record price for a National Women’s Soccer League franchise.
The lawsuit alleged that Ellis — who had apparently become friends with Leichtman and Levine when she was coaching at UCLA and they were financial supporters of her team and other UCLA women’s sports teams — repeatedly assured the new owners during purchase negotiations “that she would guide the team for many years to come.”
The lawsuit did not state if those assurances were made in writing or formalized in a contract, but alleged that Ellis never actually intended to stay with the Wave while making those assurances and instead was already deep in negotiations to join FIFA.
The suit alleged that the actions of Ellis and other defendants not only tricked the Wave’s new owners but resulted in poor on-field results for the team in 2024 and 2025, leading to the lost revenue.
The attorneys who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the owners did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
“This meritless lawsuit is retaliation against Jill Ellis for asking the current owners of San Diego Wave FC to pay the deferred compensation she is owed under her employment agreement and California wage laws,” Douglas Silverstein, an attorney for Ellis, told the Union-Tribune in a statement. “Ms. Ellis attempted in good faith to work out these financial matters directly with the owners, but she was rebuffed. Ms. Ellis was then forced to retain counsel, who last week requested in writing that she be paid. This lawsuit is a direct result of that written demand.”
According to the demand letter, Ellis signed a five-year contract with the Wave beginning in December 2021 that paid her $1 million her first year, with annual escalators after that. The agreement also included $250,000 per year in deferred compensation that was “expressly structured and intended to be paid out upon her departure from the club,” according to the letter.
That meant Ellis was owed $1 million in deferred compensation for the four years she worked for the club, plus more than $236,000 in unpaid interest and “waiting time wage continuation,” according to the letter her attorney sent the club’s owners.
The lawsuit did not mention Ellis’ demand letter or the wage dispute.
The lawsuit is at least the third piece of litigation now surrounding Ellis’ tenure with the Wave. Last year, Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit against Brittany Alvarado, a former team videographer whose widely circulated social media posts alleged a toxic, discriminatory and abusive work environment at the club.
Alvarado and four other former team employees sued the Wave and NWSL a few months later, alleging both the team and the league failed to act on complaints about the abusive workplace culture.
Those dueling lawsuits, plus a 10th-place finish in the 14-team NWSL in 2024, stood in stark contrast to the success Ellis had helped the Wave achieve earlier in her tenure. The team set NWSL attendance records in its expansion season of 2022, then in its second season in 2023 won the NWSL Shield for finishing with the best regular-season record in the league.
Both sides agreed that Ellis was an integral part of the franchise’s success and its potential value to new owners.
“Ellis was a material reason that Plaintiff was purchasing the club,” the lawsuit stated.
“Her leadership was instrumental in building the Wave into the valuable asset you ultimately acquired,” Ellis’ attorney wrote in the demand letter.
Ellis allegedly informed the team’s new owners about her plan to resign and join FIFA two days after the Oct. 9 finalization of the sale. Ellis and the team publicly announced that move in December.