Background Check

BACKGROUND CHECK Isaac Conner | Bart Pickett

Standing at 6’6”, Isaac Conner has always had some involvement with sports. He grew up in Powell, a small town outside of Knoxville, where in high school he shined on the basketball court. That athletic talent led to him playing on UT Chattanooga’s basketball team beginning in 1994. During his sophomore year, the team became that year’s “Cinderella Story” by making it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA tournament. While at UTC, Conner received his bachelors of science with a major in psychology. Having one more eligible year of play left, Conner enrolled to get his master’s in counseling.

Conner always considered himself a basketball player first and his ultimate goal at that time was to play in the NBA. While he did go to the summer league to see if he could get picked up by any pro team or a foreign league, around the same time, he got accepted into law school and ultimately decided to give up on his pro dream and try to help others achieve theirs.

In 2000, Conner returned to East Tennessee to go to UT College of Law. During his time there, he reconnected with old friends and family and even lived with his parents all three years. Conner chose law school hoping that it would make him a better sports agent. While there, Conner focused on litigation as he enjoyed being in the courtroom. He also had a graduate assistant position where he mentored rookie UT football and basketball players in their academic career.

Following law school graduation in 2003, Conner accepted a one-year clerkship with Judge Thomas Brothers. Conner wanted to get up-close exposure to jury trials and learn from a seasoned trial judge. After he finished his clerkship, Conner joined Lewis King in the fall of 2004. While there, he did a variety of litigation but he also started “moonlighting” in the sports world.

In 2009, Conner along with a law school classmate and former college football player, Chad Speck, started A3 Athletics, a sports agency. Conner also left Lewis King to focus on his sports work. Not wanting to give up his law license, Conner joined Richard Manson’s firm where he could split his time with his other work.

A3 Athletics is still going strong. The agency has 4 agents. The midsized agency typically represents 20-30 athletes at any given time. The agency, which started in Knoxville, moved its headquarters to Nashville during the pandemic. Conner is a certified agent with both the NBA players’ association and the NFL players’ association. The agency has represented first round picks in both the NBA and NFL drafts.

In addition to his sports work, Conner manages to continue a growing litigation practice at Manson, Johnson and Conner. His litigation practice focuses on plaintiff’s work in personal injury and mass tort cases.

The sports work takes up most of Conner’s time. Depending on the time of the year, he would estimate it takes up 60-70% of his job with litigation accounting for the remainder. His sports work includes reviewing and negotiating player contracts, both with the league and any marketing/endorsement company and spending lots of time recruiting players and selling them on the agency. He travels to visit recruits and their parents. Recruiting and maintaining clients is one of the toughest aspects of being an agent.

When Conner is not balancing being a lawyer and a sports agent, he can be found spending time with his family at their Nashville home. While in law school, he met his nowwife, Nalini, who was getting her Ph.D in psychology at UT. They moved to Nashville and then married in 2005. Dr. Conner works as a psychologist at Vanderbilt. The couple have two sons: Cyrus (13) and Elias (10) who attend JT Moore Middle School. Conner enjoys following his sons’ journeys as they play basketball, baseball and soccer. Conner also volunteers his time coaching a little league basketball team and has done so for close to a decade. n

BART PICKETT is an attorney at the Law Offices of Julie Bhattacharya Peak where he represents Liberty Mutual Group, Inc.’s insureds and customers of its affiliated groups in litigation throughout Middle Tennessee.