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Marc Cornstein Speaks About His Duties As An Agent

Marc Cornstein is the Founder & President of Pinnacle Management Corp. (PMC). The New York agency focuses solely on representing basketball players in the United States and overseas. Its website and blog are infrequently updated (someone needs to tell Cornstein that the main image on his homepage is a broken image), but perhaps that is due to Cornstein’s focus on his large list of clientèle. That list includes names like Samuel Dalembert, Nenad Krstic, Beno Udrih, Aleksandar Pavlovic, and Darko Milicic. Upon going to Cornstein’s clientèle page, I now realize that the links for his players are broken as well. Okay, it’s time to hire me to re-do your website, Mr. Cornstein!

But I digress. Cornstein was recently interviewed by amNewYork about his life as an agent. Here are some of the parts of the interview that interested me the most.

What do you do for the players?


The thing most closely associated with sports agents is contract negotiation, or finding a new team if you’re dealing with a free agent. You deal with draft eligibility too. We help with draft planning, estate planning, marketing and endorsements. We actually do anything aside from coaching – finding a pediatrician, a car, anything. Obviously, things like estate planning can be difficult and technical, so sometimes it is recommended that players visit an estate attorney in Daphne, AL, for example, to receive legal guidance. Planning estates is an important thing, so it’s always recommended that the players get the best support that they can. As a sports agent, we can help with this, but estate attorneys will have a much better idea of what they’re doing. Those players living in the area of Columbus, IN, may well decide to reach out to attorneys at Coriden Glover who have expertise in estate planning amongst many other areas of practice too which they could make use of depending on what legal matter that they need assistance with. However, we can help players with most aspects of their lives.

What’s the hardest thing about being an agent?
Recruiting is always tough. It is so competitive. There’s a lot of competition that will stop at nothing. You can be really good, but if you don’t have clients you can’t go anywhere.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever had to do for a client?
We’ve had to ship pretty big and potentially dangerous dogs overseas. We once had a case when a player asked us to go spread rose petals all over his girlfriend’s apartment.

By Darren Heitner

Darren Adam Heitner, Esq., is a preeminent sports attorney and the founder of Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., a Fort Lauderdale-based law firm specializing in sports law, contract negotiations, intellectual property, and arbitration. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2010 and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, magna cum laude, from the University of Florida in 2007, where he was named Valedictorian of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Admitted to practice in the state bars of Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia, as well as multiple federal courts, Darren also serves as a certified arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association.

As an adjunct professor, Darren imparts his expertise through teaching Sports Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) at the University of Miami School of Law in the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law LL.M. program. His scholarly contributions include authoring several books published by the American Bar Association, such as How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, and numerous articles in prominent publications like Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Above the Law. His thought leadership in NIL has earned him recognition as one of the foremost experts by The Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, and On3, and he has been lauded as a “power player in NIL deals” by Action Network and a “top sports trademark attorney” by Sportico.

Darren’s passion for sports law led him to establish Sports Agent Blog on December 31, 2005, initially titled “I Want To Be A Sports Agent.” The platform, created as a New Year’s resolution, has grown into a cornerstone of the sports agency community, offering in-depth analysis of industry trends, legal disputes, and agent-player dynamics. His commitment to the field is further evidenced by his representation of numerous athletes and sports agents, as well as his prior role as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington, where he developed and taught a course on Sport Agency Management from 2011 to 2014.

Darren’s contributions have been recognized with prestigious honors, including the University of Florida’s 40 Under 40 Award, the University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, and designation as the best lawyer in Fort Lauderdale by Fort Lauderdale Magazine. He remains an active voice in the sports law community, sharing insights through his weekly NIL newsletter and his X posts, engaging a broad audience on legal developments in sports.