Categories
Sports Law

Some Sports Law Rules

Get ready to hit the books along with network

While catching up on some of the posts in the blogs I most commonly read, I stumbled across two excellent articles from the Sports Law Blog:

In an effort to summarize both posts, I have come up with a condensed version of the rules submitted by the authors. Both articles give advice on how to break into the Sports Law world.

1. Send letters to all teams/sports agencies.
2. Network at sports lawyers’ conferences
3. Be willing to earn very little compared to your classmates
4. Write and publish legal scholarship about new topics
5. Obtain advice from law professors who enjoy your writing and may be a reference in the future
6. Do not only prepare yourself to be a lawyer-agent
7. Be flexible, opportunistic, and agressive
8. Take these classes in law school: Antitrust, Drafting (as many drafting classes as are offered), Negotiation, Arbitration, Labor Law, Intellectual Property (including trademark and copyright), Federal Income Tax, Estate Planning/Wills/Estate Tax, Immigration Law (especially for those interested in baseball and basketball work) and Sports Law.
9. Never eat lunch alone (networking matters!)

[tags]sports, sports law, law, law school[/tags]

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.