We live today in an increasingly litigious society. Lawsuits and legal
actions abound and arise from causes of action as varied as accidents
or injuries, contract disputes and alleged violations of constitutional
or human rights. Since sport is a reflection of society, it is only
natural that these same legal issues would manifest themselves in the
sport industry. The sport industry is a broad industry with many segments
(Gillentine & Crow, 2006; Masteralexis, Barr & Hums, 2005),
including professional sport, club sport, intercollegiate sport, recreational
sport, sport for people with disabilities, facility management and event
management. All of these areas have legal issues and need sport managers
with legal expertise to handle them. The purpose of this paper is to
discuss careers in sport law related areas.
Generally speaking, sport law careers can be separated into two broad
categories. First are those careers in which one who is a licensed attorney
engages in the practice of law in some segment of the sport industry.
Second, there are a vast number of alternative career paths for those
with law degrees but who are not actively engaged in the practice of
law.
For a licensed attorney, a number of career paths are available in
the sport industry including professional athlete representation, general
counsel to a sport organisation, and litigation counsel for a sport
organisation. While player agents do not have to be licensed attorneys,
many agents are. Most major sport organisations will have one or more
in-house attorneys often referred to as “general counsel”
for that organisation. For example, almost all professional leagues,
athletic conferences, national governing bodies, professional teams,
universities, athletic departments, corporate sponsors, media companies
and high school athletic associations will have at least one in-house
attorney to advise and counsel the organisation in its day-to-day legal
affairs. In the event that a sport organisation becomes involved in
litigation, most organisations will then retain attorneys or outside
counsel to represent the organisation. In addition, many law firms have
developed sport law divisions to provide legal services to sport organisations
in a number of specialty areas including labor law, anti-trust, mergers
and acquisitions, sponsorship disputes and intellectual property. All
the aforementioned careers involve a sport lawyer serving in an attorney
client relationship.
However, there are numerous executive and administrative positions
in the sport industry where a law degree or legal training is highly
desired and particularly useful. For example, until the recent retirement
of Paul Tagliabue as the National Football League (NFL) Commissioner,
three of the four major league commissioners were lawyers. While Bud
Selig was the only active commissioner at that time whom was not a lawyer,
Major League Baseball has a long history of commissioners who have held
law degrees. The very first Commissioner in professional sport in North
America was Major League Baseball’s Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
In addition to high level executive positions held by lawyers, legal
training is becoming increasing helpful to all collegiate sport managers
who are responsible for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
Compliance – both within the NCAA as part of the Legislative Services
staff and among the 1000 plus NCAA college and university athletic departments.
The NCAA rules and policies as expressed in the NCAA Manual and legislative
interpretations require careful analysis and interpretation, which lends
itself to those with legal background and training.
A career path that most often comes to mind in sport is being an athlete
agent. People generally have an idea of what they think agents do, but
what they actually do is probably quite different from the stereotype.
Oftentimes people think of the life of a sports agent as glamorous,
but in reality, it is a day-to-day job just like other jobs in the industry.
According to Masteralexis (2005, p. 235), the functions of a sport agent
include:
- Negotiating and administering the athlete’s
or coach’s contract
- Marketing
- Negotiating the athlete’s or coach’s
marketing and endorsement contracts
- Financial planning
- Career and post-career planning
- Dispute resolution
- Legal counseling
- Personal care.
All of these relate to some business aspect of the sport industry and
most of these functions relate directly to legal aspects of the sport
industry.
However, gone are the days when discussions around “sport law”
career opportunities would simply trigger the question: “So you
want to be an agent?” While sport agent may be the career most
visible to the average sports fan, in fact, the industry presents numerous
opportunities related to legal aspects of sport as well as to the related
area of policy development and rules compliance.
Here it would be necessary to start with the United States and intercollegiate
athletics, focusing on the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) and what is termed as “NCAA Compliance.” The NCAA
is the national governing body for intercollegiate sport competition
in the United States. With approximately 1000 colleges and universities
as member institutions, the NCAA’s Core Purpose “is to govern
competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and
to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that
the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount”
(NCAA, 2007, Our Mission, p2). The NCAA has regulatory power over intercollegiate
athletics, and as such, establishes a standard system of rules for its
athletes, coaches and member institutions.
NCAA member institutions frequently experience problems stemming from
unintentional violations due to lack of knowledge. There are also intentional
violations of NCAA rules made in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.
It has therefore become necessary for practitioners in the field to
develop expertise and research skills that would serve institutional
compliance efforts, as well as creating extensive consulting opportunities
for themselves. Such a need has been identified both in academic scholarship
(Kaburakis, 2005; Pierce, 2007; Werner, 2006) and popular press (Drape,
2007). Whereas a law degree and law practice experience are important,
there is a current trend toward law firms in the United States hiring
individuals with NCAA Compliance expertise to assist with such consulting
efforts. Interestingly, some of the firms’ most involved in this
facet of their law practice (e.g. Bond, Shoeneck and King, PLLC, Ice
Miller, LLP, et al.) now hire non-practicing lawyers who focus solely
on NCAA Compliance matters. This example of US legal entrepreneurship
assumes the form of limited liability corporations (LLCs), where the
major focus is the aforementioned NCAA Compliance issues which may include
an infractions case, assistance with Compliance matters such as student-athletes’
(SAs) eligibility or amateur status.
Sport law and sport management programs in higher
education aim toward training their graduates on the particular research
methods required (e.g. conducting NCAA infractions’ and secondary
violations’ research), providing them with the hands-on experience
to deal with such matters on a full-time basis. Selected undergraduate,
graduate and law students often serve as paid or unpaid interns at
an institutional Compliance office, the NCAA national office, or a
law firm with a sport practice arm. Thus, the students would be able
to volunteer or fulfill a degree requirement while gaining the necessary
exposure and experience to make them more marketable in their careers.
Depending on the size of the hiring organisation, more positions may
be available, or even specific departments dealing with different
portions of NCAA or federal policy Compliance (NCAA academic eligibility,
amateurism, gender equity, overall NCAA policy compliance focusing
on coaches, student athletes, supporters, etc.) Although the industry
trend appears to favor graduates holding a Master of Science (MS),
Master of Business Administration (MBA) or law degree, applicants
without those specific credentials may still be able to land full-time
positions as they may have extensive work experience in athletics
and compliance.
Another recent trend is for graduates with MS,
MBA and Juris Doctorae (JD) degrees to land positions with the NCAA
national staff. After serving in such positions for a number of years
(anywhere from two to ten), these individuals frequently receive offers
from NCAA member institutions needing someone who has honed his or
her skills at the national office. The experience and networks gathered
while working at the NCAA national office may prove instrumental when
an institution pursues a case with the national staff. Although a
graduate with the aforementioned qualifications might start at a salary
of no more than US$35-45,000 (€23,4000- 30,300) per year at the
national office, institutional positions frequently may even double
that salary after recruiting an individual from the national office.
Of course, this depends on the positions these individuals held previously,
any additional qualifications or experience they accumulated and the
department they were working in.
The avenues for alternative career paths in the US industry for sport
show the way for international sport organisations. Sport organisations
in the European Union and other regions operate using a federalised
club-based system, and are slowly emulating the development of US commercial
sport, while maintaining some of the relics of a socio-cultural model
and “amateur” sport ideals of the past (Kaburakis, 2007).
In these settings, there are not as many opportunities for unpaid (though
under an official capacity with mentoring, monitoring and frequent feedback)
or paid internships in a number of international sport industry sectors.
Southeastern Europe and even Western Europe sport entities frequently
operate based on the zeal and volunteerism of true “amateurs”.
Professional administrators’ positions will have to be developed
in order for such sport entities to expand fan interest and organise
sport on a more professional basis, for the benefit of the sport and
those governing it.
As the cases of soccer and basketball demonstrate (Kaburakis, 2007;
Soek, 2007), there are outstanding opportunities for young professionals
with the expertise, skills, passion and willingness to learn and assist
sport institutions in their policy efforts. This comes as an outcome
of new alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms within the international
sport governing bodies for each sport, such as the FIFA Dispute Resolution
Chamber (DRC) and FIBA’s Arbitral Tribunal (FAT). These entities,
in a nutshell, decide on financial disputes between players and clubs.
Appeals of such entities’ decisions are submitted to the Court
of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The procedure and the internal regulations
of these entities are indeed perplexing to the untrained legal eye and
mind, hence specific skills and expertise are necessary. It is foreseeable
that international sport policy consultation agreements are and will
continue to become more available in the immediate future, considering
disputes involving doping or financial hardship for clubs appearing
before sport ADR panels internationally. ADR mechanisms exist in every
country and deal with local/regional sport governing bodies. More and
more, these ADRs are becoming sport-specific as well.
Young sport lawyers, as well as MS/MBAs,
and even recent bachelor’s degree graduates, should prepare
themselves for increased opportunities. They have an opportunity to
assist in the process of making a better, more fair and balanced world
of sport for the generations to come.
References
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is a legal team. The New York Times. Retrieved November 18, 2007,
from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/sports/ncaabasketball/04ncaa.html?pagewanted=print
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Kaburakis, A. (2007, September). Player restraints and transfers --
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