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UVA Law Symposium: The State Of Sports Law

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What: University of Virginia School of Law Symposium: The State of Sports Law

When: Friday, March 16, 2012 (8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.)

Where: Caplin Pavilion

Schedule

8:00 A.M. – 8:45 A.M. – Check-in and continental breakfast

8:45 A.M. – 9:00 A.M. – Opening Remarks

9:00 A.M. – 10:20 A.M. – Panel 1: NCAA Conference Realignment – As NCAA conferences realign in pursuit of the funding bonanza available from television contracts, the potential gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” continues to grow.  This panel discusses the competitive impact that this discrepancy may have on those colleges and universities that are not invited to join the “super conferences.”  This panel explores the antitrust concerns that may arise and examines the role of Congress and the NCAA in regulating the conferences.

  • Christian Dennie, Barlow Garsek & Simon
  • Mark Levinstein, Williams & Connolly
  • Michael McCann (’02), Professor and Director of the Sports Law Institute, Vermont Law School
  • Bernadette McGlade, Atlantic 10 Conference Commissioner
  • Moderated by J. Gordon Hylton (’77), Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School

10:20 A.M. – 10:30 A.M. – Break

10:30 A.M. – 11:50 A.M. – Panel 2: Legal Implications of Financial Distress in Professional Sports – As professional sports teams encounter financial hardship, conflicts in control arise.  This panel explores the level of oversight that bankruptcy courts have over professional teams in the midst of financial distress and how that oversight may conflict with the power of commissioners to regulate the sport.  Financial distress may lead the team to seek relocation.  This panel examines the use of antitrust laws to secure the ability to relocate a franchise over league objection and the potential for expansion in the major sports leagues.

  • Mark Levinstein, Williams & Connolly
  • Michael McCann (’02), Professor and Director of the Sports Law Institute, Vermont Law School
  • Tom Ostertag (’81), Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Major League Baseball
  • Moderated by J. Gordon Hylton (’77), Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School

11:50 A.M. – 1:00 P.M. – Lunch Break (Due to space constraints, the luncheon will be limited to Moderators, Panelists, and select participants)

1:00 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. – Keynote Address – DeMaurice Smith (’89), Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association, will offer his insider’s view of the NFL’s 2011 lockout.  He will focus on the labor and legal issues surrounding the negotiation of the new ten-year Collective Bargaining Agreement with the League.

2:00 P.M. – 2:10 P.M. – Break

2:10 P.M. – 3:30 P.M. – Panel 3: Amateurism and the Student Athlete – Student athletes generate billions of dollars in revenues for their colleges and universities yet they share minimally in the financial spoils.  Is this a wrong to be righted and if so, how?  This panel debates the role of the student athlete as an amateur or an employee and the ramifications of the designation.  This panel explores whether the student athlete should be compensated and whether an education is adequate consideration for the revenue he or she helps to generate.  Also, this panel examines who controls the revenue stream and what role the student athlete should have in that determination.

  • Christian Dennie, Barlow Garsek & Simon
  • Roscoe Howard (’77), Andrews Kurth and Member of the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions
  • J. Gordon Hylton (’77), Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School
  • Alan Milstein, Sherman Silverstein
  • Rob Slavis, Assistant Athletic Director, University of Virginia
  • Moderated by Michael McCann (’02), Professor and Director of the Sports Law Institute, Vermont Law School

3:30 P.M. – 3:40 P.M. – Break

3:40 P.M. – 5:00 P.M.- Panel 4: Sports Law Analytics – As popularized in Michael Lewis’s best-selling book Moneyball and a 2011 Hollywood movie of the same name, the sports industry has firmly embraced the use of statistics, economics, and mathematics (collectively “analytics”) in various decision-making processes.  Such analytics have similarly been adopted in the sports law field.  This panel discusses how analytics are used in areas such as talent identification, contract negotiation, gambling corruption prevention, and antitrust litigation.

  • Robert Forbes (’07), Proskauer
  • Ryan Rodenberg, Professor, Florida State University
  • Kelly Wilson, Assistant Counsel, Under Armour
  • Moderated by Thomas Nachbar, Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law

Cost: Free. Register here.

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.