Sports Law Stream

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Our sports law courses provide you in depth training as legal representatives of both athletes and sports franchises. Students who choose the sports law concentration will study a pair of two-credit courses for certification - Negotiation Strategies in Sports Management and Representing the Professional Athlete.

Negotiation Strategies in Sports Management

This course prepares you to negotiate and draft the many sophisticated contractual documents in the sports law industry from the start of the process through the signing ceremony.

"The academy really gave me an advantage going forward... giving me a road map of what courses I needed to take to work in this industry."

- Jim Jiang ‘14

In a simulated negotiation between a municipality and a team owner for the construction of a new stadium, you will draft a naming rights agreement for the new venue, a companion “presenting sponsorship” agreement, and also explore additional sponsorship opportunities in the food and beverage, automobile and rental car, financial and medical services industries while coordinating these sponsorships with the team's print, multimedia advertising and game broadcasts.

The course will teach how exclusivity must be offered in the foundational sponsorship agreement categories which will, in turn, limit the benefits that will remain available to be offered in the remaining categories of sponsorship.

Finally, you will learn how to draft non-exclusive category sponsorships, for smaller dollar amounts, by offering "softer" in-kind incentives to such sponsors including a variety of on-field and off-field corporate entertainment opportunities for the sponsor and its employees/clients.

Faculty Instructors
Peter Carfagna and Jim Juliano

Representing the Professional Athlete

This course gives you an overview of the sports marketing industry and explores the industry’s important legal doctrines in intellectual property, labor law and contract law.

You will learn the skills necessary to conduct contract negotiations for professional athletes by participating in group-based contract drafting exercises, including drafting product endorsement and license agreements, with an emphasis on client representation. In mock litigation exercises, you will assume a contract breach and draft deposition questions and legal briefs in support of their respective contractual position. The course will track the four stages of a superstar athlete's career — from pre-professional days, through early professional years, followed by maximum-income producing years, and concluding with post-retirement years.

Faculty Instructors
Peter Carfagna, Ricky Volante

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