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Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Sports Law - "As NCAA Investigations Increase, Lawyers Find New Opportunities"
Karen Sloan of The National Law Journal has this long and interesting story today. Some samples:
"The process has gotten lawyered-up significantly over the past 10 years," said Gene Marsh, of counsel to Lightfoot, Franklin & White in Birmingham, Ala., and a member of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions for nine years until 2008. "It used to be that sometimes you would see institutions hire outside counsel, but a lot of times the coach would be in there by himself or herself. There are so many more lawyers involved now, and they are showing up earlier than ever in these investigations." * * *According to a number of attorneys in the field, ever higher revenues generated by certain sports teams is driving more universities to hire outside counsel in NCAA enforcement matters. Major infractions and harsh sanctions can cost a university a lot of money -- sportswriters have estimated that USC could lose millions of dollars as a result of sitting out two bowl games. Universities can also lose prestige and alumni support if their sports teams are crippled by NCAA violations and sanctions.
"Schools more and more are using outside counsel, and I think it's because the stakes are higher and higher with TV coverage and other forms of revenue. They're increasing with no end in sight," said Lightfoot Franklin partner William King, who is in the college sports practice with Marsh. The firm represents the University of Michigan in an ongoing inquiry into the number of coaches and off-seasons workouts it held last season.
"The process has become far more complex over the years, and with that has come more counsel," said Michael Glazier, a partner at Syracuse N.Y.-based Bond, Schoeneck & King who started the country's first collegiate sports practice in 1986 with Mike Slive, now the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. "Back in the 1980s, schools would use local counsel, who would have to get up to speed on the rules. There was no added expertise."
The field is still relatively small. Bond Schoeneck, Lightfoot Franklin and Indianapolis-based Ice Miller are the only firms with formal NCAA practices. A handful of individual attorneys at law firms have built up NCAA expertise but don't have dedicated practices, while in-house university attorneys sometimes handle cases. The practice typically is not seen as a top money generator because universities have fewer financial resources than corporate clients, and legal bills for public universities are public records often reported by the media.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 7, 2010 02:47 PM
Posted to General Law Related