Friday afternoon I attended the 2007 Art, Entertainment & Sports Law Institute, prepared and hosted by the Minnesota CLE (Continuing Legal Education) and the Minnesota State Bar Association’s (MSBA) Art, Entertainment & Sports Law Section, in Minneapolis. (As a quick aside, most state bar associations have sections devoted to entertainment and sports law. There is also, of course, the Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, run by the American Bar Association (ABA). I would highly recommend that agents—and even non-agents attorneys who may dabble in, or are just interested in, matters relating to entertainment and sports law—become members of such a group. For a relatively small annual fee, the member benefits and networking opportunities that will result could be priceless).
The speaker at Friday’s conference most pertinent to readers was Kevin Warren, Vice President of Operations and Legal Counsel to the Minnesota Vikings. Warren has spent eight seasons in the NFL, and three with the Vikings, where he is one of two people responsible for the team’s legal affairs, its charitable entity (the Viking Children’s Fund) special projects, strategic planning, and for serving as the Vikings’ liaison with the NFL. Prior to his work with the Vikings, Warren spent the 2001-02 seasons with the Detroit Lions as Senior V.P. of Business Operations/General Counsel, and he worked from 1997-2001 with the St. Louis Rams where he served as V.P. of Player Programs/Football Legal Counsel and later V.P. of Football Administration. Interestingly enough, Warren got started in the sports industry as an agent, creating and running his own successful venture in Kansas City for several years, after first obtaining an MBA from Arizona St., and later a JD from Notre Dame. However, he shut down his operation after then-St. Louis coach Dick Vermeil, who previously had turned him away from the organization by telling him that he was “too qualified†to work there, called him after two others turned down a position with the team at the last minute. Against the wishes and the advice of his family and friends, Warren accepted Vermeil’s offer, though he made a point to make sure that each and every one of his clients was taken care of with new representation.
Warren’s speech primarily covered the state of the NFL. Pointing in part to the over $3 billion in television revenue, as well as the game’s international appeal (he mentioned there were over 500,000 ticket requests for this October’s game at Wembley in London between the Giants and the Dolphins), Warren was naturally quite enthralled by the league’s current status, and optimistic about its future and potential continued growth. He also touched on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s recently released personal conduct policy, which features, in part, longer suspensions and larger fines for individuals who violate the policy. Goodell has even said that teams themselves will be disciplined when any of their employees—from players, coaches, officials, owners to front-office personnel—violate the league’s new policy. In response to an audience question, Warren affirmed that the NFLPA had to sign off on the new policy, even though it came subsequent to the league’s last CBA negotiations. However, he reiterated the reports stating that the NFLPA, through its Executive Director Gene Upshaw, was completely on board with Goodell on the issue. Upshaw, in fact, was quoted as saying that “these are steps that the commissioner needs to take…†and Warren implied that indeed Upshaw and the NFLPA knew that the policy, though somewhat draconian, was ultimately in their best interests.
— Jason G. Wulterkens