KARI COHEN ’09 VICE PRESIDENT & ASSISTANT GENERAL COUNSEL BROOKLYN NETS AND BARCLAYS CENTER BY SUSAN KARWOSKA
GAME Cardozo’s Law ON Sports Stars SPORTS LAW—A BIG, EXCITING, HIGH-PROFILE FIELD FULL OF PUBLIC PERSONALITIES,
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multi-million dollar companies, media coverage and national attention. But, according to Cardozo’s alumni practicing in sports law, the field is more layered than the big games—and the big money that surrounds them. Lawyers in sports law need to not only love the game, but also possess a passion for what it means to do deals in the business of sports, says David Samson ’93, president of the Miami Marlins. “It is a business, even if the business happens to be in the paper every day.” At this year’s highly successful Sports Law Symposium, which was organized by students Michael Beck ’15 and Marc Rosenberg ’15, symposium panelist Ayala Deutsch, senior vice president and deputy general counsel at NBA Properties, expanded on the definition of sports law. “What people mean when they say ‘sports law’ is really a variety of practice areas in the law that are related to sports,” says Deutsch, who teaches the course Sports Law at Cardozo. Perhaps that’s why the Sports Law Symposium attracted so many high-profile attendees from all over the legal landscape. Speakers included a roster of lawyers from sports leagues and teams, agencies, venues, and business partners, all of whom discussed what Deutsch calls “hot-topic legal and business issues in sports.” These ranged from the growth of professional sports abroad, to unionization in professional and college sports, to the legal implications of large sporting events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl, to the rise of fantasy sports and sports gambling. k