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Sports Law

Excel Sports Management Finds Peace With Former Talent Agent Employees

On August 22, I wrote about Excel Sports Management’s lawsuit against media talent agents Gideon Cohen, William Petok, and Katherine Cutler, who were formerly employed by Excel but left to work with Athletes First. Excel complained that the former employees breached their employment contracts’ restrictive covenants and that they sought to solicit Excel clients.

Sometimes, cases are swiftly resolved. That appears to be the case here.

Within a week of writing about the lawsuit, the parties entered into a Consent Order to facilitate an amicable resolution to the dispute. It includes a separate letter agreement and entry of the order on consent. That order states the following:

Basically, Excel has taken contractual language and supported it by court order. But at least the parties can avoid what could have been protracted, expensive litigation, assuming the former employee defendants comply with the order.

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.